Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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*A year before Tilting At Air Conditioners…
 
 
Jess rolled over with a hateful look at the monkey. His dad had got him the thing as a joke and it banged away at the cymbals and screeched eyes rolling and grinning.

It was way too early for this.

He reached up over his bed and fumbled around until he found the shinai there on the rack and pulled it off and sat up and used the bamboo sword to whack the monkey.

“Asshole…” The monkey flew across the room and banged three more times before stopping. Jess let out a long breathy sigh and fell back onto his bed with a flop.

“What a great way to start my first year in real school.”

He rolled out of bed and rubbed at his chest. Yep it was starting; they were getting sore as he felt the buds there under the tiny bit of fat layers and his nipples. He walked to the bathroom and looked in the mirror.

Another sigh.

“My brain needs coffee.”

He turned the shower on getting the temperature right first before getting in. back first to the water he had made the mistake of having showered and blasting his breasts with the heavy spray.

Yes Jess Stone had breasts. Or was starting them, he had a gynocomastia but it didn’t matter to Jess. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that they had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks not only moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Add in that he was baby faced and pale skinned and they assumed things.

And Jess had become very oddly opinioned on his condition. He’d said no to the whole idea of surgery and he’d embraced it in his own way.

But his dad got a full time job here in Chicago working for the city and he was more than tired of being held back for being different and sheltered because he was different. So he’d put his foot down and he told his parents that he was going to school.

Jess towelled off and headed into his room to get changed. Racer backed sports bra and boxer briefs. Tank top and a Tokyo-Giants baseball jersey. That might get some people irate but Jess didn’t really care. Sports socks and cammo patterned canvas sneakers that matched his army green used combat jacket.

He filled his pockets. Multi-tool, hockey tape, yo-yo, hacky sack ball, memory cards, I-pod, PsP, Smartphone, tissues, wet wipes from KFC, Hot sauce, Soy sauce packs, ketchup, plum sauce, vinegar, sugar packs, coffee, teabags…Jess had lots of pockets and he’d been all over and he found that there was a lot of things you could do just by having odd little things on hand…like packs of condiments, wipes, ect.

He carried more stuff too like a Tide stain pen, hotel soap; a sham-wow….it was all useful.

How many times have you wanted salt and pepper? How good are fresh hot MacDonald’s fries with vinegar on them if you like it on your chips? Hot sauce for your KFC?

Jess even had a mini-flashlight, mini Swiss army knife, nail clippers and a laser pointer on his key chain.

He grabbed his jacket and his shoulder bag. Not a purse, but a bigger heavier bag for his lap top and tablet plus a few notebooks and some other school items and a few more things and he headed out to get to go to school.

He got into his car and turned the engine over, he had scrimped and saved to get enough to pay half on his beat up 1969 Grand Prix…it was a classic car and it was running too, the body needed a lot of work but the worst stuff had been patched and sanded and primed and he even got a couple of coats of paint onto it without too many runs.

Besides a really good couple of coats of wax buffed in really helped too.

The neighbors had bitched about that, apparently in middle classed suburbia they frowned on stuff like you setting up a self made spray tent. Mr. Pope one of their neighbors tried getting them fined by the city for putting up the tent.

That was one of the first air-conditioners he had tilted with since they moved here. Trans phobia was the second…his folks had gotten grief from some of the conservatism types since they all knew his parents had a boy but just go out jogging with a bra top on or mow the lawn in one.

There were a lot of people that were offended by him not hiding the fact he was different. The local kids wanted nothing to do with him much. Okay some of the girls weren’t too bad and some of the problem girls in the area talked to him likely to prove a point or something but he never judged them for doing that. Hey if his garage was a place they could just hang out then fine.

But them doing anything seemed to peeve off some of the neighbors. Like doing their own lawns. And the fact they didn’t use the lawn care companies, or spray their yard full of pesticides to make everything green.

No violets or butter cups no lawn clover and definitely no dandelions. And they had lots in their yard since Jess’s dad really didn’t believe in it.

Another air conditioner.

Now what’s meant by that is Jess, Jess had a thing for life’s bullshit, for peoples bullshit. He just couldn’t take things. He wasn’t a shit disturber usually but like the thing with the spray tent and the nosy neighbor. He went to city hall and spent the day getting all the information that states under city law that any home owner can maintain a non-permanent structure for five working days.

He got copies, and had them notarized and put them in every mailbox on the block.

And like the uproar about his breasts…it was fun to see people being assholes about that while wearing a pink breast cancer t-shirt…and just to further comeuppance he wore that shirt without a bra.

And when one of the neighbors was complaining about the yard he put up a sign he made with the computer with the flowers from the yard. “We’re all beautiful, not a green parking lot.” She saw the sign and got in a huff and left.

Jess liked to tilt at air conditioners. He wasn’t some crusader into politics or an enviro-nut but he was tired after being misunderstood in some of the places that he’s lived and he’d been such a fan of fiction and science fiction, fantasy and comics that Jess was done taking things just like he was done hiding.

But these little challenges that had popped up now and then in his new suburban life he had taken to them by saying this was tilting at air conditioners in reference to Tilting at Windmills from Don Quixote.

And so far it had been a good way to live his life, one thing at a time…be fearless and respectable, charge these challenges that life throws at you.

Jess was a firm believer too in one of Dr. Phil’s sayings…yes the TV shrink and even though jess usually found him an idiot there was truth in. “You teach people how to treat you.”

It wasn’t a long drive to school and he had time to stop at Fairplay Foods the closest supermarket to where he lived in the edge of Lawndale. He went here because it was a good place to shop too and there was usually something that he could get.

Like The loaf of bread on sale for .99 cents and some tomatoes for .48 cents per pound, now at home that’d be enough for him because one could do pretty good for a meal or two with just a nice toasted tomato sandwich but he wanted some stuff for school and he settled on getting 4 cans of that Progresso canned soup that was on sale for 4 cans for five dollars. That’d do he had a can opener and the rest he could get at school.

Other that stopping for a coffee he pulled into school around the same time the busses started to arrive and he locked up his car and set the alarm he bought for it and headed into the school.

He’d been getting looks ever since he’d pulled in with the muscle car and even more now that he was seen. He was getting sized up, it’d been the same with every town or city he’d moved to and he made his way to the office to register. The main thing was the meeting with the school’s guidance councilor and he was trying to keep an open mind and not treat them with the whole stereotype that the job had been saddled with.

Mrs. Kirkston was in her forties he figured and still decent looking especially for a woman that has an office job. She was looking over his things after he had printed then out. He had them on a flash drive.

“You didn’t bring the originals?”

“I’m mostly home schooled these are the originals in the sense that we don’t often print things out. Well except the extra curriculars and the letters those are scanned in but you’d have to take one of my mothers limbs to get those after the trouble we had getting them back.”

“I can see that given how you’ve moved. Is there anything special you need to do or have done with your medical condition?”

“Uhm no, I’m still a boy despite the budding evidence.”

“Are you sure, we have been trying to get a gender neutral bathroom set up here.”

“You’d be better off with handicapped access bathrooms.”

“Well we’re trying to get funding for those too but we really have to try to keep up with the times and the LGBTQ factor’s growing.”

“Well have you asked these kids if they want a special bathroom?”

“Well no but we should show that we’re sensitive to their needs, like yourself and your situation Jessie.”

“Well if you’re serious about it then don’t, treat them like how they are presenting and let them be like all the other kids.”

“Really?”

“Really.” He smiled at her. “Sometimes being too Pc is just dumb, people get upset that LGBTQ seem to get special treatment and this isn’t its equal. Argue that and get the funding for the disabled bathrooms.”

She smiled at him. “What about your case?”

“Mrs. Kirkston none of the things I’ll be doing in the bathroom will require me to be taking my shirt off.”

“But you’re taking gym. Is that a good idea?”

“It’ll be okay.”

“Some kids can be less than understanding?”

“It’ll be okay or it won’t having gym just lets them know sooner than later eventually it’ll get out.”

“I could argue the point that you shouldn’t take the class.”

“You could but do we really want to get into all of that with everything you’ve got going on already?”

She looked at him intently for a few minutes. “Okay, I’m getting you to sign a waver that you were counselled against it though.”

“I respect the need to cover your backside ma’am.”

She actually laughed. “You’re a very easy young man to get along with Jessie; I usually don’t talk about policy with the students like this.”

“You should you might get surprised.”

“I just might.”

They continued talking and going over his classes and what he’d be taking and some of the schools teams and programs before he was done and the next student was called in. he had his map and a few leaflets from the various school teams and clubs and the welcoming edition of the school paper.

Arms full he moved through the chaos of first of year start up looking for his locker and getting looks and a few whispers and stowing the books he’d gotten from the school store for his classes.

“Tokyo giants? What kind of bullshit’s that?”

Jess looked up to see a couple of guys leaning on lockers in varsity jackets. He thought hmm, this must be the jock element that you keep hearing about. “It’s a baseball team from Japan.”

“This isn’t Japan its America.”

“And…your point is.”

“Why you wearing it huh?”

“Because I like the team.”

One of the three the biggest walked up. “I don’t like it or your attitude, take it off.”

“Uhm…no.” Jess stepped right up into the guys face making him blink.

“Take it off if you know what’s good for you.”

“Take off your sneakers.”

“What? Huh?”

“Take off your sneakers they’re likely made for cheap in a sweatshop so they offend me. Take them off.”

“I’m not going to take off my goddamned sneakers; you have any idea who I am?”

“Nope and I don’t really care. I know what you are and heckle and jeckle there behind you?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“You’re a scared little asshole that needs to make some rep at the start of the new year to make sure that everyone knows just how big and tough he is and that he can walk around with all this bullshit and swagger and claim his place in the food chain because it’s likely the only thing you guys know is how to play with balls.”

He grabbed Jess by the shirt and slammed him into the lockers. Jess had been expecting this or something like it and he grabbed a crotch full of jock and squeezed hard. The jock yelled and dropped and jess followed him to his knees. The other two moved in and he shoved the big guy backwards into them and stood up and went into an aikido stance.

They looked very unsure of jumping in now and pulled their friend away. “C’mon Keith we gotta get to class.”

The big jock called Keith pointed at him. “After school four o’clock.” Then gave him the evil stare at him for at least half of his trip down the hallway. People were looking at Jess and there were murmurs and whispers and he got his books and headed to class.

Most of his morning classes were class and course prep, the stuff they’s need, lab fees and lists of stuff that they needed and the usual chaos of the first days of school, or so he’d seen on some of the more realistic TV shows.

And there were whispers about him and Keith…even to the point of he jumped them or had kicked all of their asses, and even one that said he was from Japan and he knew martial arts.

Lunch came and he went out to his car and got his things and went to the cafeteria and got a tray and some things of butter and salt and pepper then got even more stares by a bunch of people as he opened the can of beef stew and right there in the cafeteria and used one of the bowls there and microwaved his lunch. And even just asked the kitchen staff to borrow a knife for a few minutes and sliced up a tomato on a saucer and thanked them for the knife and went over to find himself a seat.

There were a lot of people looking at him and he just smiled and took a seat by this pretty girl with streaks of pink in her hair and lots of cheap bangles and stuff. She blinked at him in surprise.

“Don’t sit here.” She said here voice soft but he could tell she wasn’t a girl, not biologically.

“Sorry miss, I didn’t know it was taken.”

“It’s not miss its Johnny.” She looked down ant her food.

“Looks like a Miss to me.”

“I’m a guy.”

“Really?”

She stared at him and he sat down anyway and looked her in the eyes back for awhile and speared a slice of tomato and ate it.

“People are going to talk…you’re going to beat you up.”

Jess shrugged. “They’ll have to take a number there’s a line.”

“What?” She looked confused.

Jess pointed with his fork. “Bluto there along with heckle and jeckle seemed to take offense to my baseball jersey.”

“Who?”

Jess rolled his eyes. Didn’t they play cartoons anymore here? “Keith and his two sidekicks didn’t like that I wasn’t being American enough for them and we had an incident and now I’m taking it that I’m supposed to meet the three of them afterschool at four to have a fight or something?”

“Oh you’re that Martial arts guy.”

“No…I only know enough to look fake really but they don’t know that and since they didn’t seem too keen on mixing it up there and then…they plan on doing it after school.”

He smiled at Keith who was glaring at him since noticing that he’d been pointed at with Jess’s fork.

“You really don’t care that I’m not a real girl?”

“Nope, are you transgendered?”

“I don’t know…maybe…I like guys and I thought I was gay but I like the clothes too because they make me feel more me but it’s not like I hate my stuff it’s just…I’m a freak I guess.”

“You’re no more a freak then anyone else here Johnny.”

“Oh sure, so I’m normal then.” Her voice was bitter.

“No one, no one is normal, they’re just really good at one…lying to themselves and two…lying to other people. You’re actually on the better half of normal.”

“Yeah, sure…”

“No, you’re being honest.”

“Oh yeah and that’s worked out so well for me. People hate me here like they did at my last school.”

“Don’t let them win.”

“Easy for you to say, you’re normal.”

“Well yeah sometimes it’s really easy to talk about stuff and harder to put it into practice. But I’m not the popular definition of normal either. I’ve never had a hometown, never really went to school before and never been on a date or had a significant other and I’ve got breasts.”

“What…” Johnny just stared and blinked at him in shock.

“Gynocomastia, I’ve been growing my own breasts for awhile now.”

“On purpose?”

“No, it’s a gene and hormone thing.”

“Do you want to be a girl?”

“Nope.”

“Are you getting them cut off/”

“Would you?”

“God no, you’re lucky.”

“From a certain stand point yes, I’m not going to freak out about something that’s actually not that bad.”

“Not that bad?”

“Nope, I’ve lived in South Africa and I’ve seen bad…people over here have no idea what bad is.”

“I suppose.”

She watched him as did several others closest to their corner as he took out slices of bread from the loaf he bought and butter them and ate it with his beef soup and tomato slices.

“Can I ask you something…?”

“Jessie.”

“Huh?”

“My name is Jessie.”

“Oh, okay…can I still ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Did people tell you about me so we could sit together because we’re different?”

“Nope, you’re kind of the first person that I’ve really had much of a conversation with the whole day. I saw you here alone and figured why not?”

“Oh.”

“And I thought you were pretty.”

“What?” She blushed.

“I think that you’re pretty.”

“I…” she was smiling and blushing now. “God thanks Jessie; you’re the first person that’s said that.”

“Yeah but I can pretty much be sure that I’m not the only one here thinking it though.”

“No…no one’s even really talked to me other than when they have too or they have something nasty to say.”

“People treat us the way that we let them.”

“Yes Dr. Phil…”

“It just so happens to be true.”

“It’s a charisma thing if you have a high charisma score then people will tend to flock to the things that you do or say. Most people have this sort of sheep mentality and will go along with what’s popular even if they don’t believe in it just so they don’t stand out and draw the wrong attention.”

“Charisma score? You’re a gamer geek?”

“Guilty.”

“Me too or I used to be before I was getting y’know into all of this and my life fell apart.”

Jess looked around and saw a few gamer kids, how’d he know? One of them this little short slender guy with light brown hair and glasses was wearing a t-shirt with the image from the cover of the old edition D&D module adventure Death’s Ride. “You haven’t played with them?”

“I…I haven’t had the guts to really try just walking up to anyone.”

“We should sometime.”

“Jessie…’ She almost whined.

“Nope, too late we’re friends now I think. I’ll be dragging you out into the light y’know.”

“No….it burns.” She laughed and he laughed with her and they were getting lots of looks.

They actually talked the rest of lunch about the gaming that they’ve done and how hard it was to find gaming stuff in English while living in Cape town or in Japan where the general assumption of being a gamer meant video games and how the entire thing there was so different. They even talked about anime and manga of which Johnny had some knowledge of but Jess was practically fluent in. They had a great talk for most of lunch with Johnny seeming to wake up from the quiet droop she was in and talk and smile and laugh.

The got up and bussed their trays and were nearly there when a girl in a group of like-wise nicely dress girls stuck her foot out from the table they were at and tripped Johnny. Jessie let his tray go all over the girl that did it, left over soup and juices from the tomato and all and caught Johnny around her waist.

The girl shrieked. “You asshole! Look what you did!”

He set Johnny carefully on her feet and he looked at the girl. “Sorry it was an accident.”

“Like fuck it was! You dropped that tray on me on purpose!”

“No, that was just karma, you tripped Johnny so whatever happened as a result was your own fault.”

“Like fuck it was! Are you some kind of fag!?”

“No not that I’m aware of, why are you a bigot…wait you are since you seemed to have decided to trip a girl that has done nothing to you.”

“I’m not a bigot!”

“You tripped Johnny, why then?”

“Because he’s a freak!”

“Oh so you are a bigot?”

She got really red in the face and stood up and screamed at Jessie. “I’m not a bigot!!!”

“Then why did you trip her?”

“That’s not a girl!”

“Looks like one to me and according to the schools LGBTQ charter she is a girl. And you denying her the right to be herself makes you a bigot.”

“Fuck you!!!” she screamed at him.

“Uhm…no, I only date other human beings and not bigots.”

“I am a human being!”

Jessie then raised his voice.

“Then maybe just maybe you should actually try and act like it then!”

He evened his tone to the scathing one he reserved for idiots and internet trolls and rules lawyers.

“You tripping Johnny without any other provocation other than you’re being a bigot or you were just oh so caught up with being cool around your friends that you decided to pick on someone that you have the least bit of compassion towards.”

He rounded on her three friends.

“And I suppose that you three think that bullying people is cool!? That you all can feel so smug and pretty and superior that you can look down on someone who’s actually brave enough to be themselves? Hmm?”

She stood there with this look on her face that was utter shock. There was this whole expression on all of their faces of…..but…but…we’re pretty and popular…no one talks to us like this…?

She sniffled and went angry cry on him. “Fuck you!...fuck you you asshole you don’t know one damned thing about me!”

He got right in her face. “Feels good being in someone else’s shoes doesn’t it?”

He abruptly turned from the three popular girls and went to Johnny who was staring at him in this whole mixture of shock and embarrassment and tears. She was shaking too. Jessie slowly knelt and picked up all of the stuff she had dropped on the floor and put it on her tray and then stood up and offered Johnny his arm.

She stared at it and at him.

Jessie whispered. “We teach others remember?”

She nodded and sniffled and took his arm and bit her lower lip a second before holding her head up and he walked her to the trash and dish station and then out of the cafeteria.

He smiled at her as there was a smattering of applause from the gamers table and some of the not so popular and pretty much average kids were sitting. He looked back and gave the room a nod and the short gamer guy with the cool t-shirt gave him a big silly grin and a thumbs up.

He smiled at Johnny. “So Miss can I walk you to homeroom for registration?”

They got about ten feet down the hall and she turned to face him and buried her face into his chest and started to bawl…really losing it full on ugly cry.

“And they say you’re not a girl…okay…skipping class it is.”

He picked her up into his arms and carried her up the stair until he found the school library and he found a quiet spot in the stacks and sat on the floor and held her on his lap and in his arms as she cried out what felt like years of pain.

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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It was just something he had to do. Bring her here and get her out of there. While the guidance councilors office was good and had it’s place it was also pretty central and with the jackals riled up right now it was better to chill out and let Johnny get it out and actually get a chance to breathe on her own terms rather than what some semi or pseudo professional thought was what some book told them.

Jess just adjusted this shoulders and the way they sat and almost leaned on her but wrapped around her a big more. He had always thought that you could change a lot of bullshit for people with a hug.

Thing is, you have to mean it.

He even leaned his head onto Johnny’s and smelled her, her hair and as bad as things were going for her he let himself enjoy it and closed his eyes. It was the hug as much as the smells. Sometimes it’s as good for you to be there and be able to hold someone as it was to be held.

He softly inhaled and he was feeling the effects of a warm soft girl as close as he’d ever had one. Johnny inhaled too and let out a sobby-laugh. “God…Jess do you have a boner…”

“I have a semi.” He admitted as he moved his head so he could look at her blushing face.

“Over me?” She gave him a real shy look but a hint of a smile.

“Actually yeah…”

“Can I ask if you’re gay?”

“Sure go ahead.” He deadpanned.

Johnny gave hit a light hit to his shoulder. “You know what I mean.”

“Yes I know what you mean. Yes I like girls but I’m also growing breasts too so honestly while I’m not looking for a boyfriend I’m not going to discount the fact that there might be someone out there that’s a guy to, or other combination.”

“That’s that pan thing right?”

“Yes, I’m rather committed to the idea of me actually being grown up enough that I’ll be attracted to who someone is before what they are.”

“But I’m…” She had this look of needful hope there but he just looked her in the eyes.

“You’re soft, you’re sweet and in addition to being really pretty Johnny you smell good too.”

Her eyes went a little wide. “Jessie…..” She leaned over and kissed him. He kissed her back and broke it when she did and tasted her lips. He just smiled a little before asking. “That was nice Johnny.”

“It was?” She kept looking at him and he just kept rubbing her back. Her eyes got a little big. “Oh no…you didn’t want to kiss me…and I…”

“No, I wasn’t expecting to kiss you, we’ve just met and kissing sort of usually comes later when two people know each other a little bit more.”

“God…….I’m so embarrassed! I thought you were into me and you’re so nice I just thought that…”

Jessie shifted and hugged her again. “Chill, I get it and it’s cool…yeah I find you attractive…and I like you so yeah I reacted and well you reacted it’s nothing to freak out about.”

(Sniffle.) “It’s not?”

“No, last time I checked it’s all kind of the things that we’re supposed to happen when we’re teenagers.”

“Yeah…I…I just never know what to do when stuff like this happens, usually I’d be getting a beating by now or something.”

“There’s people beating you up?” Jessie leaned bad and looked at her.

(Sniffle.) “Not here, not yet… but at my last school yeah they had to get me out of there.”

“Well I’m not going to beat you up, and neither is anyone else either as long as I’m around.”

“Thanks Jess…I’m sorry about the kiss…?” Johnny looked at him a bit sheepishly.

“You’re welcome and I’m not sorry about any of this, my feeling like you felt me feeling or the fact that we kissed.”

Johnny was blushing and Jess smiled some more. “Most people would want a do over.”

“I’m not most people and Johnny?”

“Yeah?”

“Congratulations, this is pretty normal.” He smiled at her and it took a minute and she smiled back and they hugged a little more leaning on the bookshelves and just sitting there kind of smiling and leaning on each other. The bell rang to change classes and Jess leaned over to look at her.

“Better?”

“Yeah, Loads thanks I’m sorry that I yanked you away from class are you going to be in trouble?”

“No, I can play lost. Its registration day and I’m in a new school so I was lost.”

“Oh.”

“You, trouble?”

“Naw, doesn’t matter they’re used to me being like this from last year they might pass it on to the guidance office but like you said it’s the first day of classes so they’ll likely call it a wash.”

“Okay, shall we?”

Jessie got up and helped Johnny to her feet and she smiled but shook her head.”

“Hmm?”

“I’ve never really met a guy like you Jess.”

“Naturally, are you okay now?”

“Yeah now thanks to you.”

“I’ll see you after school.”

“After school?”

“Yes so I can give you a drive home?”

“You have a car?”

“I have a car.”

“Sure, it beats going through all the crap of taking the bus.”

“Good, I’ve got…” He looked at his phone since he’d put his schedule on an App. “Chem then Physics.”

“I’ve got Business Ed. and Home ec.”

They hugged again in the hall getting a few looks from the passers by and he headed off to his classes and made his way through the other kids still getting a few looks and passed Keith and his two buddies and they gave him nasty looks.

“Faggot, queer.” The two Hench-monkeys jibbered at him and he smiled warmly at them and they looked confused and Keith got a black look on his face and pointed at him. “Remember four o’clock and you’re dead meat slant lover.”

“Uh-huh fine whatever where at?”

Keith and company blinked. They seemed confused at his warm smile and the fact that this kid seemed to be looking forward to it.

“The alley by the dumpsters off of school grounds.”

“Fine whatever just you three don’t be late I’ve got lots of other stuff to do today and I can only spare like ten minutes or so.”

Keith looked ready to jump him there and then. “No! No, I’m going to kick you ass you little nip-loving asshole you don’t fucking schedule when I’m going to beat your ass.”

“You say ass a lot you do know this is going to be a fight and not like some after school sex hook up right?”

Keith swung.

Jessie stepped into the swing right up into Keith and that sort of killed the swing but jess took the arm he used to throw the punch and held it like they were going to ballroom dance and gave Keith an actual ball room twirl around using Keith’s own momentum and shoved him letting go into his two friends sending them falling back on their butts for the second time today.

He gave them all a at the waist bow. “If you’ll excuse me ladies I have chem. class.”

The three of them looked very confused like what the hell just happened and it was made all the worse when the kids that had been around them had actually started to laugh at them this time.

Keith got up and fumed and yelled at some of them. “Funny, you think it’s funny? You want a fucking slap, new boy’s gonna get his and this shit won’t be so funny!”

He was looking for jess but he’d already headed off to class and the other kids were giving him looks…looks that he never got. Pissed off he headed off to his own classes.

Jessie shook his head walking into chem. and saw the short gamer guy coming in through the door at the same time. The guy had this big affable grin on his face and was sort of cute in this short slight way that sort of fit his personality. Jess figured he was one of those guys though that a lot of the girls might date if he was the bigger jocker types but they’d be too “High-school” to date a guy that’d be decent or in the way this guy looked likely make them laugh. But even as geeky as he was he seemed proud of it like he wore it like a badge.

He kind of liked him at first sight and getting that grin turned his way actually made jess look forward to the class already even before it started.

The guy looked at him and gave him the Spock eyebrow. “Something wrong?”

Jess looked around. “Looking for a blue booth.”

“Oh?”

“Turns out the Keith fellow and Beevis and Butthead are from the past, I was looking for the Tardis.”

“Oh really why do you say that?”

“Oh he was calling me a Nip-lover and a Jap lover and I’m pretty sure they have to have been brought here from the past for those to be insults nowadays.”

“Oooh…Hai..I think it’s not a Tardis that you’d be looking for but the unfortunate machine called the Re-Tardis”

Jess laughed at that. “Re-Tardis huh?”

The guy did that head up postulating look. “It makes perfect sense, since the Doctor has saved the human race over and over again and with the inevitable result of humanity actually getting it’s act together and becoming a race worth having in the multitudes of realities one of the insane time lords sought to destroy all The Doctor’s good works by creating the Re-Tardis to bring ahead the dumbest more moronic people he could find into this time stream to destroy us all by the dumbing down of the gen-pool.”

Jess laughed again. “Oh god that explains so much! I’m Jessie.”

“I’m Daniel, but Dan works too.”

“Jackson?”

“Unfortunately No, Reilly.”

“Reilly as in the life of?”

Dan grinned even more. “The one and the same!”

“Jess Stone.”

“Any relation to Joss Stone?”

“Nope and I think she’s British?”

“Ah, still smoking singer.”

“Never really listened to her.”

“I’ll burn you a disc.”

“Thanks.”

They shook hands. “Lab-partners?” The both said at the same time. Then laughed again and headed to find a place at the benches that they all used at seats for the class.

Chemistry was pretty basic mostly going over the stuff that they’d need for the class and lab fees and getting lab partners registered with the teacher and that pretty much took up the bulk of the class and Dan was with Jessie in physics as well and there was an actual semi-lecture of why they were here to take physics and why such a class was important as the teacher went off on this actually interesting talk about wind power, solar energy and nuclear reactors and even these thorium reactors that might be produced by china and from those examples of how physics belongs in the bulk of most tech industries like the automotive sections and real world applications.

It was an interesting class, and the teacher had a class/course web page and there was links to the things that he had being talking about.

Jessie had to admit he had a different idea of what classes could be like and chem might be more hands on and maybe boring but physics at least was hitting them hard with some real good why you should know this stuff.

There was even a link to shows of The Big Bang Theory, and physics heavy episodes of Star Trek.

A real geek ran this class and that actually appealed to Jessie and Dan too as they took out their pads and downloaded the links to the school page.

Another bonus, you could e-mail in your assignments.

He was in a decent mood until the final bell rang and he knew that he’d be facing Keith and company. Dan looked at Jess. “It’s getting about that time, are you actually going to go?”

“I have to.”

“Not…really, their just Cromags Jess.”

“I know but you know if I bail then he gets justified in being able to talk shit like he’s been doing. I go and I show others that it’s okay to stand up to these guys and it’s okay to not be as afraid of these guys as they think.”

“And if you lose?”

“Which will probably happen, then it happens and I still stood up to them and more than likely they’ll cheat and come at me three on one but look at me, I’m not all that built Dan it’ll look like actually that they’re being the assholes that they are and even with my ass kicked I’ll still win.”

“I’ll send your trophy to the hospital.”

“Gee, thank Daniel.”

“Hey no problem bud what are lab partners for?”

They walked out to the yards and just around the corner of the building and into the alley by the dumpsters, Keith was his two friends were there and there were a whole lot of other students too obviously there to watch.

“Dan, here hold my coat.”

“Jessie, this is still so not a good idea.”

He took his coat for him anyway and Jessie stepped up towards where Keith was standing and moved to the side as Keith lunged at Jess with snarl of “I’ll kill you, you little asshole!”

It was a full on football tackle into the chain link fence and Jessie felt the air explode from his lungs and Keith was there in his face swinging his fists at him over and over. It hurt a lot and he tried to cover up but trying to do that and with the wind knocked out of you were two totally different things.

Ribs, several hits to there making it worse and a few shots to the head and the third sent jess to the ground seeing stars.

Then there was a scream of anger a very angry female scream and Dan watched Johnny jump on Keith’s back thumping on him with everything she had until Keith’s friends pulled her off of him and threw her to the pavement. “Shut the fuck up faggot!” One of them yelled and they started in on her. Keith laughed and kicked jess twice and went for a third kick and Jessie didn’t even cover up for the blow instead he reached out to the one leg Keith was using as he was kicking and yanked it out from under Keith sending the big jock down.

Jessie was getting back onto his feet and so was Keith and while he got up to his feet jess stayed on his knees and he punched Keith hard as he could right in the crotch. Keith made a high pitched sound and when he bent over Jessie head butted him squarely in the nose.

There was a crunch and Keith went down bawling. “Fuck, fuck, fuck my nose!” his friends turned from hitting Johnny to see their buddy on the ground rolling around in a ball holding both hands over his face.

Jessie stood all the way up and looked at the two of them and ran his tongue around inside of his mouth before spitting some blood out and gave them another warm smile.

“Next.”

They actually didn’t look like they were interested in fighting Jessie because they weren’t stepping up and instead they were looking at Keith then at Jess and back and forth again.

Then there was another girl yelling. “There Brian, that’s the bastard! Kick his ass!”

It was the four girls from lunch time and the one that had tripped Johnny was pointing at Jess and her friends were with here and there were four guys with them looking big and pissed off.

Jess turned a little and waved them over. “Come on in boys and join the party!” They looked a bit confused and the two with Keith had moved to jump Jessie now that he was looking at these four new guys.

Dan knew it was going to be trouble and he tossed jess’s coat to Donnie one of the kids that was in his gaming group and he grabbed the lid off of one of the old heavy tin trash cans in the alley and he yelled at Jessie.

“Cap! Shield!”

It was a fluke catch but Jessie reached out not even really looking in Dan’s direction and caught it. By the handle…one of those fro the corner of your eye things but it looked cool as hell.

Jess yelled. “Thanks Bucky!” as he caught it and as the two friends of Keith’s came at him he braced behind it and lunged into one of them head first with all of his weight behind it and there was a clank-thud and the guy fell flat on his butt.

The other one tried for a tackle bear hug and got the edge of the trash-can lid in the mouth. Keith got up in time to eat a full flat of the shield backhanded smack sending him back down…then an edge of can edge bash to the other guy and Jessie actually moved around using the lid as a weapon and a few times as a shield when they tried to lash out at him.

Dan grinned, never ever give something like that to an angry geek that knows what their doing. It was the freakiest thing he’d ever seen and then he saw the four other guys moving in and he cut them off.

Crazy…he was crazy but like Jessie he smiled at them. “You don’t want to get involved guys.”

“Out of the way geek.”

“Geek huh not shrimp, or something just as stupid?”

“Out of the way.” And one of the others leaned over to the Brian guy. “Hey Bry? Why’s he smiling?”

Dan smirked. “I’m smiling because of Tolkien’s first law.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah you four ever seen Lord of The Rings?”

“Yeah so what.”

“Tolkien’s first law…don’t mess with the little guys.” He smiled and maybe it was more than a little nuts but he took and couple of steps towards the four big guys. He was like half the size of just one of them and there were four of them.

And he was smiling.

That so did not compute.

And if one watched then carefully you could almost see the little bits of smoke coming out of their ears and then Jessie limped up beside him and dropped the lid with a clatter and he reached in his pocket and took out a pack of Juicy Fruit Gum.

Jess said in this gravelly movie star voice. “I came here to chew bubble gum.” He dumped the pack of gum all over the pavement and looked at the four guys with a smile. Dan chirped in with. “Oops…looks like you’re all out of bubble gum.”

There was some quiet in the kids watching and the four jocks looked at the two boys and shook their heads. “Not fucking worth it man these two are nuts! Let get the fuck out of here before the cops show up.”

Brian turned his guys around and left in a bit of a hurry and the girls from lunch followed bitching them out and yelling. “Brian!, Brian! Were the fuck are you going!? That little asshole fucking insulted me!, and the little bastard with him applauded! If you don’t get back here I’ll…”

The Brian guy wheeled on her and yelled at her. “You’ll what!? You’ll break up with me? You whine and bitch and get someone to kick my ass Britney? I was there remember! Maybe just maybe you fucking deserved it!”

She and her friends looked stunned again at being talked to…yelled at like that and she hauled off and slapped him across the face.

Brian looked ready to kill, his knuckles even cracked and he turned on his heel and stormed off.

Britney turned the other way and stormed off but she was heading right for Johnny. Jess started moving and Britney was already fuming. “It’s all you’re fault you little faggot bitch!” She slapped Johnny who was just starting to get to her feet and sobbing a bit and holding herself and her torn clothes and she yelped in pain. Jess yanked Britney away from Johnny.

Britney spit in his face and slapped Jessie hard too. She must have hit one of the places Keith had hit because Jessie swayed. Then gave her an really angry look. She had this really bitchy self righteous smug look on her face. “Go ahead asshole I’m a fucking girl, you can’t touch me, you wouldn’t dare.”

(Sniffle.) “Cunt.” Britney’s eyes went rage big and she turned to see Johnny up again and standing in front of her and passed her a folded photocopied sheet of paper.

Britney snatched it and looked at it. “What the fuck is this?”

(Sniffle.) “My carry letter.”

“What the hell’s that?”

“It says…that legally I’m in transition and I’m considered a girl…too.”

“Too? What the hell why does that fucking matter….”

SLAP!

Johnny had swung her arm back as far as she could and slapped Britney don’t to the ground. She didn’t so much as scream as make the stomped rat sound. Johnny was holding her hand after bending over and over with the pain but even then she yelled at Britney even as she was ugly crying.

“You can hate me, you can talk shit about me and treat me like trash and I can deal with that you bitch, I’ve dealt with it before! But you lay a finger on my friends, hurt them, insult them! Spit on them! It’ll be on Bitch!, You got me? You got me!”

Britney tried to get up but fell back down and puked all over her friends nice shoes.

And that was about the time they heard someone yelling from the crowd. “Campus cops lets book!”

Jess went over and wrapped an arm around Johnny and Dan grabbed his coat and they limped off taking a short cut Dan knew to the parking lot. Jess was getting slower the more time the adrenaline wore off from the fight. “Thanks Dan.”

“Hey, what are lab partners for.”

Johnny snorted and whined in pain.

They all grinned at each other and stopped when the got to the car. They stared at it and Jessie limped over and laid there on top of the hood. He let out a sigh. “That was a lot of air conditioners.”

He motioned for Dan and Johnny to join him. “Get up here it’s nice.”

“But the paint?”

“Who cares, it’s just paint…it’s black and right now it’s warm.”

Johnny tried carefully climbing up and laid down beside Jessie their backs to the wind shield and just let the heat from the car and the asphalt sink into them and Daniel took the other side of the hood and sighed. “Nice car Jessie.”

“Thanks, I wanted something vintage and dad liked the idea of helping me restore it.” He kept his eyes closed and despite the way you could hear pain in his voice he was smiling.

“You sure it’s cool to sit on it like this?” Dan asked.

“I possess my things they, they don’t posses me.” Jessie replied folding his hands monk styled.

Johnny giggle-sniffled. “You are the strangest boy I’ve ever met Jessie and that includes me.”

“Thank you.”

“Hey…I’m plenty strange too.” Dan offered.

“You’re both strange and wonderful and brave and…” Johnny sat up and leaned over and lightly kissed Jessie on the lips then turned and did the same for Dan.

“Thanks Johnny, you’re a sweet girl.” Jessie said and cracked and eye to look at her kissing Dan who was very into it and had a big goofy smile on after she broke the kiss.

“Humma, yeah thank you Johnny…wow…so worth it.”

“Worth it?” She asked.

“The trouble, the danger…he whole thing wa worth it for a kiss like that.” he replied.

“Dannnny….!” She covered her face with one hand blushing.

Jessie nodded. “Getting the reward kiss for being a decent person from a pretty girl…they write stories about that. Sooooo worth it.”

“Jessie….!” She used her other hand to cover up a bit.

Jessie slid off the car and Dan did too. “I’m driving Johnny home you need a lift too Dan?”

“Hmm…cool car, new friends, hot girl…or the bus….I’ll take the ride thank you very much!”

They both reached over to help Johnny get off the hood of the car and she blushed some more. Dan even opened the passenger side front door for her. She got in smiling shyly. “Thanks Dan.”

Jessie smiled because they’d been getting watched the entire time and them seeing this, seeing Johnny getting treated differently…well like they say when you observe something you change it. The rumors and the other stuff from today would change things.

That maybe you can treat the transgendered girl okay and not like a leper.

That maybe the ones that are the popular alpha dogs in school aren’t all that.

He got in his car and turned in over slowly driving out of the school. He popped on his Mp-3 player and one of the songs that got him through his recovery in the hospital back in Cape Town.

{Refrain

Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more

Once I rose above the noise and confusion
Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion
I was soaring ever higher
But I flew too high

Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man
Though my mind could think I still was a mad man
I hear the voices when I'm dreaming
I can hear them say

{Refrain

Masquerading as a man with a reason
My charade is the event of the season
And if I claim to be a wise man, well
It surely means that I don't know

On a stormy sea of moving emotion
Tossed about I'm like a ship on the ocean
I set a course for winds of fortune
But I hear the voices say

{Refrain

No!

Carry on, you will always remember
Carry on, nothing equals the splendor
The center lights around your vanity
But surely heaven waits for you

Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry (don't you cry no more)  

The song kept playing as Jessie pulled them out into the street and it was maybe three blocks before all three of them were singing along.

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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Jessie drove and took directions from Johnny to her place and they ended up in a neighborhood he wasn’t too familiar with. Not really the suburbs but not a bad place either it was a jumble of prefab split level homes, simple lawns with nice looking fences separating the reasonably decent sized yards.

Johnny’s house was actually very decent here with a attached garage and a mini-barn for a yard shed. They got out and went inside. A man looked at them down the few steps from the top section. “Good you’re home…oh dammit what happened? And who are they?”

Johnny blushed a bit. “These are my friends dad, this is Jessie and this is Dan.”

“Friends? I..Uhm come in.”

The boys nodded. “Thank you sir.” They said and Jessie took off his sneakers before going any further and Dan looked and followed suit.

“You guys look the worse for wear what happened?”

“Jessie had some issues being the new kid with one of the jocks.”

“Three of the jocks.” Dan added.

“Three of the jock crowd and he stood up for me when Britney Lucas was being…”

“You tell the teachers?”

“No dad.”

“You have to tell the faculty Johnny, they need to know to do their jobs.”

“Dad, they don’t care…”

“Still, you have to give them a chance to do their jobs.”

“They aren’t dad, and if I go and start naming names they’ll make me regret it.”

He sighs and sets down a first aid kit from on top of the fridge where it looks like they keep it really handy and then got some ice. Johnny looked into a pot on the stove making a face and took it over to the trash and scraped out a white green lump.

Dan looked mortified. “What was that?”

Johnny sniffed. “Dad’s attempt at supper.”

Her dad took several wash cloths and Zip-lock bags and made ice packs and applied them to Jessie’s bruises. “You took quite a beating.”

“I’ve had worse.”

“Kids shouldn’t have worse.”

Jessie shrugged. “Compared to other sir this is nothing.” They looked into each others eyes and Johnny’s dad looked away first. “Would you two like to stay for supper?”

Dan looked surprised. “If it’s not too much trouble.”

Her father smiled. “You two are her first friends to come home with Johnny in three years, it’s not any trouble at all.”

Johnny nodded. “If it’s okay with you guys?”

Jessie nodded. “I have to check in first but I would be love to stay.”

He took out his phone and texted home with Dan doing the same.

[Hey Mom?]

[Jessie are you okay?]

[Yes why?]

[You’re not home and it was the first day and you know with your issues.]

[Oh, no police?]

[Police! What’d you do!]

[Stood up to some bullies.]

[Oh lord are you in trouble?]

[Like I asked are the cops there?]

[No…]

[Then likely not.]

[You should come home.]

[I’m at a friends house with friends had an invite for supper.]

[With friends? You made friends?]

[Yes, I made friends. One was a girl being bullied.]

[You stepped in?]

[Yes, are you mad?]

[No, never but just be careful.]

[I will. We’ll talk later.]

Jessie put his phone away and thanked Johnny’s dad for he ice packs and applied them in turns here and there to the bruises. Some of them really hurt but nothing was broken or cracked he was sure.

Johnny came over. “I’ve some stuff you can wear, I can wash our stuff and try to get the blood and stuff out of it.”

“That’d be nice.” He winced getting up and he went with her down the hall to her bedroom.

He didn’t know what to expect from a transgirls bedroom. He supposed frilly and over girly was the first thing but it wasn’t. The room was a dusty yellow with lots of posters some are of movies. Mr.& Mrs. Smith, Kill-Bill, Across the Universe, and some of these pop-stars like Miley Cyrus and even some with girls in pretty skimpy clothes to bathing suits. She did have a large poster of the Korean star Rain shirtless hair wet in the rain in a black and white eye candy poster.

Her bed was a four poster style without a canopy but all white painted with a matching tall dresser and a wide long dresser and a vanity able with a big mirror all painted to match and the dressing table with all the bottles and make-up shouted girl.

Well the room did but there were nice things that broke some of the stereotypes that made Jess smile. Like the books. Johnny had lots of books, some hardcover’s but mostly novels. He scanned the titles and a few he knew but there were a host of authors he never heard of before.

Johnny opened a closet with John stenciled over it and Jess looked at it. “Your old things?”

“Yeah, actually I just can’t drop all of this stuff.”

“Why, if it’s okay to ask?”

“Some of it’s because I want to head out sometimes as John.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I’m not sure who I am. It’s really why I never femme named. But I just don’t feel right living as just John. John’s skin and his life never feels real to me.”

“So why not change all the way?”

“I’m thinking about it, really, really thinking about it but there’s just times where being John lets me walk away from all of this as a sort of a mental break.”

Dan sits on a chest at the foot of Johnny’s bed. “I get that, I don’t feel like me sometimes. And the whole gender thing’s got to be really, really thought out if you’re not sure.”

“Or if why you’re not sure is because you’re somewhere in between.” Jessie said.

Johnny looked surprised. “I never thought I was there, like in between maybe…my therapist never brought it up.”

Jess looked at her. “I had an a doctor that brought this up with me instead of a therapist. Not that they’re wrong, the therapists I mean but even with gender stuff they’re still in that one way or another thinking sometimes, is your therapist a gender specialist?”

Johnny nods absently opening the smaller closet and moves through the racks getting a pair of sweat pants out and a green cammo t-shirt. She shook her head. “No she’s a trauma specialist, I’m still dealing with what happened at my last school.”

Dan looked at her. “What happened at you last school?”

Johnny went over to her bookshelf and pulled out a black binder. “Here.” She passed it to them and hugged herself.

The boys looked inside and there were pictures take of her likely from the hospital from the look and the hospital gown of Johnny, in girl mode but she was bloody, and beaten to hell. She was barely recognizable as who was in front of them. There was more than the one picture too.

“Holy Hell.” Dan said staring.

“Are you pressing charges, or suing the school board?” Jess asked.
“We tried both.” Johnny shook and both boys pulled her over into a hug which made her gasp in surprise and shake harder. “We..we..tried but there were no “witnesses” willing to come forward…it..it was all over the internet! (Sniffle-sob.) hu..how w.. where there no fucking witnesses!?”

She started to cry and the guys hug on to her as she sobbed again even moving to her bed and laying down with her holding Johnny with her in the middle. Not her parents, not her therapist but just two kids her own age being there opened those barely shut floodgates.

It took maybe forty minutes for them to be just laying there. Jess kissed her forehead. “My first sleepover, I heard things get intense at these things.”

Johnny sniffle laughed and hugged him with one arm and reached back to hug Dan with the other. “You guys rock.”

“Naturally.” Dan said. “Thank you for noticing, not everyone does.”

“Most people don’t look that far down Dan.” Jess said jokingly.

Dan sat up and looked at them. “I know right? I mean I am pretty awesome but they don’t thing so because I’m short and small and different but I ask you. You look down and see a kitten doesn’t part of you just say Awesome!?” He had his hands out wide but still used his fingers to point at himself.

Both of them laughed and laughed some more as he did a cute sort of imitation of Dan the kitten.

Jess sat up as Johnny passed him her old clothes. “You can use my bathroom to change Jess.”

He was gingerly getting out of them already. “No…(Wince.)…I’m okay.” The bruises were really taking hold and showing and so was his bra. Dan went. “Whoa, you’re a girl?”

“No….but would it matter if I was?” Jess asked.

“No…but yeah I mean Cap’s cool and all but Wonder Woman is smoking.”

“I’m not tying you up Dan.”

“Dammit, am I that obvious?”

“Yes!” Both Johnny and Jessie said at the same time.

“So are you like Johnny?”

“No, I’m not even close to being that beautiful.”

Johnny blushed. “Jess…..ie.”

“Then what’s with the breasts?” The way he said it though it had been brain filtered from boobs.

“Gynocomastia.” Jess said.

“Oh…wait Gynoco what?”

“It’s genetic or glandular in most cases but anyway my body is getting told that these are female parts and I’m growing them accordingly.”

“Dude can they do anything?”

“There’s hormones they wanted to try and there was surgery but since I’m not fully developed yet they want to wait on that I think.”

“And you’re okay with that?” Dan tilted his head still staring but passed Jess the t-shirt.

“I have to be but that’s really not why I’m okay with this. I lived in South Africa for a few years when they were starting to sprout and when I went further north on a water consult with dad I met some native girls. They talked me through some stuff.”

“How would they talk a guy through having breasts?” Johnny asked with Dan nodding.

“Most of the planet is obsessed with breasts but to them they’re just breasts no more sexual than any other part of the fact they’re a woman. They went topless all the time I was there and their breasts had nothing to do with the way anyone else treated them. With them I started to get they’re just breasts, they really don’t define me as much as I though and I figured out I wasn’t going to let them define me through others.”

Johnny looked at him. “Wow…that’s brave Jess.”

“Not really it was that or let the local assholes win back in Cape town.”

“Local assholes?” Both asked.

Jess picked up Johnny’s binder. “I know exactly what this feels like Johnny, I was in the hospital a long time because of this.”

“Really?” She asked.

“Really, life support and the whole nine yards. Afterwards my parents pulled me from schools and had me home schooled until we came here and I still would have been if I hadn’t put my foot down.”

“They were scared for you.” Dan said.

Jessie nodded. “But sooner or later I’d have to actually join the rest of society, I want to go to school and make friends and have a relationship with someone and all the regular teen stuff. So they finally caved in and here I am.”

Dan nodded. “Well you’ve got nice boobs for a guy.”

Johnny sighed looking too. “I really, really want my own breasts too.”

Jess asked. “You’re not in transition?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m on hormone blockers and I’m sort of in my RLT.”

“RLT?” Both asked.

“Real Life Test, usually that’s the big step between getting the surgery go ahead but my therapist wants to see how I’m dealing with being me as a girl on my hormone blockers first before she starts giving me the hormones.”

Jess nodded. “Unusual but not too bad where you still sort of said you’re sitting on the fence.”

Johnny nodded absently as Jess took off the pants revealing boxer briefs that clung to him. She was staring as much as Dan was but at a different spot.

Dan whistled. “Dude…was it the African food that did that? If so can we stop by a market on the way home?”

That made Jessie blush. “Guys stop…it’s family related okay…and one of the reasons hey went after me…”

Dan nodded. “Because it fucked with their head you were getting boobs and were part elephant.”

Johnny giggled, blushed and covered her face.

Jess fastened the jeans blushing. “Actually yes, pretty much they even tried to cut it off.”

“Dude!”

“I wasn’t really conscious for that, I sort of remember the machete then the pops of gunfire.”

“Gunfire?”

“Some son of one of dad’s friends was in a gang and they drove past and saw what was going on and opened up I guess. It was an honor thing, they’re a bad bunch I guess but they got me to the hospital in time to save my life.”

“Shit…” Dan looked at Jessie who shrugged.

“It’s not the first time we seen gunfire over there.”

“It’s not?”

“Southern Africa is big with the whole gang deal but you go north or more central and things get a lot more rough. Dad had a jeep fire bombed because the local despot owned or was camped around the local watering hole and wanted no wells dug for the area.”

Johnny looked at Jessie. “That’s why you’re not scared?”

Jess shrugged. “Live in fear and you stop living.”

Both nodded.

They headed out of Johnny’s room and she took his things to get washed before heading back to the kitchen and started supper. Johnny’s father did a couple of takes at the small bumps in Jessie’s shirt but never said anything.

Johnny made a good supper. Dan wasn’t used to it fish at his house was a Sunday thing for the most part and neither he or Jessie had bluegill before. Johnny fried the fish in an electric skillets just rolled in egg wash and flour with salt and pepper and some cornmeal in it. The rest was hash left over from cold potatoes and some canned vegetables.

Johnny’s dad mentioned they were lucky in having his brother in law living out in the country. “I’m sorry it’s not pizza or something kids, but with the way things are going it’s been a rough go of it. We’ve got lots to eat as long as you don’t mind fish or venison.”

Dan shrugged. “I’ll eat most anything sir I was raised not to be fussy and my family puts a lot of preserves down.”

Jessie nodded. “Me too, I’ve eaten a lot of everything sir and thing is really good. Thank you Johnny for cooking supper.”

They all thanked her at that point and Johnny’s dad got a Tupperware dish together and headed out to take supper to his wife’s work.

The boys helped with the dishes and hung out until Jess’s clothes where ready before driving Dan home. Jess never went inside because it was getting late but Dan lived in a nice house with the whole built in the 50’s boom style to it. Green paint, two stories with an attic, long and sort of rectangular with the covered front porch with the two pillar styled posts and the heavy wooden double doors with the colored glass round windows.

“Pick you up tomorrow Dan?”

“Hell yeah, beats the bus! Laters.”

“Yeah Laters! He shouted back.”

Jessie drove home and his mom was up waiting with his dad having a coffee when he got inside.

“Oh thank god you’re okay.” She went over and looked him over.

Rather than fighting the interrogation by his mother Jessie went through a play by play of the day as it had happened and his mom was very expressive over the things. Jessie’s dad just nodded and listened like one of those guys that’s seen things and was calm about most stuff.

“I’m calling the school, there’s no need of there being jack booted thugs like this roaming the halls and bullying everyone they can.” She was angry and walking towards the phone.

“Mom.”

“No, this is America dammit! You’re supposed to be dating, making friends and going to dances not fighting bullies and getting into trouble.” She was mad and had the cordless phone in her hand.

“Mom!”

“Jessie…”

“Mom, it’s the real world…even here, even here in the states.”

“I know that Jess but why? Why you?”

“Because I’m me mom, I’m not going to shut up or stand aside or back down. I’m going to be who I am Mom. I’m who you raised y’know. You taught me all this when You home schooled me.”

“I know but does it have to be you getting into all these fights?” She wasn’t yelling anymore but just spent and worried sounding.

“It’s just me Mom, I tilt when I should yield.”

She sniffled. “I never should have rented that damned movie.”

Jessie kissed her on the forehead. “I would’ve seen it anyway.”

His dad got up and slapped him on the shoulder. “Come on we’ll talk and shoot some stick.”

Jessie gave his mom a hug then followed hid dad down into the basement. That’s where they ended up talking the rest of the evening until Jessie’s mother called down. “Marc! I’m going to bed you coming?”

He went upstairs with his dad and to his room and turned on some music as he took a shower washing the day off and soaking the bruises and washing his hair enjoying the feeling of getting clean as much as the body warming heat of the steam.

Jessie looked in the mirror and checked out his reflection again. The bruises would take awhile to fade, they actually looked worse post shower and took a couple of Advil to hopefully dull the aches and pains and took some muscle gel and gingerly rubbed some into his bruises before falling asleep.

The Next Morning.

Honey….

Hunched her shoulders as she took her books out of her locker. They were whispering about her again. Those girls, they…the just never stopped. She was “blessed.” with 48 DD’s really huge breasts.

They never got that you were always self conscious, that you were always embarrassed.

They didn’t get how it felt to get singled out and hated on because of something you had no control over.

She was trying so hard not to cry as the stench of soured milk was coming out of her locker and the pretty and popular girls were standing together giggling and talking in their own little secret code and she was sure that they were talking about her.

She took her books and another bag full of wrecker papers and things including some of her favorite novels now wrecked to the garbage and there was more giggling…and there were.

“Moo…moooo…”

Honey couldn’t help it but threw the wrecked things in the trash and bolted away crying. But even before she was out of there, the giggles turned to exploding laughter and more.

“Moo…”

“Fucking cow!”

And they, weren’t the only ones because there were always people staring, judging, laughing.

Eyes full of tears and unable to see clearly she tripped and fell on the pavement as something big and blurry coming at her fast and she screamed as the sound of braking tires fought with the oncoming shape’s attempt to stop.

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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Nick…

He hated the first day of school. It wasn’t so much that he hated it but he hated how chaotic it was the first day of school. Okay, okay he hated the rest of it too. He had been different all his life and all the other kids knew it. He had Aspergers in one of the more select forms and he was high functioning but with just some things in life he just, he just had a really hard time doing.

Like talking to people.

Ever since he had hit puberty it had gotten worse and worse starting with a stutter. He went through hell in his middle school years with the stutter and the way that the other kids had treated him. Until last year when he was sent to a new therapist that had new ideas for kids like him. And in a few sessions they had locked onto a way of talking to people. That was over the computer or even in videos on his phone or texting or tweeting things. If Nick could just be allowed to use electronic media then it seemed he didn’t stutter.

But as good as that was he was still bullied by some of the kids. The fact that he was a known stutterer and that he was trying something new made him a target for the ones that had been harassing him even more that last year.

They took his things and did things like little accidents with them spilling pop on his tablet or knocking his phone from his hand and stepping on it.

He was sure high school here was no different especially when he’d tried to answer questions and would stutter. They laughed and some made fun of him by imitating his stutter. And the class he had used his Voice App for had people calling him “Hawking.” As if that was an insult.

But with it were two buttholes who thought they were funny and made the whole posture thing that Stephan hawking had in his chair. They and some of the others in the class thought that was really funny.

He had thought the day was going to completely go to hell when he saw this skinny dark haired guy in a Tokyo Giants jersey stand up to these three varsity thugs right in the middle of the hall.

And this guy had also bucked these three popular girls when they had been cruel to this transgendered student.

It wasn’t something he’d seen really before.

Home, back in his old school you never had someone just stand up for you like that. You stick out like a nail and the mob would certainly hammer you back in your place.

He had heard of the fight online. It was so stupid in a way that he had friends on one of his Facebook accounts from this school already and it was only because most teenagers just seemed to need these numbers of friends and likes and they put so much information out there… They weren’t real friends Nick had never really had real friends except for his online ones and they were on separate accounts.

The one for school was his one he had made up with a fake profile and fake pictures and stuff so he could find out what was going on and who was hating on who and who might be coming for him in RL.

His online self might be in the know as it were.

But like some of the other kids he was drawn to the fight, just because he’d hear about it and that Britney was going to get Brian her boy friend to “kick this new guy’s ass.”

Only it hadn’t turned out that way at all?

The Keith guy honestly should’ve won? He really outsized this Jessie kid and he had put quite a pounding into him and then the little guy that was at the cafeteria with a group of friends had evened the odds with a trash can lid and they even faced down Brian and his guys.

He was surprised that the big jock Brian had backed down and fought even with Britney over it all. Nick’s experience with the athletic end of the student body hadn’t been great with his last school.

He was even more surprised and so were a lot of people in that Jessie and his two friends had actually won the fight. Sure they were hurting and stuff from fighting but it was pretty clear who had won the fight and even the whole kind of moral thing too.

It was the buzz of the school the rest of the after school time and all over the social networks of the kids who were into all this teen drama stuff.

And there were videos being posted.

Some one was trying to smear Jessie and them by making it all look like it was they’re fault that Keith and them got hurt and that Jessie had done the stuff to Britney on purpose too.

That was easy to fix. Nick lived for the most part online and not just online but behind a computer, they made sense to him and he spent a lot of the night taking down these slander videos and putting up ones he had seen going around that told the real story.

Keith being a bully and a dick. Britney being a bitch and the figuring that this Jessie guy and this Dan guy might get in trouble he took down every fight video he could find just in case it might get them into trouble.

They might not stay down so he marked the pages he had seen them on just in case and sat after everything was done thought long and hard about stuff this time, this school.

Maybe he didn’t have to take it?

Maybe if he could actually see the crap going down he could report it? No, the faculty always had their hands tied up with legal stuff and heaven forbid they punish one of the popular kids.

No he could watch and record and he could put the truth out there. He could make guys like Dan and Jessie a bit safer from the whole social network slander machine. Heck he could save pages of stuff from the ones that bullied others online too and maybe bring that to light.

His oddness wouldn’t matter, his stutter wouldn’t matter he might not ever be popular or even have any RL friends but he could stand up and not take it in his own way.

……………………………………It had kept Nick up all night really actually being that excited for this and he even made a couple of other fake accounts to sort of simulate some of the popular styled kids. Changing the IP addresses and things like that were pretty easy so he doubted that he’d get caught and he even made a webpage for the school called…West Chicago High School’s Reality Yearbook.

He supposed he had pushed it being up so late but Nick was used to being up most of the night online so it wasn’t something that was new to him too much. He’d surprised his parents when he asked for an early ride to school.

He was just keeping to himself mostly but Nick was watching for something that he could do that might make a difference. Then he saw several of these girls talking about. “That big titted bimbo.” And they had small cartons of milk that they were squeezing milk out of with the straws into a locker. He kept quiet and out of the way and looked like he’d been texting but he was recording the whole thing from what they were doing to all the nasty things that were being said.

He knew that there’d be trouble he couldn’t handle if he tried to stop them. Girls like this picked on guys like him as much as their jerk boyfriends. But he’d certainly have those jerk boyfriends to deal with if he got in their way.

No, no…he’d put it up for everyone to see though.

…………………………………………Nick’s heart went out for the girl and the fact that they just piled more and more abuse on her when she was hurt enough from the prank they pulled.

Cruel just for being cruel.

He so knew what that was like and he sort of followed along with the others as she broke into sobs and she ran out of the school and into the parking lot.

She tripped and fell and there was this car coming at her and he watched as whoever was driving swung the car sideways jamming the brakes on and stopping the car about a foot from hitting the girl.

Jessie…

The damned monkey woke him way too early and his usual reach up for his shinai stopped with a gasp of pain.

“Oh…oh crap that stings.” He rolled over on his side putting his hands on the bruises he had on his ribs and slowly rolled off the bed and pulled the monkey face down and got up heading to the bathroom.

He’d certainly felt better but then again he’d certainly had felt a lot worse. He let himself smile a bit just at the strange humor that you had to have when you go from rubbing your breasts in that morning way he supposed that some girls would to scratching and adjusting himself below.

Jessie stopped in the mirror.

Yep, he’d certainly looked better. There were some really dark bruises over his ribs and a couple of small ones in his stomach too. He’d been lucky in a way and hadn’t gotten hit in the breasts but he’d sort of cover them up during the fight. The bruises on his arms were enough to show that.

There was a small scrape to go with it on his right cheek and his knuckles were scraped raw. There wasn’t anything really glamorous about fighting. It was something he’d never liked but he’d gotten used to with the places that he had lived in.

Japan from when he was six until he was ten. That was a mostly quiet time with very few friends and him being the outsider kid in his area. He’d had been put into a judo class after some kid had gotten angry that he had score points over him in soccer and beat him up with his friends.

But Judo class was also a great place for those same kids to pretty much do even more when the instructor hadn’t been looking. He’d been pulled out after he had more and more bruises.

Not every place was bad that he had lived in. From ten to eleven they lived in the Philippines and that was a good year and he played a lot of soccer there. Plus there had been enough American kids around to play with.

And Jessie liked the two years when him and his family had moved to Columbia. They lived in a pretty nice area and the school there had been a pretty strictly watched private Catholic school.

He was turning thirteen when they had moved to Cape Town and his chest had stared to itch and bud out.

And that was when he had gotten literally the worst beating of his life. No jess had seen a lot just travelling and growing up around some hard places but he never really had stepped out to fight, well he’d never started any of them.

That beating though made one thing crystal clear.

Life was too short to live being scared and miserable.

He sighed and slipped out of his underwear and climbed into the shower to wash off the night and the smelly muscle cream he had put on the night before then went out to his room and found some clothes. Boxer briefs his preferred choice of underwear, black slacks, grey socks and sneakers and he looked through his dresser and he took out a mating black bra that went with his underwear. It wasn’t anything girly or fancy just a nice bra with satin/nylon cups and a bit of padding. Over that went a t-shirt and a short sleeved grey dress shirt that he just casually wore over that.

Jacket and his books and his gym clothes gathered up he headed downstairs to where his mom was making breakfast and he helped himself to trying a bowl of Honey Nut Cherrios while his mom made Blt’s and he helped himself to two packs of Uncle Bens microwaveable rice packs to put in his bag for lunch today and called Johnny and Daniel to let them know that he was heading out to pick them up and that he was going to get Johnny first.

A hug for each of his parents and he was off to school and soon pulling up at Johnny’s house.

Johnny had been out waiting at the curb and she was definitely still in girl mode and was wearing her hair down and loose and styled in this wavy tumble that looked really good. She had on a zip front hoody in a cream color and a pink blouse on that really nicely showed off her cleavage and several necklaces she was wearing. A simple but nice long denim skirt embroidered with some flowers set her whole look to that really pretty girl next door look complete with sandal styled flats.

Jess got out and took her books and things and put them in the trunk and opened the car door for her while she slipped in she smiled. “Jessie, you don’t have to do all that chivalrous stuff with me.”

“I’d be doing this with any other girl Johnny so you’re not getting any special treatment as far as I’m concerned.”

“Well, I’m glad that there’s still some manners around and that some guys still think about those things.”

“Treat others the way that you’d want to be treated right?”

“Yes and in that case thank you very much this is really sweet of you.”

Jessie smiled. “That you Miss and might I point out that you look very pretty today.”

“Really I was trying for average.”

“There’s no such thing as just an average woman.” He smiled at her and Johnny blushed.

“Jessie…”

“Johnny-girl…” He said smiling making her blush all the more but she was smiling.

He got back into the car and he drove over to Daniel’s house and pulled up to the house where Dan was outside with a large back pack and dressed in jeans and this “Hellboy.” T-shirt and a black ball cap. They got his books stowed and the drove to school with Dan and Johnny talking about how cool it was not to have to take the bus. Dan reached over the seat. “Here dude.”

Jessie looked at the ten dollar bill. “What’s that for?”

“Gas, you’re driving us around and the stuff’s not free.”

“Hang onto it.”

“Jessie seriously take it.”

“I’m good I said hang onto it for this weekend.”

“This weekend?”

“Yeah, I have friends and a car I figured we’d actually maybe go somewhere since we have the freedom to do it.”

“Oh, well cool yeah it’d be great to actually get away from the house or the usual places.”

Jessie nodded. “That’s what I was thinking too. But I still wouldn’t mind see the usual places I’m still new to the country remember.”

Johnny looked at him. “So were you even born in the United States?”

Jessie nodded. “I was born in Houston actually. Dad was doing some research for a law firm.”

Dan said. “I thought your dad was a water engineer?”

Jessie turned into the school parking lot. “He is but he was asked to come in and consult on a fracking case.”

Dan grinned. “Fracking? There’s Cylons in Texas?”

Jessie grinned. “Good one, save that for my dad he’ll crack up over that.”

Johnny looked at them. “Okay I’m missing the whole joke so what’s fracking?”

Jessie said. “It’s mining for natural gas in shale beds and stuff they basically blast the shale and use water and a whole boatload of chemicals to make the gas stick to it and it gets sucked out.”

Johnny frowned. “That sounds pretty bad.”

“It is see, it breaks up the bedrock and literally fractures the land and they never get this stuff out of the sites completely and it gets in the water table and really fucks with stuff.” Jessie had this look of serious distaste on.

She looked at him. “So not a fan?”

“Nope…”

Dan nodded. “I’m no environmental crusader type even though I really hate what’s being done in a lot of places but this Hydro-Fracturing for natural gas. It’s to me like they’re shooting mother earth up with meth.”

Jessie nodded. “It’s really dirty right up there with coal and strip mining.”

Johnny screamed. “Look out!!!”

There was this girl that ran out from the morning crowds and she was crying and went down in a fall right in the path of the car.

Jessie stepped on the brakes but he pulled the emergency brake too and cut the wheel and prayed the locked up friction would stop the car in time. They all heard the girl scream but there was no thud.

Jessie got out of the car as quick as he could and jumped the hood to get to the girl. She was crying and shaking still with her arms up to cover herself from being hit.

“Holy…are you alright miss?”

Some people in the crowd were laughing finding this funny and there was a few “Moo.” being made her way. He looked at them all and some of the crowd even stopped muttering and talking. There was someone a girl’s voice yelled out from the safety of the crowd. “Fat cow!”

Jessie glared in the general direction. “Johnny can you park the car?”

Johnny called out. “Sure, why…”

Jessie slid his arms under the crying girl and picked her up and he carried her inside, through the crowd and to the school. He stopped and turned around and looked at the crowd in general. “Nice, you’re just real nice.” She looked at them too and started sobbing again and buried her face into his shoulder.

Then he turned his back on them and walked into the school and took the girl to the nurse’s office. There was a school security guard following him.

“Hey kid, what happened?” he asked.

“I don’t know but given the cat-calls out there there’s a bunch of kids bullying this young lady. Maybe you should look into that.”

“Watch your mouth kid.” He frowns at Jessie.

Jessie kept walking until he got inside the nurses office ignoring the security guard. The nurse looked up. “Oh dear what happened? Here set her down on the cot.”

Jessie set her down and she wouldn’t let go quite yet. He sat with her and held her. “She ran out into the parking lane of the school and tripped and fell nearly getting run over. I heard people teasing her making cow noises and calling her names.”

He looked at the security guard. The guard stared at him. “I need her to tell me what happened.”

“Look it up on the footage.”

“What footage?”

“There’s no cameras in the halls?”

“No, we’re not allowed it infringes on the rights of the students expectations of privacy.”

Jessie frowned. “School policy or did they bother even.”

“We bothered and some kid’s parents took the school board to court.”

He nodded. “Sorry for giving you a hard time but these assholes nearly killed this girl.”

The nurse looked the girl over as she sat beside her. “Honey can you tell us what happened?”

The girl nodded and sniffled and coughed and Jessie passed her some tissues from his jacket and she nodded and said a small shy “Thank you…”

“You’re welcome I’m just glad that you’re safe and alright.”

(Sniffle.) “I’m not alright…why? Why me?”

“Lots of reasons miss but honestly…because they can.”

She looked at him and so did the nurse and the security guard. He looked them all back in the eyes calmly. He wasn’t going to sugar coat what these people were like. It’s the real world and while some people were okay and a lot were in the middle and either were sheeple of just didn’t care. And there were some people that were just plainly not good people.

He got up and took her hand and shook it. “I’m Jessie okay?”

(Sniffle.) “I’m Honey.”

“Okay Honey, I’m going to go and let the nurse take care of you. You have a cell phone?”

She sniffled and nodded and reached into her pocket and showed it to him. Jessie knelt and took it and programmed in his number. “There…here’s my number if you need me for anything you call me okay?”

(Sniffle.) “’Kay…”

He got up and headed out with the security guard. (Sniffle.) “Jessie…?”

He stopped and looked back at Honey. “Yes?”

“Why?...Why’d you help me?”

He actually gave her a smile and it was this strangely wistfully satisfied smile on his face. Like….well she didn’t know what that smile was like really but maybe like the smile she used to see on her dad’s face when they got someone out from a fire.

Yeah…it was one of those hero smiles.

“Because I could Honey.”

He slipped out and she just stared at the door fresh tears and a smile slowly coming to life on her face. She hadn’t seen someone smile like that since her dad died. She’d thought that was gone.

…………………………………….Jessie walked down the hall and met up With Johnny and Dan. Dan was carrying a whole bunch of things that looked like they were Honey’s things. He also kid of smelled.

“What happened to you?” Jessie asked.

“I saw a bunch of yappy types giggling like hyena’s and dumped a whole trash can into the dumpsters.”

“You know who?”

“No not really but I’ll recognize them.”

“Good.”

“So what’s the plan?”

“Don’t know yet but the faculty isn’t able to nail them.”

“Oh?”

Jessie jerked his thumb towards the guard waiting outside the nurse’s office. “No cameras allowed here in the halls.”

Johnny nodded. “That’s part of the basketball team’s thing.”

Both the guys looked at her.

“Lee Davis is one of the bigger assholes in school and he went state last year so everyone’s kissing his ass. He had his dad file a complaint about the cameras so him and his friends can do shit without being caught.”

Jessie frowned. “So he runs the zoo?”

Johnny shook her head. “No but it’s close to that he’s a spoiled rich jock and he’s sort of the unofficial king of the in crowd.”

Dan nodded. “He’s also the prom King and head of the court.”

Jessie passed Dan some Wet wipes from his jacket. “Here.”

“Thanks Jess.”

Johnny looked at Jessie. “Is the girl okay?”

“Yes and no she’s been through this a lot I think. I’m just glad I never hit her.”

Daniel nodded and he wiped himself clean of the stuff that was on him. “Scared me I almost Ann Coultered.”

“Ann Coultered?” Jessie asked raising his eyebrow. Even Johnny had a curios expression.

Daniel gave them a goofy smile. “Y’know number two…”

Jessie smirked even he had seen her in action on the television. Johnny just groaned and rolled her eyes.

Jessie looked at the stuff. “First thing’s first let’s get Honey’s things cleaned up.”

They nodded and Johnny said. “The janitor’s office is this way.”

The boys followed her down the hall all three of them getting looks and glances and murmurs.

…………………………………………..Britney cussed. “Like what the fucking hell? Something’s wrong with my Face book account I keep trying to put up that video that Zack put up with those freaks and the fight but it keeps getting deleted?”

She passed in to Tammy who was good at the nerdy stuff, too smart acting for her own good sometimes. Smart’s only good if you were a dyke or fugly. No guy wanted a girl that was smarter than him because he’d dump you for someone better looking and stuff.

Tammy was fiddling with the smart phone and Shelly was looking over her shoulder as she worked with her usual stunned look. Okay there was too smart and then there was too stupid and Shelly was like way too stupid. I mean they like called her ‘Patrick’ behind her back.

‘Cause she was like the dumb uhm starfish from like Spongeguy whatever.

Then she heard Shelly say, yes actually say. “Oh-em-gee…No effin way…”

Britney heard her own voice coming over the phone and she grabbed the phone and she saw her fight with Brian posted and her being replayed over and over in a higher voice than she usually had when she was screaming at him and then their was him yelling at her and then the video flashed to when the tranny bitch slapped her.

It didn’t show the tranny freak but it showed her face getting slapped over and over and over.

She deleted it with a. “Aaugh!”

But she heard it from other people’s phones. Her friends and the people she hung out with were staring at her. Some of them even were laughing.

And the losers were laughing too as the thing was going viral in the school.

Britney screamed and stormed to the winner’s girl’s bathroom.

She rounded on Tammy once inside. “Who fucking made this? You find out who fucking made this!”

She shoved her phone into Tammy’s chest and screamed in rage as Shelly had her phone out and was watching it again and she ripped the phone out of Shelly’s hand and threw it out the window.

She was livid.

She was part of the homecoming court!

“No one does this to me!”

……………………………Honey felt a little better after talking to the nurse and she explained what had happened to the security guard and then the vice principle and then the guidance councillor.

Recess/morning break hit and she was finally let out of the office and wasn’t looking forward to finding her things and just debated leaving school for the day and heading home. It’d be okay since her mom would be at work pulling a twelve hour shift.

That guy he carried her in his arms through everyone there and he told them off and he carried her like she wasn’t fat or heavy all the way here from the parking lot.

Her face was still getting red just thinking about that.

“Hey Honey are you okay?”

Oh! It was the Jessie guy…and he had his two friends with him and she blinked and stammered. “Uhm..y..yes…now, th..thanks to you.”

The guy just smiled that smile and he shrugged the girl, only she wasn’t a girl passed Honey her book bag? It was clean and didn’t smell like sour rotten milk.

“How…what…why?”

Jessie smiled. “Because we can. C’mon they have fresh brownies at the cafeteria right now and I could use a coffee.”

The other two nodded. “You…you’re inviting me…?”

“Yeah definitely.” Jessie nodded and looked like it was just…just normal to treat her normal.

“Uhm…okay…?”

They started walking to the cafeteria and the shorter guy with the cute smile looked over at her.

“Hey I’m Daniel can I carry your bag?”

She shyly passed it to him and nodded…her throat was tight and she wasn’t sure if she could trust her voice to speak without crying.

Was this for real?

People don’t treat bigger girls like her like this.

She blinked again as Dan and Jessie opened both cafeteria doors for her and the other girl.

Maybe this was real.

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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Honey was very surprised at being included with the group. They were really never the kind of people she’d thought she’d ever hang around with. Jessie the hero type, Daniel a seriously sweet guy so far and Johnny this cross dresser gay guy or girl that looked better than she did. She didn’t want to lump Johnny in with the “girls” like her on Maury or Jerry Springer.

They went into the cafeteria together and got one of the tables and the guys went over to the line up and came back with coffee’s and fresh made cookies. She smiled shyly taking a coffee and shook her head at the offered cookies.

“I can’t I don’t want to get fat…fatter.”

All three of them looked at them with cookies in their mouths. Johnny shoved the rest of her cookie into her mouth in one of those improbable mouthfuls and walked over and put her hands around her waist. Honey blinked in rapid succession them blushed.

Johnny stepped back and eyed her over making her nervous and finally washed that cookie down with some coffee. “You’re what a twenty six waist?”

“No…twenty eight.”

“Okay still that’s pretty good.”

“Good, that’s not good. I’m fat!”

“Please a twenty eight inch waist isn’t fat.”

“Yeah well you don’t get mooed at.” Honey sniffed and looked down.

Jessie fished his cookie and sipped his coffee and made a face. “I carried you Honey trust me you’re not heavy.”

She looked at him wide eyed and she blushed and a few of the kids around had caught that and were whispering and it all lent to Honey realizing that he had carried her from the parking lot into the nurses office and had even scolded them.

It was going to be all over school. Oh Lord it likely was.

Johnny looked at her. “No they call me freak or tranny or fag and a whole bunch of other nice things. Words hurt, of I know people just say to ignore them but they hurt because they hit us right in the worst spots we have. And that’s the way we see ourselves.”

Honey looked at her a little bit but then down again. She was feeling kind of bad because while she had her problems the other kids around here really had it out for her she supposed.

Jessie sat up actually on the bench styled table and took another cookie and looked at both of the girls.

“Everyone has self image problems and self confidence problems absolutely everyone and it’s alright and it’s normal because people are screwed up. Heck I think people are wonderfully screwed up and weird. It’s the ones that deny that and call themselves normal and feel the need to enforce conformity to the way that they seem to think normal and right is…those are the ones that you have to watch out for.”

Dan grinned. “Like bitchy alpha dogs like Britney.”

Jess grinned gesturing over to where she was holding her little court together all of them drinking waters and looking very good after what was most of the morning break re-preening, some still doing it. They seemed very interested in stuff on a laptop and on their phones.

“Exactly, she’s exactly the type. She needs to be reassured so badly that she’s the shit she surrounds herself with less strong willed versions of herself. They all aspire to be her or like her and they want to have someone’s approval because she’s “just sooo like cool.” that she brings them in and they’re so thrilled that she saw that they were one of the “cool kids” they worship her.”

Johnny smirked. “I think that’s why they call them cliques.”

Daniel snorts. “That’s because clique is more polite that calling them cults.”

Honey wasn’t even sure where it came from. “Like but we sooo like didn’t like drink the Kool-aid ‘cause it’s got like sugar in it and that’s like a carb yanno!”

They all cracked up laughing at her bimbo imitation and she was so surprised at that, that the laughed with her and that she even said something and she smiled as Jessie offered her one of the cookies. She took it and bit into it and it tasted better than she’d remembered cookies tasting like. It’d been awhile since she let herself even enjoy something like this without the guilt.

They kept talking and just talking all of them still new to the school except for Johnny who had transferred in last year but hadn’t gotten to go to a lot of classes because health reasons and Daniel knew a lot of the kids here in his gaming group because they all went to the same three or four hobby shops.

Honey had never really known anyone who had been to as many places as Jessie or spoke as many languages even though he admitted to not being actually fluent in any of them. It was even cool when the boys walked her and Johnny to their classes.

Johnny’s first since biology was closer and her accounting class was a bit further out. It was nice and even nice to see the stuff in her bag all cleaner up and wiped down and was there a dryer sheet in her bag? She sniffed. It smelled like one. She hadn’t really made friends since she had started to bud out and was very shortly singled out ever since.

Accounting, that was a safe class most of the kids that took it weren’t really the types that spared the time from their studies to harass other kids.

………………………………………………………..Jessie parted ways with Daniel as he went off to physics and Jessie headed to math. He wasn’t sure what exactly his whole high school plan was or even after he graduated but math classes were usually a good idea. Most things really wanted you to have good credits in math from going into sciences or going into a technical area like his dad they usually wanted math more than any other credits.

Jessie liked cars and machines and he’d really enjoyed working on the car with his dad this summer so he was leaning toward maybe mechanical engineering? And made a break in there somewhere to actually get his automotive mechanics license. He was good with his hands and his dad had said that there will never be enough people that really know what their doing with stuff like that.

Maybe work abroad like his dad did. Some of those places had been rough to live in and dangerous but most of them paid really well. Even Africa paid well it was just a lot of the time his dad worked to help others for free.

That gave him ideas and stuff about things he might do. Of course those things changed but dreaming and playing around with the possible kept you going.

He liked the class well enough and went from there to American history and then gym.

Gym class.

He knew it was coming and he saw the guidance councilor sitting up in the stands for the gym as he came in and there was someone else with her. He headed to the locker room when the coach stopped him.

“Hey Stone is it wait a second.”

“Yes sir?”

“You shouldn’t be going in there.”

“Excuse me?”

“Y’know with your condition. Are you even sure that you want to be taking gym at all son?”

“Yes sir I am certain that I want to take this class. Are you saying that you don’t want me in your class?”

“No, no nothing like that people come in all shapes and sizes and what not. Maybe it might be a better idea if you changed in my office given the circumstances?”

“Well that might be true but it won’t change a thing sir because sooner or later people will find out and the situation you are trying to avoid will happen anyway. Look I’m actually sorry that it’s going to happen in your class sir but it will have happened eventually.”

The coach blinked a few times and nodded. “Well that makes sense but maybe I should be in there to keep an eye on things?”

“No that will just make things worse actually. I don’t want or need any special treatment.”

The coach looked at him. Chewed on his moustache and slowly nodded again. “Okay…okay but I will be right outside this door.”

“That’d fine sir.”

“And it’s coach not sir.”

“Yes coach.”

Jessie took his bag and he headed into the locker room and there was the normal hustle and bustle of the guys getting changed. It was a lot different that the other times he’d been in a gym class. This was high school that means that you actually took gym as a class credit. Which meant that all the kids that were in this class wanted to be in this class.

He got a few looks and then he got a lot of looks as he took off his shoes and pants. He was sort of used to that too. He was above average but he wasn’t sure to what extent he was above average. It’s not something that was talked about in the other places he’s gone to school at especially after…

He took off his shirts and everyone saw his bra.

“Holy shit the new guys got titties.”

“Freak.”

“She-male!”

There was this tall built blonde athletic kid getting changed. “Dude, in here like what the fuck?”

That was better a WTF question he could answer. “I have something that’s called gynocomastia, it’s a kind of genetic thing that causes a glandular disorder that well…”

Jess gestured at his bra.

There were a couple of. “Yeah right!” and “Bullshit!” and of course. “You’re a freak and you hang out with that tranny freak!”

Of course the ones saying it were keeping back in the crowd that was gathering to watch and stare at him. Jessie looked at them and just like it was a regular thing unhooked his bra and took it off showing his small but actually very nice breasts to all the guys.

Okay maybe he sort of liked sending them into a tizzy. Yeah and tizzy was the right word.

He took out his sports bra and started to slide into it. “Look Johnny is a nice girl.”

“He’s no girl!” Someone in back shouted.

“Actually gender and sexuality is way more in the brain than just in your body. Johnny’s a girl to me if she feels like she’s a girl on the inside. And actually if some people here weren’t so freaked out and uptight about people just being people and different you all might find that she’s one of the nicest people that you’ll likely ever meet.”

That same voice that had just yelled spoke up again. “He’s going to hell and so are you god hates fags.”

“And I’m sure that you believe that but how about you keep your religious ideas to yourself and you can rest comfortably in the knowledge that when I die I’ll be cooking like an overdone meatloaf.”

“Jesus said all fags are going to hell!” The guy shouted back and Jessie could see some of the kids moving away from the boy and he was standing there looking very red faced and angry as were two of his friends.

“Actually that’s Old Testament Jesus never said anything about gay people.”

That didn’t look like it was sitting well with this guy and his friends and they had clenched jaws and fists. “Like you’ve read the bible freak.”

“Actually yes and I’ve worked with Christian missionaries in Zimbabwe and they didn’t have a problem with who I am.”
“Bullshit!”

“Give me your e-mail I’ll send you the pictures.”

The guy shut up and turned and stalked off with his friends and left the locker room cursing and they heard him yell outside the locker room. “Coach Flynn!”

The other guys were still shooting him looks and the big blonde guy that had asked what was up with his condition said. “Nice bruises, those from the fight online?”

“Fight online?” Jess gave him the eyebrow.

“Yeah it’s all over the school, you tube and the school’s Facebook page and it’s even on this page that’s exposing some of the shit that goes on here.”

“Really, well yes I got these in that little off the grounds scuffle with Keith. But I didn’t know that it was online.”

The guy tossed him his smart-phone after bringing it up. Jess watched it and he grinned. He especially grinned at the fact that whoever had set up this page had also put up this footage of the girls that had harassed Honey.

He showed that to the blonde guy. “Does the administration have a way of watching this?”

The guy got up and leaned over and showed him. “The school’s homepage and go to the guidance office tag and see where you can post stuff we just copy and paste the video like this…and they have it now.”

Jess smiled at the guy and passed him back the phone. “Thanks I’m Jessie Stone.” He offered his hand. The blonde jock nodded and shook hands with him and smiled back. “I’m Kenyon McLean.”

“Interesting name.”

The guy smiled and shook his head. “Yeah maybe but try going through school with a different name kids get great kicks out of trying to do the play on words thing.”

Jess nodded. “Jessie wasn’t exactly common in the countries that I lived in.”

“Yeah I can see that. Nice scars, what happened there.”

There was some more interest in that once they were mentioned and people looked. Jessie looked at Kenyon and the others. “I was living in Cape town when I started growing breasts and that didn’t go over too well with a bunch of kids that didn’t like me for that and some other things and they jumped me as a group and left me in a coma.”

“Shit…” and “Dude” and things like that were being repeated. Jessie looked at them all and sat down to put on his sneakers.

“They beat me just because I was different, because they could and because I upset what they thought was normal. The only difference really between them and Keith and the three that left here in the laws and the fact that while they might do something really nasty they’d get caught. There they just hit me and they were just going to fade into the wood work and the slums.”

“Dude that’s not right.” Some one said.

“No, it’s not and it’s happening all the time even here in this school.”

“Really?” He heard someone say.

He looked at them and showed them the bruises again.

“That was yesterday, it would’ve been worse with that Britney girl calling for my head if her boyfriend had have listened. How many people are just going to get crap from people who think they can just get away with things because they’ve always gotten away with things?”

Some of them were nodding and talking hushedly.

“Look this is for most of us our first year in a new school you don’t think that some of us are going to catch it from the older kids or the ones that have showed up here too with their little entourages?”

There were a few. “No’s and some mutters”

Jessie finished dressing. “Okay that just us talking about us here but what about the kids not here in this class. You all went to school with some of the kids that didn’t sign up for Phys. Ed. some of those kids were bullied too at your old schools and they’ll definitely get it here because while this is high school it’s also hell for some of these kids.”

He looked at them. “I almost ran into Honey this morning because she was being bullied and she was that broken hearted that she ran out blindly into the parking lot. She was nearly killed. She fell and that was an accident but just how long will it take before someone does it and it’s not an accident, or does something some other way?”

They were staring at him. Okay he might have taken this a little far. He leaned his back on the lockers and sighed. “Sorry…just sorry guys between being in a new school and a fight on my first day and this today I’m a bit would up. I just hate this shit.”

There were some voices saying. “Yeah…” and “Me too.” And a few. “It won’t matter nothing changes, they just keep getting away with it.”

Jessie smiled still with his eyes closed. “No, there’s that web page…we use that. Most of us have phones and most of them record video or take pictures we don’t even have to say who’s putting something up but if we see some thing messed up going on and for some reason we can’t stop it from happening record it. Post it and we let them hang themselves.”

There’s a few chuckles and murmurs. Jessie opened his eyes and headed out and smiled at them. It was a start, most of them won’t but some of them might tape and post some one being a douche to people and it would spread.

The worst of the bullies dragged other along in their wake. If they stopped because of them looking bad then that worked the sheeple would follow.

The worst ones he was pretty sure were like the top ten percent of the social groups. The ringleaders and the rest of them around these people were wannabe’s and followers. If it got to be where these people weren’t really all that cool then…

And the nest thing it they are that bad and vicious to others that they’d see no problem in jumping to socially attack one of their own when they got caught doing something wrong. It’s what they did, the pecking order as it were.

Kenyon stepped into place beside Jessie and looked at him. “You mentioned if we can’t stop something bad from happening? You’re not going to be recording things are you? You’re going to get involved aren’t you Jessie?”

Jessie gave him a side long look. “More than likely, it’s just not in me to let things slide and act like someone doing something shitty to just slide.”

……..Kenyon looked at Jessie. He wasn’t really that tall but not short a bit under six feet slender and wiry built too like a swimmer or a runner. Back hair that just came down to his shoulders…but he wasn’t really one of those guys that passed as a girl right off the bat or the classic chiseled guy either baby faced and just the average side of good looking really but what drew you in was the intensity of his personality.

He’d never been that intrigued by someone before.

He looked at Jessie again and asked. “So the beating really changed you huh?”

Jessie looked at him and there was this look sad yet something fierce there too and those eyes just sort of shone? “Yeah, they beat the indifference out of me.”

He’d never met anyone that talked like Jessie did.

“Yeah, I can see that…”

Jessie smiled and went into the gym. “So what sport do you play?”

Kenyon blinked. “Sport? No I don’t really play sports.”

He saw Jessie look him over and he felt kind of self conscious about it. “Uhm yeah no offense but you sort of look like one of the jocks.”

Kenyon blushed, he blushed he couldn’t believe he was blushing around a guy. “Uhm no I started in on my growth spurt last year and instead of being like the rest of the guys in my family and being all tall and lanky I hit the weights and got into a bit of body building over the summer. Well that and getting a summer job.”

“Oh what did you do?”

“Construction.”

“Isn’t that a union thing?”

“My dad runs a small company so I spent most of the summer doing stuff like shoveling concrete or cement or sand or gravel and carting wheelbarrows of bricks and stuff for the guys that worked for dad.”

“That’d do it.”

“Thanks…I guess.”

Gym class was pretty tame just actually a mixture of the coach running them through all the general fitness stuff then going over the course work. Kenyon was surprised at there being course work and so were a lot of the students that took the class as a gimme class. It turns out that they’d be learning about sports rules and mechanics as well as learning what kinds of rules there’d be for tournaments and stuff along with some sports history.

And there were class fees for the away trips. Since there was a swimming requirement and they’d be trying different sports throughout the year.

Who knew that some people thought that bowling and golf and canoeing were sports?

Jessie was sort of the talk of the class when they were doing the physical stuff like laps. The stuff he said was being passed around but not as much as the fact that Jessie had breasts.

That he had breasts and he’d changed with the guys. It was sort of actually less of a deal with the guys as some most of them had sort of gotten over the freaking out part of Jessie getting changed and stuff but the girls were all talking and whispering about it.

He had to admit Jessie definitely had stirred things up here. He was pretty sure that he was actually like this school and that things here might be really interesting.

After class and hitting the showers was an experience and even if the freaking out part was less than it was there were still tons of stares from people watching Jessie getting showered.

The three churchy guys were not happy the entire time and had spent part of class with some girls that looked pretty scandalized by Jessie having breasts and being in the changing room with the guys and at the end of class they’d trooped over to this lady that had been watching the class and had been sitting up in the stands.

There was definitely going to be trouble coming. He really didn’t like the looks they were giving Jessie either and there was no way he’d let a bunch of people try something like what had happened to him before.

Jessie…He liked him, a lot.

He was actually surprised when Jessie walked up to him as they were getting out of class. “Plans for lunch?”

“Uhm no actually.”

“Well c’mon and join me and the rest their good people you’ll fit right in.”

He blushed. Nobody had said that kind of thing to him before. That he was good people or that he’d fit right in.

“Sure I’d like that.”

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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They headed to the parking lot out to Jessie’s car and he smiled at the confused look on Kenyon’s face. “I thought we were getting lunch?”

Jessie smiled and took the things from the trunk and headed back inside through the cafeteria doors and set out some chinette bowls and he took out two cans of the chicken stew he had bought and the sliced bread from the grocery store getting looks from everyone there but Johnny.

She smiled at him and reached in the bag and took out some of the rest of the things and set their table. Dan smiled and shook his head but took the packets of the Uncle Bens ready to heat rice to the microwaves with Jessie and they came back with the rice and the chicken stew in to mismatched Tupperware containers and they all sat and ate with the bread and some slices of tomatoes and they were getting a lot of looks.

Kenyon looked at them. “You all do this a lot?”

Dan shook his head. “Nope first time.”

Jessie was putting stew over his rice and then spooning both into a slice of buttered bread. “My mom told me that you can save a lot more money sometimes getting things for lunch and heating them up from a grocery store that paying the prices here. She did the same thing at her school I guess.”

Johnny smiled. “I think it’s a cool idea and we should maybe chip in to this maybe like a lunch kitty and then maybe go shopping together sometime?”

There were a few nods and Honey was eating a little bit really the smallest portion in the group. “Are you sure we’re not going to get in trouble? I mean isn’t this like eating someplace else’s food in another restaurant.”

Jess shook his head. “We’re just heating things up and they can’t be making rules against us actually doing it as a group of setting a table.”

There were a lot of stares Jessie noticed; mostly being aimed at him out of the group. He was pretty sure that word had gotten out about him and how he was from gym class. He looked at the others. “I think I just went viral?”

Johnny nodded. “I heard on my way here about it and no one really talks to me.”

Honey was blushing a deep red. “S..so..it’s true? You have…” and she shut up but waved her hand in front of her breasts.

Jessie nodded finished eating the slice of bread. “It’s called Gynocomastia and I do have breasts.”

Dan laughed. “And you being the shameless hussy you are flashed all of the boys in the locker room.”

Jessie laughed. “Maybe I was trying to keep up with the Barbie girls over there.” He gestured with a thumb at some of the ones that Britney was sitting with and they had a bigger entourage over there than even looked normal. And they all sort of stopped talking and stared at their table when Jessie made the gesture.

He smiled and finger waved at them earning him a bunch of dirty looks. He turned and looked back at the others. “I imagine I’m very much the talk of things over there.”

Johnny nodded. “I think Britney might just about hate you more than she hates me.”

Dan cackled. “Oh and don’t forget Keith and company getting their butts handed to them by a guy with boobs.”

Kenyon looked at them. “Well if that’s the case we should be careful. These are the kind of people that used to love to stuff me into my locker with a bag of dirty jock straps.”

The others at the table stared at him. Jessie grinned. “He had a growth spurt.”

Jess looked over to Honey. “See, you’re not going to be alone about getting teased over your breasts.”

She blushed and nodded. “At least yours are small.”

“They’re pretty big on a guy.” He said.

Kenyon was blushing at the talk at the table and he just couldn’t shake the sight from the locker room out of his mind.

Keith and his friends went passed sneering which had to hurt with a broken nose. “Fucking trannies.” The other two said. “Freaks.” And “Fags.” Looking like they had some reason to be morally better than the kids sitting together.

Daniel grinned at them then half stood and made kissy faces at them. They nearly stopped getting mad and Jess looked at them and more at Keith and stared. Keith grumbled something more than likely insulting but moved on.

They talked a bit about just stuff like what they might do on the weekend since Jessie wanted to see some of the sights and stuff around town or some of the local spots. They sort of ignored the stares and a few of the snide comments that were getting tossed their way from some of the kids. Some of them doing it only because the whole nasty alpha body of the popular kids were all talking about them.

Three girls went past and made faces at honey as she was eating a spoonful of her lunch. “Moo…Mooo…why don’t you get a trough?”

She stared at them turning red and almost spat the food out but Jess shook his head and without even blinking Johnny said. “Hey why don’t you try eating a fucking sandwich?”

They stopped and blinked like they just had this WTF moment about someone actually talking back to them. The one that said it glared at Johnny. “Why don’t you mind you own business tranny freak.”

Johnny looked over and then she looked them up and down. Then she started laughing at them really hard even to the point of giggling.

They glared as a group and Johnny leaned over and took some bread and butter and slid in some tomato slices and made a sandwich and stood up and offered it to them. “Come on, come on eat something you’ll feel better and you’ll be less yappy.”

“Yappy? What the hell? Are you saying I’m a fucking dog or something?”

Honey had it out of her mouth before she even realized that she was saying it instead of thinking it. “Well you sound like a bunch of chiwawas.”

The girl looked at her with this expression like a bug just talked to her. She pointed at Honey. “You shut your fucking mouth you fat ass.” Then rounded on Johnny. “And you…”

“Suzanne…” Johnny tried to interrupt her.

“No..you shut the fuck up…”

“You might want to shut up….” Johnny sort of sang to her.

“You Never get to tell me to shut up you fucking tranny slut, you’re a freak and your day’s coming too.”

There was a loud cough. “Miss Winslow! That’s more than enough. Would you and Miss Roberts and Miss Young please come with me and the officer to the office?”

There was a black man in a grey colored suit and shaved head with a trim beard and moustache there with the security officer from earlier. He did not look amused.

Suzanne turned and looked shocked and surprised with her eyes going wide at the sight of him and realizing he was there for most of her tirade. “I…I…they started it?”

“Really, I’m not to sure about that given the earlier activities of the three of you this morning.”

“Th…This morning?”

He held up a tablet and it showed in the schools Facebook Page her and her two friends both sabotaging Honey’s locker and making the rude and bullying comments and their laughter.

Suzanne blanched at seeing herself and her friends caught red handed.

“Mr. McClellan I can explain…”

“Good you can explain at the office, now march.”

He pointed and the three shuffled off trying to look as meek as they could and they even started to cry. Mr. McClellan looked the group over and then at Johnny. “Would you like to file a complaint against these girls for what they had just said?”

Jessie looked at her and coughed and she looked at him and he nodded. The looked at Honey who looked nervous. Johnny bit her lower lip and nodded. “Yes I do and they had started the mooing up again while we were eating lunch.” She looked at Honey and nodded. Honey looked at the others who all nodded. She took a deep breath. “I want to file bullying and harassment complaints sir.”

He nodded and smiled at them. “Very well then you girls get your things and follow me to the office. Mr. Stone you as well please.”

“Sir?”

“You and I need to have a chat.”

“Certainly sir.”

Jessie got up and passed Dan the keys to his car. “If you can put the stuff in there?”

“Sure, no problem.”

Dan and Kenyon watched as the others went and some of the kids from the gamers table went over and sat down. “Yo Jackson, what’s going on? You’re hanging out with these guys now?”

“Hey I can have other friends outside the gaming group guys, chill their good people.”

Kenyon looked at them five or six people. “Why? What’s up with calling us these guys?”

“Whoa big dude nothing, we’re just asking.” It was this black kid that was asking the one that had held onto Jess’s jacket when Dan helped Jessie out the other day.

Dan grinned. “Kenyon chill they are just asking, Donnie trust me you’ll actually like them.”

“Even that uhm Johnny person?”

“Actually Johnny is a pretty sweet girl if people’d give her a chance. Honey too, shy but really nice.”

“Really…? So uhm do you think….”

“Think What?” Dan asked. “You want me to fix you up or something Donnie?”

Another one a skinned blonde crew cutted kid with braces spoke up. “You’d think they’d be into like rolling up some characters?”

Kenyon laughed it was just so….geeky, like the halo night episode of The Big Bang Theory... Dan even got a chuckle. “You guys all come over here and hang out with us or we’ll come over there and we’ll talk about seeing if the girls might be interested.”

They looked at Kenyon who shrugged. “I’ve never played any of that stuff before but hey I’ll try something new. I could definitely try to pick up some of the lingo at least.”

The skinny blonde kid with the braces…. Patrick grinned and went and got his book bags and he had one for his class stuff and another full of these gaming books? Dungeons and Dragons…he spent most of the rest of lunch looking over the books and really mostly at the art and thought that it looked interesting enough.

“Hey I’ll play of the others want to, so do we do this after school sometimes?”

“Sometimes like on the weekends.” Dan said.

“Cool we can do it at my place sometime then.”

“All of us?”

“Yeah we have a big place with dad being in construction and there’s a kids den built in back of our garage.”

They looked at him. “A kids den?” Donnie asked.

“Yeah my parents wanted a space for us during the winter and stuff to do things in so we wouldn’t be under foot in the house all the time.”

They all started talking about all of the stuff that they could do and the fact they had a big screen TV and stuff and video games and stuff and Kenyon was actually smiling a lot. These were sort of the kind of kids that he knew a bit back in his old school only he was more of a geek when it came to music and rock and roll that comics and D&D games and stuff.

They were still way more the kind of kids that would be the crowd he would like to hang out with given the choice. Well before he would have likely have tried to maybe fit in with some of the sporty kids or the jocks where he had changed and worked out so hard all summer.

He had wanted a girlfriend in the baddest way.

He looked over at where Jessie had been sitting and closed his eyes a moment and just pictured Jessie in the locker room getting changed again. He just didn’t get it? He did, like Jessie couldn’t help having the breasts or…

He was stiff…in an embarrassing way and a bit flushed and took a long swallow of his Pepsi to try and wet his suddenly dry mouth.

He jumped when his phone went off. He took it out and saw the others actually most of the kids in the cafeteria doing the same. He saw the video posted and reposted of that Suzanne girl and her two friends being that mean to Honey and them opening the containers of soured milk making faces at the smell and shoving straws in so they could squirt it into her locker.

They were saying things about her being a dumb cow, or a fatty, or a big titted bitch and how she needed to get them either cut off or gain another fifty pounds so peopled stop staring at her.

Kenyon looked around and most of the kids were watching it and saving it and sharing it. Dan nudged Kenyon and nodded toward the alpha tables where almost all of them were watching and there were a lot of them not amused.

Another video popped up this time with tow of the basketball players and it was a repeated loop shot of them pushing a junior into a locker over and over again and locking it. The two in question didn’t look amused and they got up and left the cafeteria in a hurry and headed out to the parking lot.

Again another plug to the webpage with the real truth about the school came up.

There were several members of the alpha tables on their phones looking grim and pissed off.

………………………….Nick watched from where he usually ate in the middle tables but tucked into the corner facing the popular kid’s tables. It was a pretty safe spot. The bench tables in the cafeteria were the ones that folded into the wall in case of other events and it was because the table was attached to the wall that he felt safe. There was just too much bother for the real predators of the school to bother going all the way there to antagonize him usually.

He kept putting up the links to the page he made as some people were trying to delete some of the stuff he had put up. Mostly though he didn’t have to. It was getting spread around by the other kids in the whole viral like and share way.

Tony Marks and Rick Scott had shoved the junior during morning break just like they had done all the time being all big shots and proving they were these big men that they could do that two on one no less to a kid that was half the size of one of them.

And Suzanne…she was hopefully going to get what she deserved for being a bully. Nick hated that, hated bullies and he hated the female ones almost more that the guys. He didn’t get people much but he could even see that they liked hurting the feelings of girls that they thought weren’t as good as them or in Honey’s case…like they said they wished she’d gain enough weight to not be noticed anymore.

Jealous and petty and just plain nasty, girls like those hurt people a lot more that just getting beaten up sometimes.

He added a link to his page for Voluptuous Vixens page on Facebook to the link with Suzanne and her bullying. It was a good page all about self empowerment for bigger girls, well them and all women really. It was still something that he thought might be a good thing though.

With his stutter and speech issues he really understood low self esteem.

…………………………………. Jessie sat in the office of Mr. McClellan he was the VP of the school and the man looked like he was still on edge. He had dealt with the Suzanne person and he’d taken the complaints of the girls and had the three girls that had messed with Honey in a separate room in the whole office area.

He looked at the VP and asked. “So why did you need to see me? You were there when the three of them started their stuff in the cafeteria.”

“I just want to talk to you about a few things.”

“Like?”

“Like the fight you had yesterday.”

“What about it?”

“Why did you even get into the fight in the first place and not report what Keith had said and done to the office?”

“Why are you asking me a question that you already know the answer to?”

“Excuse me?”

“You know if I had come and made the complaint that it would be my word against Keith’s and that he had other people to chime in about that as well and from that standpoint there is nothing that you could do but make an incident report without proof in his school file.”

“That’s not the point; you really should have reported it.”

“Yes and I’d be tagged as a rat and like I said it wouldn’t have any effect on what they would try and do. This way I met him off the school grounds and I was defending myself.”

“You hurt all three of those boys pretty badly. Their parents were less that pleased.”

“My ribs are less than pleased but they know that there’s a definite line there with me that they can’t cross without me fighting back.”

“Their parents want you charged or expelled.”

“They do that’s fine but my actions were off the school grounds and there’s a recording or several going around that show what happened. I think that my lawyers would have a good time with that and with the school.”

“The school?”

“Reckless endangerment.”

“Excuse me?”

“There’s no surveillance cameras in the hallways.”

“We’re not allowed to put them up because it would be an invasion of privacy?”

“So can you search lockers?”

“Yes…”

“Than seeing as the lockers are in the halls and there’s no expectation of privacy there then I think you could trump that legal threat.”

“No, we can’t the whole privacy thing is a really hot button issue with people here. No one likes too much Big Brother.”

“And what about the safety of the students?”

“We argued that point and the school board wanted to be politically correct.”

“Great logic in the Columbine era.”

“Hey…” He stared at Jessie. “Mr. Stone…”

Jessie raised his hands. “No I’m not going there I’m just voicing my concern about getting shot by a teen that has been bullied once too often and snaps because there was no safety net in place to prevent the students from getting bullied.”

“I’d like to have one, I’d like to have the cameras in place but my hands are tied. We can’t circumvent the school board.”

“Oh you can but are you willing to put up the fight to get what needs done, done.”

He sighed. “I’m only the vice principal.”

“No body is only anything sir, isn’t that what you’re supposed to be teaching us?”

“I will bring it up ant the next parent teacher association meetings and see about revisiting it with the school board.”

“Good speaking as a student I really appreciate that.”

“Now…”

“Now?”

“I heard from a few parents today that you showed your breasts in the locker room?”

“I was getting changed yes.”

“And you showed your breasts to the rest of the boys in the locker room.”

“As I said I was getting changed, I saw the breasts of other boys as well.”

“They don’t require a bra Mr. Stone.”

“Well sir some should trust me, I was not the most ample of the boys there.”

The VP had to stop and cough; Jess smiled and raised an eyebrow.

“Would you consider changing in a separate room or even the coach’s office?”

“No, not at all. I’m a male and I’m entitled to use the male facilities just like every other guy my medical condition should not be a factor here. I’ve already had this talk with the guidance councillor.”

“There’s been complaints.”

“I’m sure there have been but I’m within my rights again sir.”

He sighed. “Yes, yes you are.”

“Thank you sir. Is there anything else?”

“I also heard that you gave a little speech in the locker room advocating the use of camera phones to record bad behaviour in the school?”

“Yes sir I did.”

“Why?”

“You already know the answer to that sir.”

He sighed again. “Are you trying to cause trouble Stone?”

“No sir but when there’s things that just aren’t right going on sir that I can do something about you will see me sir doing something about them.”

“What do you mean by that if you please?”

Jessie shrugged. “It will likely be me doing something different every time sir really but I will give you my word I will try to never break the rules set down by the school.”

He sighed again. “You do know that there are parents already calling and throwing fits over the site and the Face book page.”

“I’d assume as much sir; I believe the saying goes the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree?”

“Do you know who’s responsible for the site and the page?”

“No sir.”

“Would you tell me if you did?”

“No sir, I’d never violate another person’s first amendment rights.”

He looked at Jessie. “Alright, you can go Mr. Stone; just remember that I’ll be keeping an eye on you.”

Jessie looked at him and got up and straightened his clothes. “Excellent then I take it we will be getting the cameras in the halls then?”

“Stone….” He pointed at the door.

“Thank you sir it was a good discussion that we had I think.”

“Yes, have a good afternoon Mr. Stone and please stop and get a pass before heading back to your classes.”

Jessie left and smiled as both Johnny and Honey had stayed and waited for him to get out of the office.

“You okay?” Johnny asked.

“I’m fine, I just apparently made a lot of waves and the VP doesn’t like the boat being rocked.”

Johnny looked at him. “What’d you do?”

“Nothing just never let him rattle me. There’s nothing he could do really.”

“But you got him angry?”

“No…not really but he’s not looking forward to me being here.”

“Why?”

“Because he knows without a doubt that I won’t back down from him or the parents of the kids that make this place a shitty school to go to for a lot of kids. He knows that and knows that I know enough that he can’t just get rid of me either.”

“How?”

“I read, and wanted to have my rights protected because of my condition. Me and my parents knew there might be legal stuff that might happen with it.”

“So he tried to make you?”

“No, he asked me to change elsewhere but I’m not giving the people that can’t handle it the satisfaction.”

Johnny looked at him. “That’s pretty brave.”

“Well no just tired of the BS and besides if they get used to me then they might get more used to you.”

Johnny laughed. “Sure and they’ll talk to me and want to be my friends because I’m so pretty.”

“You are.” Jessie and Honey said together and smiled at each other then her.

Johnny blushed. “Yeah whatev’s let’s get to class okay?”

Jessie smiled and escorted them to their classed giving the security guy a smile and a nod as the left the office.

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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The rest of the day went for Jessie fairly smoothly and quietly and the group gathered out in the parking lot after school except for Kenyon who took a few minutes to go and bring his car over from where he was parked.

He got out of the car looking visibly upset. It sort of matched the folded over arms the others had staring at Jessie’s car.

Kenyon’s Camry had been scratched as in keyed all down along the side and freak had been scratched into the back lid of his trunk. He got out and he slammed the door. “Goddamn it! Those fucking assholes!”

He turned around and stared at the damage and shook he was that angry. “I just got this car this summer! I saved up all year!”

Daniel had his phone out and was taking pictures and Jessie was shaking his head. His own car had been keyed too pretty badly. He wasn’t as upset as Kenyon was over it though since his car had a pretty basic paint job compared to the factory paint that was ruined on Kenyon’s car.

Johnny looked mad and was wiping away angry tears. “Assholes…guys this was because you’re hanging out with me.”

Jessie shook his head. “No, we didn’t do anything wrong and this is only the start of their shit.”

He dialled the school security office. “Hello, this is Jessie Stone I’d like to put in a report of vandalism here in the school parking lot…..Yesh that Mr. Stone, fine we’ll be right here waiting.”

He then scrolled through the phone app to get the number for the local police station and he called them as well. And sent and forwarded the pictures that he had taken of the damage to the car.

One of the security guards came out with the VP of the school with him and the VP look visibly pained at the damage to the two cars and walked around them and looked at the kids. “You have any idea who did this?”

“No sir.” Jessie said. “But if there we could look at the tapes of the cameras in the parking lot then we might be able to see who did it.”

“There are no cameras for the parking lot Mr. Stone.” He looked at Jessie and then he looked at the approaching police car that was slowly pulling in.

“You called the police?”

“Yes sir, you need to file a police report with something like this for purposes of insurance.”

“You have an answer for everything Mr. Stone?”

“No sir if I did then I wouldn’t be here to learn. Though I suppose this is an interesting lesson for the law classes and civics.” He said it pretty deadpan and Kenyon and Honey just stared at him saying something like that to the schools VP. Dan looked like he was close to laughing.

The police came over and asked them if this was where they’d been parked and one walked to look over where Kenyon had parked. While the other one took notes and names and addresses and then looked to the VP. “Okay you should show us the video footage of the parking lot cameras.”

“There are no parking lot cameras.” The VP said to the officer.

Jessie added in. “There’s no cameras in the school at all.”

He stopped and gave one of those cop looks at the VP. “There’s No cameras…in the entire school.”

“No why?”

The officer just stared at him a moment. “You need to get camera’s here sir, it’s important to the safety of the students and the faculty as well as the staff.”

“We’ve looked at getting them in and there’s been issues.”

“Like?”

“I’m afraid that’s school business officer and a legal matter that I’m not at liberty to discuss.”

Jessie looked at the police officer. “Some of the parents of the kids here filed an injunction or something against the school over the right to privacy.”

“It’s a public school.” The officer looked non-plussed.

Jessie smiled and shrugged. “I know, but what can you do?”

The police officer looked at him and the vice principal and there was an almost smile there. “I’m not sure what you can do son but I’ll make a note of it in the police report and you can maybe tell your insurance companies to settle the bill with the city or the school.”

The VP stared at the both of them before making a face, or trying to hide that he was making a face. “Thank you for coming by officers I’m sorry that we inconvenienced the two of you.”

“It’s our jobs to check this stuff out but you should be apologizing to the kids.”

“Yes officer.”

The police left getting back in their cruiser after giving their cards out and drove off and the VP stared at them all a bit before he headed inside saying. “Excuse me kids I have a report to file with this and a meeting with the principal and the guidance councillor.”

Jessie shrugged. “That’s alright sir we have things to do to.”

“Like….”

Jessie looked at him and blinked innocently a few times. “Why chores sir.”

Johnny smiled despite her being upset earlier. “Homework.”

Honey blushed and nodded.

Daniel grinned. “Roll up characters for a new game!”

He gave then all a look and looked at Kenyon who was still looking distraught. “I’m sorry this happened kids I really am.”

He walked away with the security guard who looked as frustrated as the other guard had been.

Kenyon looked at the others. “So what are we going to do?”

Jessie looked at them. ‘We got home and we actually tell our folks what happened.”

“Tell our folks?” He looked at Jessie.

“Yeah, they’ll deal with the insurance and the insurance companies will listen to them and what the officer told us before they’ll listen to us.”

“Huh?”

“They’re the adults and they can raise a fuss that won’t be as ignored as if we did it.”

“So, we’re going to let them fight our battles for us?” Kenyon looked at Jessie like he didn’t believe he was suggesting that.

“No, not at all but it’s just one way to fight this.”

“So we are going to fight this?”

Jessie smiled. “Oh without a doubt.”

Daniel smiled. “I’m in.”

Johnny nodded. “Me too.”

Even Honey piped up. “So what’s the plan?”

……………………………………………..That night Jessie sat and quietly went over everything that had happened and had been happening at school with his parents. His dad was quiet as usual and he listened while Jess’s mom was angry and indignant over everything that had happened and the blasé attitude that the school was showing in regards to the safety of the students in the school.

Jessie and his parents did talk for quite awhile that night about the whole thing both the school having no cameras and the fact that the public does get up in arms over the whole big brother thing and especially here in the United States.

They did agree that they would be talking strongly to their insurance company about this and to tell them what the police officer had said about asking about who’d be liable the school or the city since there was no cameras present and they hadn’t had any posted parking waver of responsibility signs.

He even showed them the schools Facebook page and the other web page which had…

There was a new video with iffy sound and take from a bad angle but it was the whole scene with Jessie and his friends and the VP and the police. This one came with a written tag.

[And now we get to see why there’s never anything done to the people that we all know and despise that pull this shit off everyday. We know that the administration of this school has no backbone to fight a legal battle with the parents of the elite few. There are people in this school that think because they have money or influence that the rules don’t apply to them. Well we’re getting sick and tired of being harassed and bullied and hurt by people like these. This is just one case of the bullshit that’s been pervading our school like a venereal disease there are hundreds more. If you have one please feel free to post it we don’t need names we just want the truth here.]

Jessie blushed because there was under the video clip of him and the other’s was a caption reading.

“Three time’s in two days there’s been someone not taking their shit and look what the response is…Good job Jess Stone.”

His mom looked at him. “You know this person?”

“No, I have no idea who they are but they’ll be in trouble if people ever find out. They’ve made a lot of the people that don’t want things to change really mad it was like someone kicked over an ants nest at lunch today.”

She looked at her son, her only child and one she came too close to losing. “Jessie I don’t like this, they’ve pointed you out and you could be in trouble and there was that fight.”

He nodded. “I’m not alone this time Mom, and the abuse was going to come when they found out about me anyway.”

She hugged him. “I know, just…be really careful.”

“I will.” He hugged her back and then he and his dad went out to the garage to wait for the insurance agent to show up.

………………………………..Dan sat at the supper table explaining everything that had been going on in school to his parents and even though both were busy working parents they still took the time to sit and to listen and both of them agreed that they’d be there at the next school board meeting to voice their concern over the lack of security cameras in the school, especially in these days when things like Columbine happened far more than they should.

That part in place he called some of his friends that went to some different schools. He had a decent little network of friends and gamers and geeks that he’d known for years between middle school and going to some of the city’s gaming conventions.

Each one of the conversations on the phone or online went something like.

“Hey __________ what’s up?”

“Fine dude how’s stuff at school?”

“Crappy but way outside the usual. I’m going to send you a couple of links.”

“Okay, cool what about?”

“The high and mighty are gonna fall dude we’re in a revolution.”

“A revolution?”
“Yeah, see the school royal asshats sicced their lawyers on the school and got the security cameras banned there because of privacy issues.”

“Cool!”

“No….not cool, think about some of the asshats like Andy Parsons from middle school only without any chance of him getting caught then give him a pack of ass kissing hyenas.”

“Shit…okay not so cool.”

Andy Parson’s was a thug from Dan’s middle school he had the best of everything and it still wasn’t enough he had to make himself even feel bigger by kicking the crap out of the kids that were weaker and smaller than him. He had thankfully moved away in the second year of middle school but he had been a force of abject terror for kids Dan’s size.

But thanks to Andy Dan had a pretty decent threshold for pain and an ever shrinking one for bullshit.

The friends watched the stuff and seen the links and replied. “Shit it is pretty freaky over there, your buddy Jessie rocks though.”

“Yeah he’s pretty cool but there’s reasons why he isn’t taking anyone’s shit too. But we need some help.”

“Name it dude.”

“Go to school and take pictures of the name of the school you go to and the security stuff like the metal detectors and the cameras and stuff. Then post them up to the links.”

“Oh…cool I get it using the fact that our schools have this stuff to break up the reasons why you guys don’t.”

“Yeah that’s the plan.”

“Cool we’re in, talk at you later.”

Dan spent most of the time doing the calls and online with his friends squeaking in some time for homework and starting to work on a new scenario for his gaming group or what might be his new gaming group but instead of D&D he dug out his books for GURPS and started making a scenario of a Chicago when the earth had been hit by a plague and their rescue came from an alien race that had finally shown itself to them in their darkest hour only to use that fact to take over Earth politically and financially. He had a picture of this alien nobility being like the snobs and abusers that the high school assholes were. It would be a great theme for their group.

………………………………Johnny talked with her dad about the stuff that was going on in the school and the reactions that she was still getting though not as bad or as violent as what had happened before.

Her father wasn’t happy about the fact there were no cameras and instead of just saying that he was going to be at the school board meeting he also got onto the phone with his lawyer that he had hired when Johnny was assaulted and put in the hospital.

Between her and Jessie and the things they had going on in their lives he wanted his lawyer ready when things got ugly. He didn’t like some of the stuff on the website or that Facebook page and neither did his lawyer who said that she would pass this story on to some people that would make sure that this was going to be seen before it was swept under the rug.

She spent the rest of the night up and thinking about what might come and while scared she wasn’t nearly as alone as she was in the last few years.

………………………………..Honey had very quietly asked her mom to look at the link for the sites and the Facebook page while she did the dishes. She really didn’t know what to say about all of this since it had all happened so fast today and she never did stuff like this…get involved or stand up for herself.

Her mom came into the kitchen and hugged her who made both of them all sniffly and teary and they sat and talked a long time over Mexican hot chocolate in the living room about what’s been going on with her.

She cried a lot as she finally started to open up about how long she’d been bullied for and how her hitting puberty like she did had he lose so many of her friends.

Her mother surprised her over the fact she laughed at Johnny and the sandwich bit with the mean girls and she was very tolerant and understanding over Johnny being a trans-girl and Jessie’s condition. Her mom was a lot different than she’d thought and it had turned out to be the longest talk they had ever had since she had started to develop and change.

………………………………….Kenyon had done the same thing with his parents as Jessie. His dad blew his stack over everything and got a hold of the insurance guy but he was stomping around the house with a full mad on and several beers into him and going off on how the namby-pamby rich set think they’re better than everyone else and how he was going to give them a good fucking blasting at the school board meeting.

Then without needing the push he went off on there being guns and knives and all sorts of shit in schools now a days.

Yeah his dad was sort of a good guy but he was very blue collar and angry at some of the stuff that went on with people with money. Kenyon’s family came up pretty hard from South Chicago and he’d worked as he said too many jobs for these look down on you types to let them get away with their bullshit in a public school. And if they wanted to play king of the effing castle then they can do it in a private school.

The thing was that as good as a mad on as his dad was getting and the more he went on and on about this the more he could see him losing his cool if he…

Good guy or not there was and is a whole world of difference when you think you might be gay…and are watching one of your parents blowing up over something that wasn’t about that…

What would his dad do if he found out?

It really didn’t hit Kenyon until alone in his older brother Dean’s room while working on the weights that he just…

He just might have admitted…even to himself that he might, might be gay.

He hung the free weights up on the bar and put his hands over his face. “Oh fuck…oh fuck…oh fuck...i can’t be…no…no...I can’t be gay.”

……………………………….Nick sat on his bed and he watched as there were ever growing hits and posts to his web page and there had been a few attempts by people to close it down but they weren’t really good at this and they weren’t government or the server company and just some people that he was pretty sure that he knew.

One was the computer sciences teacher at the school and he knew that because he recognized the schools IP addy. They were trying to do damage control and take stuff down as fast as other people were putting things up.

Thet actually pulled the plug on the school newspaper’s web page and the school’s Facebook page and they were still trying to get access to his web page and he was booting them each time that they tried. In the end none of it had helped them as things from both the school paper’s page and the schools Facebook page were going up on his web page thanks to screen captures.

The best that they were able to do was to threaten and troll his page and some of the rants and the diatribes that were going off as replies he tracked the IP addy’s of and added it to a list of the people in the school that he was going to look out for and keep eyes on.

But he let them troll, he saved everything but he let them troll because the way that they were talking about people and losers and even accusing him/the Webpage’s admin of being a domestic terrorist and a liberal and a commie and all the other responses that had become the language of the bullies and thugs in society today.

All he did was watch and read and respond and send off links to other pages on Facebook that stood up for people, there was a lot of those too.

He might not know people in RL and he might not be able to talk to people like others did but here, here things were different here he was on equal ground power wise with the guys that beat you just for looking different or sounding different.

He wasn’t just mad about the stuff that had been done to him and others but it was like there was this mountain of bullshit piled way too high and all the people who just were trapped by the weight of it had this new kid Jessie Stone that just walked up and kicked the manure pile just hard enough that it sent all of that crap falling and setting them free.

Or rather showing them they could be free.

Actually Jessie gave him this whole look into people actually existing that gave a shit and didn’t suck.

Having a cause for the first time in your life changes things.

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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It was foggy from the steam in the shower and they were alone after having put some of the equipment away for the gym coach. He walked into the showers and he was already in there…Jessie…he looked so exotic, so erotic lightly tanned all over that tight body with that cute butt and even those breasts…they didn’t look out of place on him for some reason…pert, nice…and not big enough to be scary enough to freak him out.

Jess turned and smiled and sort of in this sweet shy way and wiped the wet hair from his eyes and pulled him into an arms around his neck embrace…then kissed him sweetly. Their stiffened cocks touching and rubbing together and it was hot so hot and Jess was so, big, so very, very big it made his so hard that he felt like he was going to burst from so much blood and adrenaline pumping through his own.

Then Jessie touched his…took it in his hand and started to kiss him while stroking him, touching him, the palm of his hand even slipping up over the head of his penis and used the pre-cum to lube that palm and the water to rotate around the sensitive helmet a few times.

Kenyon gasped and arched off the bed as he came…it was…he was asleep and this was a dream…oh god it was such a hot dream…and he humped at his hand it almost hurting soooo good coming out in him like he’d never felt in all the times that he had handled his own situation.

He fell back panting on the bed seeing spots and covered in sweat.

A wet dream, oh goddamn it, it had been a wet dream…about another guy…he was gay…why…he had worked out so hard tried to get so buff to get a girlfriend and he was thinking about another guy…about another guy’s…he felt like crying, he felt ashamed too…just.

He couldn’t be gay…it wasn’t right. None of his brothers were gay….no one in his family were gay.

His dad was going to freak the hell out if he found out.

What was he going to do?

He got cleaned up and took his sheets to the washer and dryer in the garage and he went to his brother’s room. He was off at college in Tampa so he and his dad sort of used it as a place to work out since Scott had all the stuff anyways.

He strapped the bow flex together and he started to work out and tried to get the thoughts out of his mind.

………………………..Daniel woke with his computer playing his Queen Mix starting with Bohemian Rhapsody…and things going from there. His coffee maker was on a timer and so was the microwave too. Way too little sleep being online with everyone and getting things planned and he rolled out of bed and sang along with the song and even sort of opera conducting with them as they got into the “He’s just a poor boy from a poor family…”

He used a non-mint tooth paste, because toothpaste mouth and just about anything was mouth-death.

There was a thumping on his wall. “Turn it down! It’s too early for this shit!”

He yelled out his door. “It’s Queen, that’s your generation! Stop being old!”

His dad yelled back. “I’m not old!”

“Good!” He yelled back and he turned up the volume and switched songs. The Pink Floyd song with “We don’t need no education…” started playing. He grabbed his clothes and the pizza pop and the toaster strudel and took them with him in the bathroom

…………………………..Johnny woke early thanks to her alarm clock and turned on her computer and went through her morning routine. Some downloaded shows from You Tube with some yoga and then some aerobics and then she did thirty hard minutes on her bike before going to shower.

She checked herself for stray hairs and checked her face and sugared off some of the fine hairs that were coming in. Thankfully she’d been on a blocker before the evil-T ripped through her too badly and she worked hard at keeping up a routine that got rid of the few hairs still struggling to sprout. She did it everyday though like it was a prayer. She had nightmares sometimes of the blocker not being enough and her getting a hairy backlash from everything.

Hair and clothes and her gaff to tuck her outtie bit away. There were days she hated it, there were days that it was just there. Today was like most just one of those just there days. Just something she had to live with but wasn’t too sure that she wanted it gone…the surgery and the stories that she’d read about transitioning made her as scared of going through with it as much as she wanted it.

She sighed a little at her flatness and there was just a little puffiness her doctor told her was from her body actually making and processing the small bits of E that it did naturally. She so wanted her own breasts, heck at the moment she’d love to have some of those better breast forms rather than the ones she was using now.

“It’d be so nice to be able to actually have some real cleavage.”

She slipped into her room and got dressed these really awesome skinny jeans she had bought with her mom at American Eagle and she went with a nice pink lycra sporty tee with a modest neck and a cropped bottom that showed off her navel and this great stressed denim cropped jacket that she had bought at The Gap and a cute pair of clogs that’s go with her shoulder bag.

She did her make up the last; she wanted it as fresh as possible so she looked good even though a lot of girls did it in a different order. Very lightly with the mascara and eyeliner a touch of shadow and a really great liquid foundation that her dad had bought her even if he had no clue what she was talking about he still got it for her and he even didn’t care that it was pretty pricy stuff at nearly twenty five dollars a tube.

She finished with just a tiny dab of perfume and she loved her perfume. Her dad didn’t know much but all her perfumes he got on the card and he had said that she deserved better that junk.

So she was wearing just a little of Nina Ricci’s L’air Du Temps and she smiled. As much as she had her issues there was nothing like looking good and feeling good to make the day start off right.

She went down stairs and started breakfast and smiled as her mom came in from the night shift. “Mmm so what are you making honey?” she hugged her mom back as she was hugged and they lingered together. She crinkled her nose a little though after a few minutes, the sterile gel they use was still lingering on her plus a few other oogy smells.

“Omelet’s? They sound okay?”

“I love you cooking honey just as long as it’s not your dad’s.”

“Oh jeeze don’t remind me he made cream peas the other night and he turned it into a flour blob brick with peas inside of it that got baked onto the pot.”

Her mom made a face. “Eww, I think I’ll just have a seat.”

Johnny beat the eggs into a smooth mixture and she took some butter, real butter and added it to the stoneware skillet then she poured in the eggs just as the butter melted and just before it was going to brown and swirled the pan to spread it evenly then took it off the heat while she took out some brie and some shaved black forest ham from the fridge and put the eggs back on as she cut off the rind from the cheese. Taking the eggs off let the heat of the pan still keep them cooking from the heat of the pan without the eggs getting too browned and ruined. Now they were firming up she turned the heat down and laid in the thin pieces of the cheese and waited until they just started to melt and layered on some of the ham. A few more minutes and she used the egg turner and flipped it over on itself in the classic French half circle way.

Just enough time she made two pieces of toast and served her mom some breakfast. She smiled as her mom beamed and ate putting some of the omelet on the toast.

“You’re going to make some lucky guy a great wife someday honey.”

Johnny hugged herself smiling after pouring hers into the pan. “I just want the same things mom…I mean I think so…There’s times that I’m really scared of going on with this but there’s other times, there’s so many other times that I just want to have the same things as everyone else. A lover, a partner, a decent job and a good relationship, even kids…”

“Kids?”

“Yeah I would be more than willing to adopt, even if we never got a baby…there’s lots of kids that just need love mom…I know inside that I have that to give.”

Her mom smiled at her. “You certainly do honey, I’m so proud of you.”

“Thanks mom.” She smiled and she took out some of the take-out cups they kept in the house again (Her dad used to have a coffee-shop a few years back.) and she started the coffee and took the time to eat breakfast and touch up her make up and lipstick before getting the tray of coffee’s out and headed to wait for Jessie outside.

…………………………Honey woke and moved carefully so as not to wake her mom up and she quietly got ready for school. She hadn’t had a night like that being so close to her mom in so long it was really great…better than great actually. She had even slept in her mom’d bed for the first time since her dad had passed away.

She looked at the picture on the nightstand and kissed it whispering. “Morning daddy.” Before heading off to shower and get ready for school. It was just the two of them even with the few relatives helping so she made her breakfast which was just a half bowel of cereal and a half glass of skim milk and she made some sandwiches from last nights pot-roast for her mom to take to work.

She put some laundry on and she went to get dressed.

Her phone rang. She looked at it surprised and she saw Johnny’s number there.

“Hello?”

“Hey, what are you wearing?” Johnny was sounding all girl but at the same time she somehow went that whole getting perved on way too. She couldn’t help but to giggle a little at that. “Just panties.”

“Oooh show me!”

She turned really red as she took her phone and took a picture with her phone. “S..see there.”

“Cute, pandas are cute.”

“Uhm…okay…”

It didn’t get dirty but it did get fun as Johnny helped her go through her clothes and putting together an outfit. She had some things she got that she never wore and she was shaky and excited as she was ready for school in a knee length brown dress with more cleavage then she was used to with a scoop necked cut and large white polka dots. She had one of her nicest bras on just a nice and lacy white Wonder Bra but it was the nicest one she owned and she was actually wearing a brown pair of Mary Janes. By the time her and Johnny got done with her little bit of make up she had never felt this beautiful or this scared.

Maybe for the first time since her quinceanera she felt pretty.

And her heart jumped a little as she seen Jessie’s car pulling in. They, they actually came to get her!

Johnny got out looking just really cute and cool and amazing and she came over and they hugged and had a squee moment. The first outside her relatives and it was really, really cool. Jessie smiled at her and gave her a thumbs up and came over and took her book bag and put it into the trunk with all the others and she sipped her coffee that Johnny had brought her.

She never had anything like this, friends and a ride and morning coffee and being able to see her actual lipstick on the coffee cup and the boys taking her coffee and Johnny’s while opening the car doors.

Daniel opened hers and he was all smiles. He seemed to do that a lot and laugh and joke too but this…he gave her this warm smile and opened up her door. He had looked her over too…in that boy liking what he’s seeing way too without getting overly bad about it. It was…there was some respect there.

Danny, Jessie might be really, really different but they were good guys, real gentlemen in a time she was sure those guys had all gone away with her dad had died.

She shyly smiled at Jessie as he passed her back her coffee and held it in both hands thinking.

~Daddy, if you sent them…thank you…~

……………………………….................Nick sat on the bus trying to be as quiet as he could while almost hiding in the seat behind the bus driver. He was reading some of the comments and things from several of the bullies and the divas and stuff at the school. They were not happy with having to wade through their own mess.

The Moo-girls had been suspended for a week and their parents called into the office and had to pay for the time the janitors used to clean the lockers and the time for dealing with all of this from the office.

Plus they had to apologize.

They refused and their parents were demanding an apology over them being online caught in the act and were threatening to sue the school over them letting this happen, saying it was defamation of character.

Keith’s parents and his two stooge’s parents were also bitching about Jessie and the fact he had a weapon. They of course weren’t happy that the school was saying that the fight occurred off school property and the matter was up to the police.

Of course with the fact it was three on one for the most part was totally not mentioned by the parents.

Keith’s father made Nick disgusted with the beer gut and showing up still trying to wear his varsity jacket. Still with the all-state patch sewn on there. Someone had recorded him swaggering and mouthing off in the halls.

There was another two short videos there too now with Britney and seven other girls talking about this one girl that was stuck in the middle of them in the locker areas…sandy blonde hair that wasn’t styled and glasses, she was skinny and she wasn’t in cool clothes or wearing make up and she was obviously shy.

And Britney and friends were being merciless….not talking at her but about her only by descriptions but there was no doubt who they were tearing down. He gave her credit though the girl Lindsey he though her name might be…she didn’t cry, she didn’t even acknowledge they were there but she couldn’t keep the hurt still from showing she walked away having to almost shouldering her way past the hateful bitches who had started calling her without directly calling her “Dishwater Girl.”

The other video was of Paul Kirk and some black kid that was hanging around with that Daniel kid…he was drinking at the water fountain when Paul and another thug friend grabbed him quickly and lifted him up and dumped him head first into the trash before laughing and high fiving each other down the hallway saying. “Have fun finding treasure dork!”

But as mad as they made him there were people that were taking camera phone bits of the behavior of others.

He put his computer away as the bus pulled into school and he got out to another day in this place. There was already something going on though. He saw Britney yelling at the transgirls Johnny.

A couple of the middle leveled neanderthugs pushed him out of the way from where he was standing. “Outta the way.” and “Freak.” and “N..n..Nicky.”

Even one of the girls shoved him. “Eww…get away…” then her talking to her friends. “God give me the hand sanitizer I gotta get the freak off before I star…star..stuttering.”

He hunched and someone he didn’t see knocked his laptop case out of his grip by whacking the underside of it.

He watched it go airborne the fall onto the pavement where just because it was there and it’d be funny some other kids kicked it around. He screamed in hurt and anger and turned and swung on the kid the had done it hitting him vainly a few times before the ass turned and he hit Keith in the nose.

Right where Jessie had smacked and broken it.

“You little bastard!” He roared as he bent over covering his nose. “I’ll kill you!” He grabbed Nick faster than he could react and threw hit against a car so hard he bounced off the side of it right into Keith’s huge first into his guts. He folded around it his vision exploding in reds and he couldn’t breathe.

Keith leaned over him. “You ever try some shit like that again sh…sh..shithead and I’ll make stuttering he least of your fucking problems.”

There was a bunch of people that looked and ignored it or were watching Britney screaming.

Nick couldn’t breathe…it hurt so much. The world went away into bleary tears as he was sick from the pain.

……………………………….................Jessie woke with a start at some point the damned monkey alarm clock went off banging it cymbals together ad screeching gleefully. His dad likely. He loved these kinds of things.

He stretched gingerly still being careful with the bruises and rolled out of bed and powered up his laptop while rubbing his breasts. They were a little sore and scratchy; they were still doing that from time to time. He got a bit of a good shiver running through them from the attention enough to stop. He just wasn’t one of the types to just do that in his bedroom. Shower yes…but not his bed room.

He sighed and checked the school’s Facebook page and seen it was gone the checked the independent webpage and there was a lot of traffic on it in comments and it was starting, people were putting up their own video snippets of stuff.

He saw a link for a petition put up by the Biblethumping kids called Students for Wholesome Life that were outing him for having breasts and because he had showed is breasts before all the boys in that Phys. Ed. Class he was subjecting innocent fellow students to immoral acts.

There was a lot of arguing and comments on the link. Nothing anywhere from the faculty though. At least not on here and he was slightly amused at the fact they must have taken down the school’s Facebook page.

He typed into the link that wanted the petition to have him removed from the school if not the class.

[I have a medical condition; I am a fully functioning male according to my doctors and as such am entitled to change in the male change areas. I am also under the law entitled to attend a public school and get an education just like everyone else. Having other students of differing faiths, social groups and sexualities doesn’t take away from any right that you have other than you using your first amendment rights to promote being ignorant bigots.]

Then he added. [I hate the sound of banjoes in the morning.]

He made a few comments on some of the other things before getting to go and shower. He got simply dressed army styled cargo pants and boxer briefs with a comfortable bra. He had to try three different ones on before he found one that felt comfortable enough for the day them applied some anti itch cream rubbing it in before putting the bra on and getting a light fabric girls tee-shirt because sometimes they were good for these days and he slipped on his team Brazil football/soccer jersey over that. It hung loose since he sort of wore it like that a lot back then to hide things.

But now it didn’t so much as hide things as the draping nylon sort of showed them off with the drape of the cut. A foreign team and semi obvious breasts he knew that he was sort of asking for trouble maybe but he already had trouble he figure so why let them think that they’re gaining any points.

He was met by his mom in the kitchen making breakfast and he kissed her cheek and took two homemade waffles and some scrambled eggs and some bacon and a dollop of mayo and made a sandwich out of them while his dad passed him some money.

“What’s this for?”

“Gas and stuff for you and your friends. Bring them over soon.”

“How about this weekend?”

“We can have a barbeque.” His dad said smiling.

“How?....oh you’re buying a new grill.” Technically they didn’t have one but had a little propane hibachi from a hardware store but he’d seen his dad always eying those big stainless steel monsters.

His dad smiled. “Bingo.” And gave him a double thumbs up. Jess’s mom rolled her eyes. And he kissed her too and headed out the door. He’d end up paying his dad later with free labor with some project or another plus all the yard work was his to do as well as taking care of the garbage and the composte and the recycling. So it wasn’t like he never earned the cash that his dad gave him.

First stop was gas, then getting Daniel who was already talking about last night and who was on board and what his parents had said and what was on the sites and pages. He didn’t know that the school had killed the FB page and was really pleased. The Anarchy A symbol t-shirt he was wearing added to the look and they almost looked like they planned on wearing army surplus pants though Dan’s were black to match his t-shirt and he had a sonic screwdriver from Dr. who on a pocket watch chain that was a flash drive with a laser pointer and a digital clock too.

It was actually pretty cool looking in that only Dan could make the geeky truly chic kind of way.

Picking Johnny was next and she had made them all coffee’s and she looked great and she sat in the back after Jessie got out and took her books and put then in the trunk of his car and opened her door for her. She smiled looking very, very nice and she kissed him on the cheek lovingly and she gave Dan his coffee while getting one back from him to thank her for the coffee.

Then off to get Honey.

They talked on the way and Johnny filled them in on everything with her parents and her dad’s lawyer friend and that she heard having one of the members of the ACLU she knew over to the school board meeting.

Honey was breathtaking. She looked incredible sexy and yet cute and wholesome all at the same time. Sort of like a teenaged version of Eva Mendes with sifter eyebrows and a few freckles.

Johnny was out and doing the girl freak out and celebrate with her and Jessie smiled. “She looks good.”

Dan nodded sipping his coffee. “Yeah, no wonder the girls were hating on her.”

Jessie shook his head. “I think Johnny has the right idea about it.”

“Oh, like what?”

“See how happy she is for Honey? Why the hell can’t more people be like that instead of tearing people down?”

“Dude because there’s an overabundance of assholes out there and they think in this country the right to free speech is an open license to be an asshole.”

“Well it is their right Danny. I’m using it to defend myself after all.”

“True but dude I might just be a teenager but like back in the old days there was a lot more respect for each other as people.”

“Depending on the person, really the whole common curtsey thing has died off because the white people reserved that for the most part for themselves.”

“Dude really…I’ve got black friends and they’re no better than us or worse.”

“No, it’s not that but back before segregation ended people were nice to each other and civil because it was the thing to do to show that you were better than people around you. There was a definite class system in place and really there still is. Now when they broke down segregation there was and still is a whole lot of bigots speaking their trash because they had nothing to lose and people were protected to do that by law. And with that attitude it spread like a virus…kids saw their folks using this behavior and generations later you have a whole huge generation of people that forgot that common courtesy shouldn’t have gone out of style.”

“That’s a lot of stuff to blame on the white racist assholes though.”

“Oh, well not just them add in the 60’s movement and then Vietnam and the whole time cultures that were held down during segregation are getting some teeth and their own ways of things and it all bubble together.”

“Okay well enough for the college class on sociology dude, is this one of those Tilting at air-conditioner things?”

“Actually yes, I want equal rights but I want some of the older traditions of respect to be around. I want Johnny to be on a bus some where and get made for not being a genetic girl and someone still will get up and offer her his seat.”

“Kind of like actual chivalry then.”

“Updated but yes, or at least the soul of it.”

“The soul of it?”

Jessie actually closed his eyes and smiled in the morning sunshine. “I want a world where I live in to be a world with a romantic soul.”

Dan just looked over at him and stared for a minute. Here was someone that just actually said what he had always kind of thought. And he was serious about it.

“Yeah, I hear Dr. King’s speech and that poem Invictus or people like the Dahli Lama talk and I want that kind of world Jess.”

“It won’t happen Dan, not unless someone actually say no more and we actually fight for things that matter, even if we just fight the small battles.”

“We’re still fighting.”

“Exactly….exactly.”

They looked at each other and they show hands looking each other in the eyes and smiled. It was one of those I’ve got your back; you’re not in this fight alone moments both of them felt it.

They nodded at each other once more before both of them getting out and opening the doors and helping the girls into the car each earning smiles and kisses from the girls.

Jess smiled as he drove. The kisses and the whole thing felt right. And it was kind of doing those little things the manners and courtesy of just being decent that felt good and it felt better getting the reward for it even if it was smiles and a kiss on the cheek.

But Johnny and Honey were smiling and to him they both seemed to have stuff in their lives that made actually being happy enough to smile a good thing. And maybe that having someone to do their side of things was nice for them too. Just being decent on either side of things didn’t mean a throwback to the bad stuff that went with them.

Dan looked at Honey and Johnny through the rear view mirror. “Do any of you girls have home Ec before lunch?”

Honey nodded. “I do just after morning break, why?”

“So if I bought something for lunch you think that the Home Ec. Teacher would let you cook it?”

Honey shrugged. “I don’t know I don’t think that anyone’s asked?”

Johnny nodded. “Mrs. Hardy’s pretty decent she’d be good with it. I can ask her too I have that period free so I can go down and ask too.”

“Cool, he looked at Jessie. Can we pull into a grocery place then before we get to school?”

“Sure, so you’re treating us to lunch?”

“Yeah I still have some cash and stuff from chores and I can do that and still have enough money for gas this weekend.”

Jessie nodded. “Saturday afternoon Dad want me to have you all over, is that okay?”

They all nodded. “Sure, something big?”

He smiled. “Big to my parents I’ve got actual friends this year and stuff they kind of want to jump on that and Dad want’s to buy a new gas grill.”

Dan laughed. “Sure! That’s a good idea and maybe our folks can come over so they can get together and stuff.”

Honey sighed. “That, that would be good. My mom doesn’t know anyone outside of work and she has to work a lot of shifts and stuff to cover things and it’d be good for her to get out.”

Jessie nodded. “I talk it over with them and stuff and we can maybe get things set up for them too. We’re still new here in the city and it wouldn’t hurt my folks either to make some friends.”

They all sort of talked and stuff as he drove deciding on what would be good to have on Sunday and what each one of them liked and might bring. Jessie pulled into the closest Whole Foods store and they all got out and the guys helped the girls out of the car and they went for a quick trip inside.

Daniel bought a ready made frozen lasagna and Johnny bought a salad set in the bag and Honey even bought a quart of ice cream when Johnny said she was sure that they could keep it in the freezer in the Home Ec. room and Jessie bought another set of the paper plates with the small bowls and saucers too and he bought a coffee for Kenyon while they were getting through the check out lines.

Laughing and happy they left and headed to school.

Even with all the stops they had gotten there still pretty early and Johnny pointed out. “Hey since when is there one of the security guys outside in the parking lot area?”

Dan grinned. “Likely since the Vice got Pwnd yesterday by the cops.”

They all nodded and chuckled and jess drove around until he saw Kenyon’s car and pulled up to it the key marks were still there and it really looked bad. Kenyon was getting his books together and smiled at all of them.

Jess and Dan helped the girls out of the car and gave Kenyon a little hug each when he told them they looked really pretty today. Johnny was all smiles and Honey was smiling and blushing but Kenyon was blushing even more.

The again but not as much but really surprised when jess handed him a morning coffee. He couldn’t help but stare at Jess though. The army jacket and the cargo pants that just hung just…right…perfect actually and the hair and the smile and even the shirt too and he, he had got him a coffee…

“Uhm thanks…this, this is awesome I’ve never really had someone buy me a coffee before…well that wasn’t family y’know.”

“Well I didn’t know what you liked or how you took your coffee so the cream and sugar are on the side.”

“Okay…I like cream.” Oh god did that sound dirty, flirty he thought. He blushed and Jessie looked at him. Then he actually gave him a smile? Kenyon kind of shook inside in a good way. Did Jessie like him too?

“I’ll remember that.” Jessie said and it was kind of sexy the way that he said it. Jessie looked at him. “My parents are having a BBQ on Saturday would you and you folks want to come over?”

“Uhm…sure I’ll ask.” He’d definitely ask and they might actually show. He was nervous though his dad while not a drunk was a really over the top loud guy. He was halfway sure that he might be partly deaf from all the construction gear over the years. But he’d definitely ask. Though his dad needed little help to find a reason to buy good steaks for a grill…anybody’s grill.

They were talking when there was this loud bitchy screech. “You little faggot!”

Britney was stomping over to get into Johnny’s face and why was obvious to everyone around she had the pretty much close to the same outfit as what Johnny was wearing except the shoulder bag and the shoes but the top and the jeans and the jacket were all the same.

“What the fuck? Why the fuck are you dressing like me? Take it off!”

Johnny looked at her like she had lost her mind. “No, why are you dressed like me?”

“I’m not! you’re imitating me! I don’t want no tranny dressing like me and making me look bad!”

Dan piped in. “Actually Brit, I just watched you pull in here, Johnny was here first so uhm you’re dressing like her.”

“You fuck off! who the fuck are you anyway?”

He grinned. “Me I’m Danny and I happen to be friends with this girl that you’re giving a hard time because you dressed in the same outfit as she’s wearing only you’re pitching a hissy fit because Johnny looks hotter in it than you do.”

She went stiff with rage, the arms to her sides and her fingers curling into claws and livid mad. “There’s no way some fake fucking bitch looks better than I do!”

Jessie smiled and so did Dan and Kenyon and they all nodded and said. “Well actually she does.” And “Definitely carries it off waaay better than you do.” And “Hey it’s just clothes don’t have a fit.”

“No! No, no, fucking no!” She pointed at Johnny. “Get the fuck out of here; get out of our school get out of our sight! You’re fake, you nothing but a queer trying to make real girls look bad!”

She went to grab Johnny by her cropped jacket and the three boys all stepped in front of her like a wall and Jessie stared at her with the same look he’d given her the other day in the cafeteria. “Back the hell off…now.”

She stepped back looking shocked at the whole things and paled. Honey crossed her arms under her breasts in that classic I’m not happy girl pose one hand holding her coffee and she sort of looked…cooler, tougher?

“See, you’re learning lesbian used to be cool now transgirls are the new cool thing don’t worry Britney you’re definitely prick enough to pass.”

“Brian! Brian!” She screamed for her boyfriend and he came walking through the crowd with his entourage in tow both his and their girls and stuff.

“Yeah, what?” he looked at her and he looked at Jessie and the group and then to her again and he stared at her. “So…?”

She pointed at Johnny. “The fag’s wearing my clothes, he won’t take them off.”

Brian looked at her again and them again and the security guard that was now coming over as the crowd was forming and the guard was talking on his shoulder mic. for his radio. “So, what I don’t really see the big deal?”

“That’s…the big Idea is that I’m the girl! I’m the real girl not this phony faggot those are girls clothes he doesn’t have the right to wear them?”

He looked again. He sighed loudly. “And you pitched a fit because she’s wearing the same thing? And they aren’t letting you have your own way…what am I going to do about it?”

“You’re my boyfriend their insulting me and…..”

He rolled his eyes.

“Brian…Brian!” he started to walk away. But he actually said to Jessie and the others. “Sorry guys. She’s not going to bother you again.” He took Britney by the wrist and start pulling her with him away from everything.

“Brian. Jesus Christ I told you to do something about this. Not apologizes to a bunch of fags and freaks.”

Brian looked at her. “It’s that big a deal that she’s wearing the same thing as you?”

“Yes!” She actually stomped her foot and yelled at him.

Brian reached into his school bag he had slung over his shoulder and pulled out his jersey and offered it to her. “Here wear this and you won’t be wearing the same thing then.”

Britney stared at it and she batted that hand away. “No! She’s going to change! I’m the real girl!, I am! I’m not changing!”

Johnny stepped out and she walked the few steps over and took the jersey out of Brian’s hand. “I’ll wear it.”

He stared at her blinking but he let go of the jersey and Johnny took off her cropped jacket and passed it to Brian to hold and she peeled out of the top that she was wearing and slid the jersey on over her bra.

She took back her jacket and she gave him a small smile. “Thanks for the loan Bry.” She walked back to the group but took her top and shoved it in Britney’s hands. “There…happy now?”

Britney just stared at her in stunned shock like a whole lot of others did and they left together moving through the crowd with their bags and stuff. Some people parted out of their way too and some people followed and some people like the Emo and Goth’s that were there looked at Britney and the entourage and started to clap almost sarcastically.

Tears poured out of her eyes as she looked at them and at how people were looking at her and she turned to see Brian not there any longer and leaving with some of their friends his shoulders hunched and he looked angry?

Why? What the hell was going on that he did that? How the hell did that just happen, she was part of the homecoming court? How did some outsider freaks and the two trannies switch everything around?

Then she saw dishwater girl standing over Keith holding her chem text book in two hands and he was getting back up like she’d brained him one with her book and she was yelling at him. “Leave him alone!”

What the hell was going on here? Lindsey…standing up for the stammer freak? She didn’t even stand up for herself? Was she fucking him? Like fucking eeew…she saw the security guy go from walking with the tranny and his fag crew to over where she was at and…

She just didn’t get it…she even almost puked when stammer freak had puked from getting hit in the balls and way crying…Dishwater actually was on her knees and in the vom and had pulled his head into her lap.

“Fucking sick.” She moved around everyone and went to go and find her friends and give Brian hell.

Like WTF he was her effing boyfriend he was lucky to be with her, he was never as cool as he is now since they started going out. It was time he had better remember that.

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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Lindsey sat holding the boy’s head in her lap as he cried. She looked up as the security guard showed up with another one and looked at her. “The school nurse is coming.”

“And the cops?” She asked him.

“Did you call them?”

“I should.”

He looked over at Keith. “You could be in a lot of trouble miss.”

“He deserved what he got, fucking bully. Call the police; I’ll take the charge if I can testify against him.” She nodded at Keith.

“You got something against him.”

“He was doing this isn’t that enough?”

“You busted his nose.”

“I’ll do it again.” She made sure he got the I’ll over I’d/

The guard pursed his lips and he looked the plain and skinny girl she stared back at him and there was no fear there.

The other guard was grilling the crowd on who had seen what and most of the kids said they were watching the drama with Britney. Others just turned away if they had seen it they weren’t saying.

One of the black kids a skinny one with a shaved head and a mix of hip hop gear and geek wear with glasses was talking to the guard saying he had seen it all go down. Keith’s usual two friends nowhere to be seen to back him up. He guard with Lindsey was sure that this kid was one of the bunch that hung around the short guy that was always with Stone.

Yeah, Stone…they’ve already had a meeting over the kid, he was just one of those kids…trouble and the same with the transgendered kid….He looked at the Plain Jane in front of him too…another new kid.

She stared back at him from behind her glasses steady and almost defiant. You’d never think she’d be such a handful…he’d seen the other girls treat her like crap and she just took it.

Looking at her now.

She wasn’t just taking it she was retraining herself.

And really that means this Keith ass…well the kid was an ass and he did cross the line.

He waited until the school nurse got out to them and then helped the girl up and they helped the kid that was beat up to the infirmary. The black geek kid passed them a shoulder bag. Which the kid snatched and hugged to himself.

Oh yeah this was the kid that can’t talk half the time some of the kids called him Hawking after the gimp in the wheelchair.

Lindsey went with them and to the nurse office as Nick they called him was getting checked over and he wasn’t too comfortable about it. He certainly wasn’t letting go of his computer bag.

The VP showed up asking questions and she told him what happened and he didn’t look mad at her just nodding and his secretary was there taking notes and she heard him go into the room with Nick. He had to have something going on because the Seri or Ceri that female phone thing was talking for him that she could tell.

She’d only kind of heard rumors about him since coming here to the school but that really had to just suck…being like that and messed up enough that you really had a super hard time making any kind of connection.

Not like she was exactly normal either. She’d moved here in with her Aunt and Uncle after her parents had a massive, massive divorce and they tried to use her as a weapon against each other and she couldn’t take it anymore.

This uncle was her Mom’s first cousin and while close to her and the rest of the family her Uncle Duncan was pretty much one of those guys that wouldn’t take either of their crap.

And Uncle Duncan and Aunt Jordan were happy to have her there since they couldn’t have kids. But money was kind of scarce with the economy in the toilet both of them only had part time work and they were lucky just to get the bills paid really. So her clothes weren’t cutting edge or the best and came from the Salvation Army or the thrift stores.

It didn’t really matter that much.

Dishwater…

Well that one came about because she never did anything…she didn’t flirt or cry or really have friends she didn’t know how to act or to flirt really. The thing was Lindsey never felt right.

She wasn’t curvy or great looking in fact her dad was huge and she got his height but her mom was short and tiny and she had gotten her thinness and the end result was her being the classic carpenter’s dream. He Aunt Jordan tried to make it better by saying she had a ballerina’s body but that at least to Lindsey was pushing it.

Truth was she was kind of not a girl.

Oh she was female and she like boys found them cute and some more than that but the gushy lovey stuff never hit her. She didn’t care a lot about clothes not like the other girls or make-up it just rarely clicked with her. She even didn’t mind being female even though having a period sucked ass.

It’s just that she couldn’t really identify with her own gender.

But she was pretty sure she wasn’t a lesbian…pretty sure because her sort of lack of the feminine….everything had even her asking questions.

It’s why she did nothing most of the time…it’s like what happen in the parking lot…those girls that were talking trash and calling her things if she really…just let go then she’d have hit them or worse…like that assclowns Keith.

It was like she had this switch that had gone off that had her step in and get involved. It was kind of like she had a guy living in her head sometimes only the guy was like…well she really didn’t know because even if she thought the man in half of her brain was real she was pretty sure he wasn’t gay.

But hitting Keith and defending that Matt guy felt so right just as much as holding him and being the nurturing girl with his head in her lap was like second nature too but to actually just …it was confusing as hell because she had no idea who she was or what she was.

She frowned and got her things and headed out of the infirmary. She heard the VP call out to her. “Ms. Clark.”

“Yes?” She stopped and looked at her and he passed her a set of slips.

“I’m glad that you thought to come to the aid of a fellow student but that is not the way to use a textbook Ms. Clark this is a pass for the hall and a note as to why you’re late for your classes. I’m not giving you detention this time but this doesn’t happen again understand?”

“No sir.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’ll take the detention.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I can’t say that I won’t do something like that again.”

“Are you looking to cause trouble Ms. Clark?”

“No sir I just can’t let what that jackass did slide…it happens too much too often.”

“We’re working on it.”

She stared at him pretty hard. “Good…bullying can kill.”

He looked at her and he pursed his lips. “You should get to class.”

“Yes sir.”

Lindsey headed to here class handing the note to the teacher as she sat down in geography. What a good start to the day a fight…nearly getting detention…not being able to shut up and just let the VP say his shit without talking back.

Why could she talk to adults like that and not other kids?

Because they were adults and they should be able to take it.

Some of the girls in the class looked at her and sneered, two sniffed…yeah she’d cleaned up but she was sure there might be a waft of Nick’s vom-scent lingering…or they were just being bitches.

She kind of smiled a little perversely at a thought that crossed her mind. If she was somehow a lesbian then there’s a good reason she wasn’t attracted to any of the girls that she had met or seen her so far if this was the way that they all acted.

Lindsey took her books out and tried to concentrate on her class. But her ears picked stuff up as the class was considered a Gimmie by some of the less scholastically inclined and they were talking about Jessie Stone?

She looked over and saw him one of the other new kids.

Who apparently according to the rumor mill was more than average in the hung department but there was the other rumor too. That he had breasts…she watched him doing his own work and actually answering a lot of the questions too he was smart. He was even pretty good looking too if you went for the dark haired fair featured boys that looked like models…he could likely pass for a girl if he tried but he didn’t actually seem like the type that’d try that stuff.

Then again he did hang out and was friends with the transgendered girl. She was only sort of bother by Johnny in so much as she was prettier than her and a boy…well not a boy but sort of kind of the opposite of her.

She took a closer look at Jessie as he raised his hand to answer another question and caught a good look at the curves of his chest.

She shook her head…he had bigger breasts than she did. It was almost funny. She took a few notes and looked back to him and he was smiling at her and looking back and gave her this friendly nod.

So far he was one of the few people here that gave her this frank and honest and open look. And then he looked at her again…not like looking down and taking another look but he looked at her with that kind of nice look and then he…did he just check her out?

Her?

Wow….this was a really strange day already.

Brian………………………..He sat down on the weight bench after setting them for an hundred and fifty pounds and started doing reps. Some of the guys from different teams were here on their off class too and working out and the place was it’s typical mood of laughter, power lifting, yelling and off color jokes.

He was quiet; this year wasn’t shaping out anything like he’d thought. Garret sat down along side him on the other machine and set his own weights and they just pumped away quietly for the first two or three sets.

Garret looked over to him. “You okay?”

“I’m dumping Brit.”

“Shit dude really? Why she’s a total piece.”

“Yeah well she’s a piece all right.”

“So who’s the new chick?”

“There ain’t one.”

“Dude, you dumping Brit to go solo.”

“Looks like.”

“Re-examine the options dude Brit is smoking hot and she fucks at the drop of a hat or so I’ve heard….” Garret looked at Brian for what was likely confirmation.

“Yeah she’s great in the sack, Britney loves to fuck but she also loves to fuck…”

“Dude that’s a riddle, stop with the riddles I’m not Batman.”

“Britney likes to be a bitch, she likes fucking with people and their lives because somehow she thinks she’s better than everyone.”

“Oh…yeah but they’re all kind of like that.”

“No, not all of them are like that.”

“Okay…no they’re not but when they come as high freaking calibre as Britney then yeah they do. Brit’s hot and the hot girls know that they are and there’s that whole chickie pecking order thing they have going on.”

“Not all of them are like that.”

Garret looked at him. “Yeah they are like I said the nice girls have to be nice because they aren’t Britney and don’t have it made in the shade. But if they did have what she had they’d be just the same.”

“I can’t believe that Garret, just…” he set the weights to rest. “Dude she’s just so fucking mean and she’s fake and all the time she’s eating away and chipping away at being number one. Not just part of the court even thought we’re only in our second year here no she has to be Queen of the school and I have to be King.”

“Being popular is a good thing dude.”

“Being popular is a croc of shit Gare and you know it hell we all know it. What we get into a decent university, we do the same shit there then we get out and get a job but will that be just because we’re popular?”

“You are who you know.”

“Yeah? Well who’s going to really give a shit about all the popular shit twenty, thirty years from now? It won’t matter.”

“It might?”

Brian laughed. “Dude you get to be top dog here and say you get into a good school by chance, or grades or kissing ass then what you’re in a school all new all over again only you’re not Mr. or Mrs. Popular and king or queen shit you’re just you and you’re just another pumped up socialized moron that thinks that people there at college will remotely care that you were popular and ruled your dumbfucks little school.”

“Whoa dude chill…holy shit…what the hell’s your problem?”

“The bullshit Gare, Britney’s almost gotten me…and even us into like five fights this year this week already because she thinks I’m her enforcer.”

“You used to do that, hell you did that last year.”

“Yeah and guess what?”

“What?”

“She lied about some of that stuff, she made shit up and had he little friends do the same and spread shit around so that I’d get into it with someone or someone’s boyfriend and pound them to satisfy her. And she’s worse this year.”

“How’d you know that she was lying?”

“Selina.”

“Selina I thought she took off after she was outed.”

“She did, she was outed for being a lesbian by Britney and she left school last year because of it.”

“So…?”

“So…Selina showed me all the texts she had saved between Britney and the other girls in her clique and yeah it’s a big game for her and a whole lot of bullshit.”

“When’d this happen?”

“Last part of this summer, I ran into her at the beach.”

“Sel could’ve been lying.”

“Nope…I could just feel it Garret, all Britney thinks about and all she wants is the best of flipping everything and I’m only good enough for her until she finds a way to get at one of the seniors this year.”

“You talk to Brit about this?”

“Not yet, I’m not going to bring up all the stuff either because she’ll start world war five.”

“Three dude, there’s only been two.”

“Sorry, I meant three through five.”

“So…you’re really going to dump the hottest piece in our year?’

“Yeah.”

“And there’s no runner up.”

“Nope….”

“Dude you paused.”

“So…”

“So there is someone.”

“No…but…yeah I don’t know.”

“Whaddaya mean?”

“It means there’s sort of someone and I kind of might want to check things out and maybe get to know them.”

“Who?”

“Hell no, Brit finds out that there might be someone I like over her and she’ll start who knows what. No I’m going to check things out first as a friend…if they’ll let me and look past the jock.”

“Huh…Brian…just how low are you gonna slide?”

“It’s not low Garret. You look at that no bullshit web page? We’re not all assholes like Keith and some of the others but there’s a whole shitload of people in this school that actually think we’re not the shit but we’re the worst thing in the school.”

“Really?’

“Really, go look it up and read some of the shit there…I don’t want to be that guy.”

“Dude, seventeen’s too young to be having a mid-life crisis.”

“Yeah, and it’s too young to have the regrets that I have too.”

Brian got up and left heading for the showers and there was a few people watching him leave and most were just shaking their heads and a few were actually smiling but not in agreement with Brian but they were already texting the stuff they had overheard all over the school.

To several of them Brian was pussing out. Hell hanging with Selina the slag dyke and talking like that he might as well sign his fag card. The texts and calls began. Garret shook his head just not getting it and Brian had pretty much made sure that he’d be history with Brit.

Actually normally he would have jumped at the chance to be with Britney…she hadn’t been faithful to Brian she’d been on her knees doing anything she could do to catch herself an upper clansman and was still likely working on that.

It was tempting but Brian was a pretty solid guy, he wasn’t the type to spout bullshit so if he was saying she was that kind of a handful then she really was.

Brian went out from the weight room to the showers and then just ended up trying to figure out what he wanted from the soda machine until the bell rang for morning break.

He ended up getting a bottle of Minute Maid Orange Juice and was walking to get some air when he was passed by that new bunch of kids. Jessie Stone and the others and the girl with the lethal chem book skills and then there was Johnny.

And she was wearing his jersey still.

Was he nuts for even considering trying to get to know her?

Him?

He ran his fingers through his damp hair and went to go to his locker and he was getting a whole lot of looks from everyone and he saw some leaving, some people shaking their heads a look of disgust from some of the churchy types that hung around with them.

He saw Britney, saw her crying and with her friends and she took one look at him and started bawling red faced and totally messy looking and freaking out. She even broke free of her friends and ran to the garbage can in the hall. He watched not sure what was going on until he saw the look of pure hate she flashed him before she puked into the garbage can.

Yeah…oh yeah he was being set up…

He was going to try and talk to her but when he got close several of the guys got between him and her and Tim Lewis pushed him back with a hard shove. “Don’t you think you did enough faggot?”

“Did what? I didn’t do anything?”

Britney wiped her mouth off and screamed, not shrieked but screamed like at the top of her lungs at him. “YOU COULD HAVE GIVEN ME AIDS!”

He…what?

What!!???

“What the fuck are you talking about!?”

Tim punched him in the face and he hit back then it was three on one and Britney scream-cried and ran out of the halls through the cafeteria and out of the school.

Brian caught another punch to the eye and then there were the whistles from the security guards running to break it up.

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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Jessie smiled as he met up with Honey and Johnny who was talking to Chem. book girl. “Hey, I’m getting a snack you girls want anything?”

Honey thought it over then shrugged. “I’d like something but I don’t know what I want. If you get something can I have a bite? Maybe?”

“Sure.” He grinned. “It always looks better when it’s someone else’s?”

Dan showed up smiling. “Dude, no…it’s femphysics.”

“Femphysics? I’m so not getting things over here am I?”

Honey shook her head. “Uhm no…I’m confused too.”

Dan looked at them. “If the food being eaten in question doesn’t belong to the girl then it’s not hers or the calories.”

Honey giggled. “If only.” But she said it with a big smile in her voice.

Jessie smiled. “Okay I get it now. We’ll be back.”

He looked at Johnny who was extending the olive branch to this girl and smiled. If people just gave others a chance they’d be amazed. Johnny was really a people person.

He passed Brian who looked their way before heading off to Alphaville. He’d taken a long look at Johnny too. It didn’t look hostile just like a dog seeing something new and was trying to check out all the angles.

He went into the cafeteria to wait in line and the whole place seemed buzzing with something.

Dan, Dan was checking his phone. And Kenyon came up to join them.

Jessie looked up from the line where he was getting cookies and saw kids running towards the locker area in the outer halls, then the security guards at and run and the chant from the masses of. “Fight, fight, fight!”

He paid and walked over to Dan and Kenyon settling in with chocolate milk. He looked at Dan who was Smartphone immersed. “What’s going on?”

Dan moved the phone so he could see it. “Brian’s in a big fight with the assholes in alpha hall. Someone’s sending it out in bursts to the Real Page.”

Jessie looked. “So it might be over then?”

“Maybe there’s certainly a delay, too bad we couldn’t get this live and streaming. And….here’s the Soy-Bacon.”

“Soy Bacon?”

“Yeah, you know fake cops, fake pigs, fake bacon?”

“Uhm…no.” Jessie blinked at him. “I’m not from around here remember?”

Kenyon asks. “You ever see the crooks on TV call the police pigs?”

“I think so…oooh…okay that’s actually kind of funny.”

Dan grinned nodding. “I was going to go with that or turkey bacon.”

Kenyon stood looking over Jessie’s shoulder as they saw the next clip. Brian was in a three on one fight and it still wasn’t all one sided as the fists were flying and there was blood on faces and hands before the security guys showed up and got in between them all.

“Looks, like it’s over for now.” Jessie said. He stretched a bit getting looks by a few people at the way that the stretch sort of showed off his bust line but he really didn’t care since he couldn’t help that what was surprising was the feeling of…

Kenyon hard something stiff and warm in his jeans and it was pressing against him. Jessie turned to look over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow at Kenyon.

Kenyon blushed a really deep shade of red and sputtered. “S..ss..sorry.”

“Really? Why?”

“I..I..Uhm…”

“It’s okay.” Jessie said quietly.

“What!?” Kenyon sort of whisper exclaimed.

“It’s okay, I’m not going to be an ass about this.”

“Are you?”

“Don’t know, are you?”

“I…I…” Then really quietly and the gleam of tears there. “Maybe.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“Th..Thank You?”

“You’re not being an ass about it and you probably didn’t want this out even if it’s between me and you but….it’s flattering.”

“It is?”

“Yeah, kind of…you’re good looking so it’s kind of flattering.”

“Oh Jessie…” He very nearly sighed it.

Daniel coughed and looked over at both of them. “Hey, what am I chopped liver?”

Jessie grinned. “Short round.”

Daniel flipped Jessie off and then turned and blinked at Kenyon fluttering his lashes. “So…”

Kenyon looked to one and then the other and….Jessie was well…but Daniel was short…but he was also slender and compact and oh good god he could actually really easily see that happening… “I…I gotta get to class.” Still red and grabbing his backpack he left sort of holding to cover the unsightly effect the two had just had on him.

Dan laughed until he snorted and also did a nose spurt of his chocolate milk.

Jessie looked at him and sat back down. “So….?”

“So….?” Dan put on the whole exaggerated innocent look.

“Would you?”

“Would you?”

“I don’t know, maybe?”

“Actually….me too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah…Johnny and you are not the only different people here. I play a lot of female characters for a reason.”

“Oh, so…”

“I don’t know, I think there’s times I’m okay being me and there’s times that I’d like being a girl.”

“Like Johnny.”

“No…yes…maybe but way more maybe. I’d do it if there was like nanotech or majik and stuff but the whole RL options to transitioning over are kind of scary.”

“True but from what I know it’s best to start early with this so you don’t have a ton of crap to go through that you wouldn’t if you started early.”

“Yeah there is that I dunno, it’s one of those complicated things I usually only think about like at four in the morning.”

“Four?”

“Headaches and some insomnia, well the insomnia’s from the headaches because if I just lay down my brain doesn’t switch off and I’m not distracted by the stuff I’d be doing while I’m up and I end up thinking about way too much stuff and when I have the headaches it’s like right there in the stream of my thoughts…I have a headache.”

“Wow, that…”

“Sucks.” Dan frowned a bit before brightening up and looking at Jessie. “So…?”

“So….what?”

“Kenyon would you sleep with him.”

“I don’t know Anyone well enough to sleep with them.”

“Yeah me too…really wishing that wasn’t true.”

Jessie shrugged and grabbed his books. “I’m not in that big of a hurry.”

Dan sighed. “I know, and I keep hearing from my dad… “you’re a teenager you’ll meet someone” …but you look around and see people dating and you can’t help but to just sigh and want some of that.”

Jessie frowned a thoughtful little frown. “Honestly, I’ve been trying to not think about these things.”

Dan looked at Jessie. “Uh-huh, I can just imagine really that it’s really going to be complicated with you.”

Jessie nodded. “Which is why I’m going to try and take my time and know someone first before I put all of me out there.”

“Well that and you’re not exactly Mr. Popular right now with some people.”

“I wouldn’t want to date them anyway.”

They headed off to look for the girls swinging by the Home Ec. Classroom where the saw Johnny and Honey sitting with the girl that had busted Keith’s nose.

Jessie came over offering a cookie. “Hey, what’s up?”

*Johnny…………………………….and the morning had just started out so well. Then she had to run into Britney or rather got ambushed by the little so and so.

Britney had ended up showing up at school wearing the exact same outfit more or less than the one that she had picked out and she threw a royal shit fit. It got worse when Brian her boyfriend had pretty much once again backed out of a fight that Britney had pretty much set him up for.

He had actually sounded like a pretty decent guy while he and Britney had fought and it was actually more for Brian and the way that Britney had snubbed him that had her have the idea to wear his jersey.

Or at least offer to.

Honestly she had no idea that he’d actually let her. But she’d said it and took the jersey right out of his hand so she was sort of committed.

And the rest of the day had been kind of based on that event.

People all knew about her and most of then either didn’t like her on purpose or for the most part they had ignored her. Most of the kids tended to ignore most stuff that doesn’t really directly affect them.

But today, today she “made the papers” and people were talking about her like they had when she first transferred here. She knew that Britney was going to target her for something. She’d never let someone like her show her up like that.

Johnny was pretty sure though it was worth it. A whole lot of people saw her stand up to the uppity little guttersnipe and they also seen just how petty and mean she was too.

So Johnny figured that if she was going to be in trouble for wearing Brian’s jersey then she might as well sort of enjoy it.

So instead of hiding it she wore it like it was just as cute as the outfit that she had picked out for today was and she spent the morning walking like she had every right to wear it but she didn’t really show it off like there was something between her and Brian.

She’d just reply when they sort of whispered loud enough to be over heard instead of just asking her. “I needed a new shirt and Brian had offered one up since one of us would need it and Britney seemed to think she was too good for it so…” Then she’d just shrug.

Though Johnny was sure that there were rumors starting about her and Brian. It was just after the second class when she saw some of the mean girls talking about “Dishwater” again and the way she was disgusting and had just gotten “Hawking’s” vomit all over her and that she stank because she obviously didn’t change afterwards.

She headed over to the plain looking girl. “Hey…”

The girl just looked at her. Blinked a few times then leaned passed Johnny to look at the mean girls and then back at Johnny. She was exchanging books for her classes and said quietly. “Hey.”

“I got some spare clothes if you’d like to borrow something.”

The girl looked at her again. “I doubt anything you have will fit me. It’s likely you have more curves than I do.”

“Maybe, but most of your curves are real.”

Lindsey snorted and looked herself over. “Yeah…me…curves…right.”

“No, I’m serious.”

“Okay, why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you being nice to me?”

“Why shouldn’t I be nice to you?”

“You don’t have any reason to be nice to me.”

“I don’t have any reason not to be nice to someone.”

“Are you for real?”

Johnny looked at this girl who was just as blunt as Jessie was and looked her in the eyes. “No, I’m still stuck with the wrong equipment so real’s never been an option.”

The mean girls over heard and left giggling and saying. “Faggot, tranny…”

Lindsey interrupted them with. “Twunts.”

They stopped and she stared at them and smiled and slowly pulled out a wooden ruler. They sort of stared at her. Johnny set her own bag down. “Huh…? Problem?”

They glared at both of the girls before walking off a bit faster that normal and joining up with the rest of the flock.

Johnny looked at Lindsey. “Thanks…most people wouldn’t have defended me.”

Lindsey shrugged and blushed a bit. “It’s no big…so…you think I can borrow a change of clothes?”

Johnny grinned. “Sure.”

They went to Johnny’s locker and met Honey there and Lindsey has quietly shook Honey’s hand like she wasn’t comfortable around her. Johnny looked at her. “Honey’s cool she’s in the same boat as us.”

“Really?” Lindsey asked. “How? No offence but you’re gorgeous.” She said to Honey as she looked her over.

Honey blushed a deep red. “Th..Thank you…Johnny helped me pick things out…”

Johnny nodded and turned her combination to open her locker. Both of he other girls saw she had a non-school issued lock and when she opened the door it was fitted around the edges with weather stripping and there was packing tape and stickers over the vent slits.

Honey looked saying. “I wish I’d thought of that.”

Johnny nodded. “Yeah, I learned not to trust the monkey’s with leaving my stuff alone.” She looked at Lindsey. “Honey had her stuff wrecked the other day.”

Lindsey looked at Honey. “Oh shit, I heard about those three. Sorry.”

Honey nodded. “They picked up right where my middle school tormentors left off just because of these.” She gestured at cradling her ample breasts the blushed again.

Lindsey looked at her. “Jealous and not just because you have great breasts, like I said you’re gorgeous.”

“No…I’m not…”

Johnny was taking clothes from rubber storage totes that fit in her locker like a small closet making both girls look at her. She was passing things to Lindsey saying. “No, you are but you don’t know it yet like they do and they want to make sure that you don’t, they want to keep you down like all the other girls they bully.”

Lindsey looks at her. “Like you?”

“Hell yes like me, specially like me but it’s way more like the raging homophobia actually the guys show.”

Both of them looked at her.

Johnny closed the locker up. “Look I make them really uncomfortable especially if I look better than they do on some days. They think how’s a guy looking better than me? Is there something wrong with me? And they get pissed off and lash out.”

Lindsey nods. “Makes sense you got this pretty down huh?”

Johnny gave her a slight smile. “You think a lot about this stuff when you’re in the hospital or recovering from home.”

“Recovering?” Lindsey asked.

“I came out in my last school and I was swarmed as they call it and they nearly killed me.”

“Shit.” Lindsey breathed and Honey covered her mouth. Then both girls hugged her with Lindsey being the one to turn red.

Johnny looked at her. “You liked?”

Lindsey blinked surprised. “No..no..I…I don’t really get those feelings…I think I missed puberty at least sexually. No…I’m just not used to hugging…anyone.”

Johnny grinned at her. “Get used to it I’m a hugger.”

They headed to the ladies room in their homerooms hall to avoid the Alpha bunch in the Royal bathroom and they got looks as Lindsey changed from her things to the skinny jeans that Johnny let her and they were still a little roomy but didn’t fit badly. Johnny noticed that Lindsey looked in good shape though, really good shape despite the lack of curves.

“You run or swim?”

“Uhm run…yeah I look it I guess.”

“Oh yeah you definitely have the runners body, super cute.”

“Cute me?”

“Yeah done right with the right clothes and stuff yeah.”

“I can’t afford it, we’re pretty much broke at home since the recession hit.”

Honey nodded. “Things are thing all over unless you’re one of the richer kids.”

Johnny nodded as she tucked the tee-shirt that she’d got for Lindsey in making her blush. “Well I know a few chap places and I have some old clothes that we can look over and maybe even trade. We’ll work something out.”

They tucked the tee in really tight to show off her bra and added a belt to take care of the looseness and she offered to help Lindsey with her make up. That was a bit of a trial since she never wore any….ever.

“Okay….you just don’t like it?”

“No it feels Gross on my skin.”

“Well it can but you want the stuff that you don’t notice that you’re wearing and stuff. I’d suggest stuff but honestly Linds, that’ll take time.”

“Why? I mean okay but…why?”

“You touch and rub your face too much.”

She blushed. “Sorry I’m just…I never really wore it before so I never wanted to look like a clown. I avoided wearing it.”

“You have some?”

“Oh yeah my mom is still trying to make me a girl.”

Johnny snorted. “It takes way more than clothes and make up to make a girl.”

They were getting looks and there were a few mutters from some of the Beta girls that looked like the wanted to be the next batch of popular ones. Lindsey looked at Johnny who definitely noticed them and their attitudes. “Yeah, just like it takes more than a vagina to be a girl too.”

Honey added in. “It takes a girl’s heart to be a woman, nothing else.”

Lindsey looked over at the Beta girls. “But the bar’s really low on being a Skank it seems.”

The three girls laughed and let with Johnny having put Lindsey’s long hair into a pretty pony tail. The girl had long straight blonde hair to die for, but she needed some serious care for it.

They just took the time to get a drink before class when Jessie arrived with Dan bearing treats.

It turns out they’d missed the entire Brian escapade and Britney’s last fit of histrionics. There was some well set up shots on the Real Page and they watched those eating cookies after introductions were made.

Honey looked around. “Where’s Kenyon?”

Dan snorted. “He got a bit embarrassed when we were talking about sleeping with him. I think he’s got a thing for Jessie.”

Lindsey looked Jessie over. “Well you’re certainly appealing.” She was surprised she meant it. She was telling the truth about never really having the spark from being attracted to someone like she’d always heard about but an almost bi-gendered person…while it could be complicated it could also be so much less bullshit if you felt like her…unsure and Jessie was both really.

Jessie blushed. “Thanks, but he also wasn’t discounting Dan’s offer either.”

Johnny feigned shock. “Dan! I thought we were an item!?”

Dan looked at Johnny, actually smiling but serious too. “I was flirting and now that you’ve admitted that you like the sort guy enough…done! I’ll pick you up tonight?”

Blink, Blink… “Huh..what?” She said.

“A date.”

“I..uhm…”

“Johnny!…Please go out with me tonight, please! I’ll be a gentleman this time I promise!” He wasn’t yelling but definitely loud enough for everyone to hear.

“I..uhm…”

Lindsey elbowed her. “She accepts, but best behavior mister, having a horse-cock doesn’t mean that you can act like a dick.”

Dan had this huge grin on his face even while looking at the floor and was looking sorry. Honey had her hand over her mouth valiantly trying not to shoot chocolate milk from it and Jessie was smiling.

The bell rang and Honey and Johnny took their stuff and headed into Home Ec. with Lindsey. Jessie looked at Dan. “You have your license?”

“Yeah just.”

“I’ll loan you the car. Pick her up at six?”

“Really?! Holey Cheese!”

Jessie burst out laughing. “Go…”

Dan stuck his head into the Home Ec. Classroom and grinned as they were still getting in their seats. “I’ll pick you up at six for our date Johnny?”

Everyone was looking at them both. It was like a social grenade went off in there. Johnny blushed. “Uhm…okay sure.”

He grinned again at all of them then pulled his head out.

There were people in and outside of the classroom all buzzing about the whole thing. About the tranny and the short geek and Brian.

Jessie knew that the haters weren’t going to like this. He was sticking close the rest of the day as much as he could.

*Nick……………………………It had been a really bad morning and the stress had just gotten too much…the asshole Keith…asshole, asshole, asshole…then the faculty…they were being okay but he couldn’t talk to them just like that. He was frustrated beyond belief and so were they.

He had been taken to the nurses office and they were sure there were just bruises. Then his parents showed up causing all sorts of hell and going off on how the hell they thought this school was safe!

Safe…lol.

He’d talked/typed his parents down and it was his dad that relented after.

[I hate them and it sucks, the suck! But if I leave, if I go home…It’s letting them win right dad?]

It was the first time his dad seen him take a stand like this even if it was just the decision to suffer and keep going.

He’d still spent half the day recovering and he was surprised when Brian was brought in to get checked out by the security guys and there where police there again. Twice…in one day they were not looking pleased here and there were a bunch of the Alpha thug types there too looking like they’d been in a fight.

He was invisible again with everything going on and he caught some of the things on his phone. The shit they were saying about Brian sleeping with the trans girl Johnny and the fact he probably liked her doing him in the ass, or sticking his dick into shit.

The nurse made them be quiet, backed by a weeks detention added to the week they’d be serving for fighting.

Then there was the witnesses saying that Brian took the first swing and saying all sots of stuff about him.

Disgusting liars and turncoats.

Especially when he’d caught up on the stuff between Johnny and him and Twitney. He had to admire the trans-girl and how brave she was even stripping off her shirt revealing a bra that looked filled in with real breasts. But it was taking the jersey and showing up Twitney for being the nasty person she was.

He didn’t believe the video that was being posted on his page with her freaking out about him “fucking” the queer. Or her puking, or her bawling she knew things were off with them, that Brian had been acting so…weird.

They all came from the phones of the people in her “posse” and her screaming about him maybe giving her AIDS and running from the school was just.

It was all an act. He was sure of it.

Nick left the infirmary moving slowly and headed to the cafeteria having missed most of his morning classes and he was joined by the black kid that spoke up about Keith and saved his things. They walked for a few minutes and the kid offered a hand to him.

“I’m Donnie.”

He looked at it and took it shakily. “Nunn…Nnn…Nick.” He hated the stutter…hated it and was waiting for the look, either disgust or worse pity.

Nothing.

“Sucks what they did. I’m sorry I didn’t get there sooner.”

Nick tried to get out. “I..I…I…It’s Okkkay.”

“Buy you lunch?”

He looked at Donnie. “W..why..?”

“You had a shitty day, you need a break.”

Nick blinked. This was new, it wasn’t something he’d expected at all.

“Okay…” he almost sighed in relief when that came out normal.

They went to the cafeteria and instead of going over to the line up they went to the gamer kids table and Jessie was there with the others there and it was a crowd. And the size made him really nervous. They…they had baked store bought lasagna and all the fixings for salad and garlic bread and they seemed like they were having a good time….

He even smiled when some one had taped photocopied papers of The Rebel Alliance to the end of their table like a banner.

Johnny smiled at him and cut him some lasagna as Donnie made introductions and one of the boys in the group was doing sign language motions. With most of the group doing it too. The boy was Sam and he was deaf but he could read lips ad he’d chosen to come to school here rather than go to a special school.

They knew he couldn’t talk right and it seconds some one showed him how to say yes, no, please, thank you…and he used them without all the stuff going on in his brain.

He laughed for the first time all year out loud as Donnie tapped his tablet and the theme of The Empire started playing as the Alpha kids had started to file in and the table was laughing too and Donnie was showing Sam who was laughing too. He’d never heard it because he was deaf but he still got the joke.

He was still really quiet and shy there and nervous but they just…they were just okay with him?

The place went scary hushed as Brian came into the cafeteria and he looked around and went to the line and bought a whole bunch of milks and chocolate milks and walked with the full tray of drinks right past the Alpha’s and over to their table.

He looked at them all. “Could I sit with you guys?”

There was some shocked faces, some scared…a couple uneasy and angry too. Nick was unsure what he felt…Brian was being set up sure but could he just think he’d be able to just come here like everything was cool? But they accepted him right?

There was some shuffling and they made room.

They didn’t even talk it over. They just did it.

And Johnny set down a slice of lasagna for him and took a carton of white milk. “Thanks for the drinks.”

Then the others thanked him too.

Donnie said. “Dude welcome to the light side of the force.”

Dan looked over to the popular kids tables and they looked shocked, and were pissed but also already in full social feeding frenzy. “The Sith are angry, very angry.”

Brian sighed. “Sorry, it’s all my fault.”

Jessie looked at him. “You’re fault?”

“I should have listened, when I started going out with Britney…. No matter how much they plead, no matter how much they beg, never, never, feed them after midnight.”

Nick found out lettuce and laughing didn’t mix.

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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Jessie smiled a lot when Brian came out with the gremlins line but more than that was them eating having fun and joining together. Between Brian, Nick and Lindsey they’d sort of grown by three people and ten total if you added in the rest of Dan’s gamer group.

They pretty much took up most of the long cafeteria tables and they were getting looks. Not just by the Sith but everyone. He could get that, it’s like a new clique or social front was growing.

Social front…He liked that.

Lunch was the best time so far that Jessie had since coming to the school and he couldn’t help but smile and laugh as things went on at the table. Jokes, talking about gaming and comics with Brian getting more geek-cred by having really good scores at the Halo games and apparently a really respectable collection of Batman comics.

And it seemed the Johnny was charming him more than a little as he kept looking at her and she was laughing and talking with people at the table and everyone was having a good time.

This was pissing the Sith off to no end really. They kept looking at their table and whispering and glaring and they looked as mad as a republican at one of their own siding with the democrats.

Jessie was sure the girls might actually be the maddest really because as far as Jess could tell Brian was one of the better school athletes and that meant high-school fame and prestige if not plans for more.

And he was slipping out of their glitz and manicured claws.

Lunch was getting close to ending and they were packing things away and Jessie slipped up to Honey and Lindsey. “The witches are angry. Keep an eye out, I think they might try something.”

Lindsey nodded. “Yeah, especially with Johnny-girl. They’re a vicious band of twunts.”

“Twunt?” Jess head tilted. “Sorry, I’m not used to being home yet.”

“It’s a mix of twit and cunt.” Honey offers up. Lindsey nods. “Perfect word actually as they're the worse kind of girl honestly and really, really stupid too.”

He smiled and covered his mouth with his hand and nodded. “Okay…that’s twisted but just be careful okay. We’ll try to be around between classes but we might not be able to get there before the future Wall mart employee section gets to you.”

The girls laughed and they got some looks from the popular kids as they left early and en masse.

Some of the boys in the group shot Jessie some nasty looks as they went past and a couple even flexed and tensed like they were trying to threaten him or intimidate him with their size.

There’s was a cough as Brian started putting garbage in the bins and the recyclables. “Guys…”

There was a bunch of different grunts from them as they left after that.

Brian looked at them blushing. “Sorry…I really, I honestly don’t have the words guys.”

Lindsey nodded patting his shoulder. “It’s okay Brian, when people live outside civilization sometimes they lose their words, it’ll come back.”

They chuckled and headed off to their classes with some of them in the same classes or in the same directions staying together in groups after a quick stop at the doors of the cafeteria. Jessie asked. “Classes? Who’s going where? Camera phones?”

And it only really took about three seconds for everyone there but Brian to get it. Everyone in the group had been bullied or badly bullied even to the point of violence before. There was a quick exchange of information and checking the phones and stuff…once the others that were still sort of new to what they were doing looked actually like someone had took some pressure off them.

Brian stood there and watched Johnny leaving with Danny and at how they were talking. He looked over to Jessie. “Are they…?”

Jess raised an eyebrow. “Are they?”

“Y’know, dating.”

“They’re going out tonight but it’s their first time.”

“Oh…I didn’t know Johnny was dating.”

Jessie smirked. “Johnny didn’t know she was dating.”

“Huh, how’s that work?”

“She was set up to go out with Dan.”

“Oh…Why?”

“Well, if I had to say it’s to get her off the bench and into the game as the saying goes.”

“Oh, you think…?”

“Ask her.”

“But, I mean…”

“You don’t want to ask her out?”

“I dunno…” Brian looked down like he was struggling with the whole thing.

Jessie started walking with him heading for class. “Brian? You ever date a girl and not have sex?”

“I’ve been with Britney for quite awhile but yeah before her it wasn’t like I assumed it was going to happen.”

“So…you’re not looking to get into Johnny pants?”

“No! Dude, I don’t go for the whole pressuring someone to have sex stuff.”

“So…?”

“Huh?”

“So…if you don’t care about the sex... say until you really like the person then why don’t you just ask her out?”

“Because I’m chicken, what will people say?”

“They say what they’re already saying Brian, if they’re damning you for doing it shouldn’t you be at least having a damned good time?”

He blinked a few times, then smiled. “Okay…yeah, but I’ll wait until we see what happens with Danny and her. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.”

Jessie nodded. “Sound plan besides Danny needs the confidence from the date as much as Johnny does.”

“You’re really weird you know that Jessie.”

Jessie walked backwards starting to take another hallway and did a sort of chest pop and a gesture at his chest with both hands. “Really just noticing that?”

They both sort of left chuckling and heading off to their classes.

*Johnny………… Lunch had gone off really well with the lasagna and the food and everyone getting along and there were a whole bunch of people there that just made things all the better.

Being together was a lot of fun.

Even better being together was safe.

Even in this group it was safe and not because there was safety in numbers and it kept them safe from the goons but it’s because she felt that here she could just be herself. And she relaxed enough that she hadn’t thought about being called names or stared at like she was a freak or any thing like that they all seemed to get it.

And then if that all wasn’t cool enough Brian showed up to join them at their table. That was actually a big thing because he was really good looking in that Channing Tatum boy kind of way and he was popular or rather he was until this thing with Britney.

And there’s the thing…

If Brian really wanted to he could have gone over to the other side and he could have used his goods looks and team position and the fact that Britney had ditched school in her need for the drama and he really could have done damage control. A little show of force, some butt kissing with the girls and throw a party and he’d be on top in no time.

But instead he didn’t he got a tray of drinks and he came over heart in his hand and asked to join them.

And he was a pretty decent and funny guy actually.

But she…

No, he knew what she was so he couldn’t right?

Danny coughed and she looked over at him as they walked to class. “Sorry I was spacing out there.”

He looked at her and he nodded. “Brian?”

“A little. He’s cute and all but I don’t know.”

“Don’t know what?”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why he’s hanging with us, I mean he could’ve gone back and smoothed things over.”

Danny looked at her. “You think he really wants to go back to that, to people like them?”

“It didn’t sound like it.”

“See? There you go.”

“Okay…”

“So…?”

“So….?”

“Tonight, what do you want to do?”

Johnny looked at Dan. “You don’t have to…”

“I want to, why the hell wouldn’t I want to be the first guy in school to date a pretty girl like you?”

“Dan…”

“I’m serious.” He looked at her without the usual kidding grim but with serious eyes that still had that shine in them. That Danny-Spark.

She blushed and they stopped at the staircase. “Uhm I don’t know you asked me remember.”

“Okay hey, I’ll surprise you then.”

“Uhm…sure?” She was really nervous because it was still Dan and he was thinking about surprising her… “Hey, what should I wear?”

He grinned his usual big grin and she smacked him in the arm for it. He smiled at her. “Okay how about dinner and a movie?”

“Actually since I’ve never that sounds great Danny.”

“Good I’ll come get you at six so we can get to the show with time for parking and everything?”

“Movies first?”

“Yeah that’s what I was thinking then something to eat?”

“That sounds perfect Danny.”

“Good.” He beamed.

“Danny?”

“Yes?”

Johnny leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll see you at six.”

She smiled all the way to class and even hummed a little. She liked Dan; there was just something about him that made stuff better. And a big part of that was the fact he got serious. When he got serious with her it just sort of drove home that she mattered and that he was talking this date seriously.

And when a guy takes a date seriously that means he likes you.

Right?

And that was definitely something to smile about.

*Kenyon…………Gym class was their last class of the day and finally where he had to see Jessie. He had been sort of avoiding him since the whole incident before. But avoiding him hadn’t helped him any because if anything feeling guilty over avoiding him made him think about him even more.

The entire class was rough.

Changing had shown them once again that Jessie wasn’t going to hide what was going on with him and of course the guys being guys even though Jessie was a guy stared and made guy comments about Jessie’s breasts and he just took it in stride and there was no real show because he turned his back as he undid his bra and put on the sports bra.

Why couldn’t he do the same as he changed into his jock?

Ow…

Just the thoughts made his throat hurt and mouth go dry as he had to swallow.

And class was pretty much basketball which was okay because Kenyon had played and practiced a lot so he’d have a shot at being way cooler here than he was in junior high. But Jessie was a serious distraction.

And now was the end of class and the showers.

He was so glad that they actually had stalls in the showers here. It took very little warm water and soap and the thoughts already in his head to find himself in an embarrassing state and looking at other people that Jessie wasn’t overly helping yes some of the guys in the class would make a redwood go limp but there were others…

That looked good.

Not yummy or all the gay flaming or gay so you’re a sex addict things but as much as he tried not to find good things about some of the guys that were decent looking well…they were decent looking.

Gay…why did he have to be gay?

He didn’t want to be gay? He’d worked out so much to get into shape and to look good to…

Oh god was he one of those gym gays?

Kenyon closed his eyes and shoved his head under the water and just let it try to get rid of that feeling. Gay gym rat guy was just as bad a cliché in his opinion as the limp wristed flaming gay guys were.

Well…one good thing being this upset had calmed his embarrassing problem down for him a lot.

It had gotten quiet and he was alone when he opened his eyes and he finished showering and headed off to get dried and changed and Jessie was there waiting.

Jessie looked at him. “Are you okay?”

Kenyon looked around. “No…not really.”

“Are you still upset about morning break?”

“Yeah…”

“Okay.”

“No, it’s not okay.”

“That’s what I meant, its okay that it’s not okay.”

“Oh.”

“You think that you can give me a lift?”

“Huh?”

“Dan’s taking Johnny out and I figured I’d just give him the car right now and let him get used to it.”

“Uhm…sure.”

They left and went to the lockers and met up with the others and they all piled into the cars with Nick and Lindsey getting rides with them too and Donnie, the cars were pretty full leaving school and Danny was obviously thrilled and a bit awed at Jessie loaning him his car for the night.

Kenyon had to admit he would be too. A car is a big deal as a teenager and his took him forever to get and pay for and it was still just on the nice side of being an old beater car. But he’d have never lent his car to any of his old friends from school. Hell really it was the first time he’d heard of anyone doing that before.

He had Jessie riding shotgun and Nick and Donnie in the back seat and they drove Nick home first. He watched Jessie putting Nick’s address into his phone. So did Nick who used his phone to ask.

“Why are you recording my address?”

Jessie looked at him. “I heard what Keith did and you come in on the bus and really with everything going on it might be a better idea to ditch the bus for awhile and get a ride to school with one of us.”

“But, that’s out of your way?”

“Well it’s safer and a whole lot more douchebag free.” Jessie looked at Nick who despite being pretty rough going with stuff socially looked back and then nodded and offered his hand to Jessie.

“Thank you.” Then he turned to Kenyon. “Thank you too.”

Kenyon nodded. “Not a problem one of use will pick you up in the morning okay?”

Nick signed “Yes.” With a smile.

Okay…he thought, okay the little bit of light there in Nick’s eyes like there was something that was good that happened for once…okay maybe being gay has one advantage? He didn’t think he’d have felt this good in a relation…reflationary way?

Like how a girl would sort of have a different way of seeing Nick this happy compared to a normal guy. It was actually this kind of odd yet sweet feeling. And he sort of could see Nick being cute in this nerdy guy sort of way.

Donnie was next and he lived in an older but decent sized apartment building on one of the streets not too out of the way to Jessie’s house. Donnie was smiles and he was kind of quiet for the few minutes they were driving. He was different, a geek and yet kind of a skater boy too with a bit of the whole street look with the shaved head and stuff. Still despite all of that he seemed like a nice guy and despite living in Chicago all of his life Kenyon never really had any black friends.

Oh he wasn’t prejudiced or anything but he was really white and while he knew lots of black people none of them really extended the olive branch to him before. He was actually slightly proud that he’d made a black friend.

And then it was just him and Jessie.

He headed for Jessie’s house and it was suddenly awkward and quiet and he felt his hands getting damp on the steering wheel but before long they were at Jessie’s house.

It was a very nice house actually one of those older homes that was renovated recently as some of the older working class neighborhoods became more gentrified and joined the sub-burbs.

He stopped in the driveway and Jessie was looking at him. “Kenyon it’ll be okay.”

“Really? So how do you know that Jess?”

“It just is.” He shrugged.

“No, it’s not…I mean what happened today and the thoughts that I keep having and you…”

“Me?”

“Yes, you…I could almost handle this y’know but I am so seriously crushing on you Jess it scares me.”

“Okay.” Jessie actually smiled at him.

“Okay what?”

“Just Okay…you are who you are it’s not likely going to change Kenyon.”

“Great…”

“Could be.”

“What do you mean could be?”

Jessie opened the car door but looked at him. “What will your parents think?”

“They’ll be shocked Dad’s sort of a manly man but my uncle’s gay so they might be good with it…my brothers…well I’m not so sure but they’re away at college.”

“Well then that’s not too bad then, it could be a lot worse?”

“Yeah well it is, I never asked for this and it’s freaking me the hell out Jessie. I’m really not getting what the heck you think could be great about this?”

“Well if you ever get to the point where you might be okay with yourself enough to ask me out and I’m not seeing anyone Kenyon…then…”

Jessie leaned back into the car enough to give him this light kiss on the cheek. “Then it might be great?”

He got out and he closed the door and walked backwards watching him and smiling. He pulled out of the driveway almost on autopilot and he just drove.

It was just a kiss on the cheek.

But he smelled so good, and was it true…was Jessie that open that he’d consider being with a guy as much as being with a girl?

He pulled into home and just sat behind the wheel and rested his forehead on it just needing to think for awhile.

The thing that kept playing through his mind was that he sort of wished that Jessie had kissed him on the lips.

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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For Danny it was very cool and more than a little way out into unknown territory. He’s been on a few dates back in junior high but they had been those very junior high dates with the parents and being chaperoned and while he noticed girls then he had a lot less ideas about them compared to now.

Then there was the fact that he had gotten a date with Johnny. He’d sort of went through stuff in life with a different attitude. He had never fit into any of the molds that people sort of fit like the other kids did.

He was short and slender and yes he was a geek but he was still different even still he listened to off the beaten path music liked hard rock and but almost all sorts of other music and he liked social stuff…some kids never thought too much past the status quo as being anything other than just the way things were or why bother or it suck and of course it’s just not fair.

He’d always knew life wasn’t fair, things needed people to act. Get off their butts and stop taking stuff. It’s why he was proud of being a bit different it was why he and Jessie just clicked as friends really though still new friends it’d already turned into a pretty strong friendship considering he was driving Jessie’s car tonight.

He smiled as he dried off from the shower he’d taken there was really not that many people that you could say were friends that’d do that.

He shaved even though it was futile actually at his age he was actually pretty fair skinned with the Irish and the Scot in his family tree. He did go sparingly on the aftershave and stuff he knew from just listening that there was one thing worse than smelling funky and that was bathing in the stuff. Though he sort of hoped that the aftershave he did have wasn’t too cheap? He had no clue as to how women judged things like that with guys. You’d read on thing online only to have it mean something else or be contradicted on another.

He went with Old Spice because well one it wasn’t Axe and Two he loved the commercials for it and the ones that mad fun of it. Grover’s smell like a monster on YouTube was awesome.

He tried some different things with his hair and some different shirts and jeans trying for the right look. He ended up going with an actual shirt with buttons and everything and he agonized back and forth over the tie and actually decided to wear it even if he was wearing jeans with it.

He went down stairs and his dad was looking out the window at Jessie’s car. The looked at Dan. He knew his dad was okay but at the same time he was not of the same generation.

At all…

“You take care of that car; he was good enough to lend it to you.”

“Yes sir.”

He mad a sort of a face. “I imagine she likes that hair?”

Dan shrugged; the hair was a thing with his dad. A hard working guy there was a certain amount of stuff that he’d be okay with. The length might have been something that he’d have just let slide but when he dyed it blue his dad wasn’t happy.

And he really didn’t get the comics, or the games that he was into either. That was something that his dad just didn’t get why you’d be interested in stuff that was make believe over living in the real world.

It’s just sometimes the real world needs to be less real. Sometimes you need things to make you feel like things can be better or that sometimes the good can outweigh the bad stuff and just sometimes you just need to step back. Sometimes characters in a role play can be better than the people in your real life.

But it wasn’t like Dan shut out the world, he wasn’t one of those people but it was…there was art to the whole thing things in comics and games and science fiction and fantasy moved him like music could for some or like old school hanging art for others.

But his dad and siblings really didn’t get the point of all of it and ruled it all kids stuff.

He wasn’t a bad guy but they really didn’t get him. His older siblings sure, well his older brothers. His dad was great with his sisters until they hit puberty and then the became “women.” Okay it was kinda funny that as soon as they had started getting their periods he got so atypical guy squeamish. He’d actually try and be elsewhere even when the women started talking about that stuff.

He wasn’t sure though how he’d take he was going out with Johnny. They were catholic as a family and they mostly went to church for the big things and at least once a month work permitting and even though his brothers were kind of the tough talking bigoted guys…sometimes, it really depended who they were with.

But his dad and his mom never really said that much about the whole LGBT thing.

And right now he wasn’t going to ask. Besides Johnny was a girl.

His dad gave him that uh-huh look and took out three twenties. “Be sure and take her to someplace decent no fast food joints okay Dan?”

“Yessir.”

“And put some gas in the car too; leave Jessie with more in the tank than when he lent it to you okay.”

“Yessir.”

“Alright have fun.”

Dan left before his mother got in on the act and started her fussing over him and everything and likely making him feel even more nervous than he already was.

He started the car up and he drove being careful and taking his time to get to Johnny’s place and he got out and really nervous he went to the porch and rang the doorbell.

Her dad came to the door and opened it. “Evening Danny come on in.”

He went inside making sure to wipe his feet mostly out of habit. “Thank you sir I’m here to pick up your daughter.” Man….that tie was tight wasn’t it?

“She’ll be right down can I get you something to drink?”

“No sir I’m good.”

“Okay, well I’ve got a pot roast to check so.”

“Yessir.” Oh wow it was warm in here.

It seemed like a really long time before he heard the click of heels on wood and he looked up the stairs to see Johnny coming down looking really nice. Really nice.

*Johnny…………

She hadn’t expected to get a date. Actually she had really never thought that she’d get to have a date with a boy ever. Well she had dreams of that happening like once she was old enough for surgery, even if she was still sometimes riding the fence about things sometimes (Which her shrink said was normal and healthy.” Johnny still had dreams about getting the surgery and getting herself made into the person she felt she really was so much of the time.

So she often dreamt of girl things, simple stuff like being able to tan or go to the pool without having to worry about that thing or just having real breasts and just things as simple as putting on a bra and adjusting everything that was real and stuff like that.

She often wondered if GG’s (Genetic Girls) dreamt of things like the simple joy of being able to wear a tube top.

But a date…a real date even if it was one of her friends and in her junior year too. It was exciting and really scary at the same time.

But once she thought about it and really thought about it this was what she had wanted. This was the life that she needed to live and not the one where she walked around miserable and facing the testostrocutioner.

Yeah she made that word up for the whole male puberty demon that she had dodged. She’d been lucky enough to get put on hormone blockers and stopped things just as the seemed like they were starting.

Before her life had been like she knew inside that she wasn’t this guy she was becoming and the older she got the more frustrated and worse the number she felt. Like she’d been wrapped up in an alien, possessed from the outside instead of the inside. It had been hell.

An only child she did have moments where she worried about her dad and stuff like the family name and not being his son anymore. It was part of the reason that she still had some of her boy things…after her last school when she had gotten out of the hospital she had purged everything she had girly and she killed Jennifer.

That’s the name she had tried to use then.

She didn’t mind it still but Jennifer was full of really bad memories and when she had started to need to be her again she had seen several people like her online that had kept their boy names in a way of standing up against the transphobics out there.

And she was standing up for herself more.

Her mom actually had kicked her into it more than the shrink. “If you’re a girl Johnny then you’re a girl with the good and the bad.”

“Mom…I’ll never have stuff like a period and all that.”

“No, likely not but honey if you’re really a girl inside then you are allowed to be a bitch when you need to be.”

“Mom?”

“Johnny, I was really on edge of saying this and all the stuff that happened with your old school but you need to stand up for yourself more. You were trying so hard to be the perfect girl around all of those people that you let them treat you like a doormat.”

So she did try and to stand up for herself. And it was hard. She had moved her late last year and she didn’t have the marks or the time to pass into being a sophomore so she was still a freshman and even when they had found out she still faced up to things. She still took the classes she wanted to take and even if she was alone or had been alone she refused to have them make her leave being in public like eating lunch in the cafeteria.

Sure no one sat with her and she was teased and tripped and treated like a leper but she was out…there was no one in school that didn’t know who and what she was and she still was able to keep up the brave from enough that she ate there in public and if her reality made people uncomfortable she didn’t care.

She was so done with eating her lunch out on the bleachers or the steps or hiding out in the hallways.

It was like real knights though when Jessie and Danny befriended her and then things stared to get rough again but at the same time better, so much better because she wasn’t in the fight alone.

It was that kind of mind set she hung onto when the whole reality of actually going out on a date in public with a boy hit her as she was trying to get ready for her date.

She had nearly trashed her room for all the clothes and cast aside outfits that didn’t make the grade and at the same time she…she kind of loved every nervy moment. These messed up nervy girl moments were exactly what she had always wanted really.

She nervous but happy she eventually settled enough to go with something nice.

She started with her prettiest coral bra and panties because nothing makes a girl start to feel pretty like nice underthings and she secured her breast forms on really good with the double sided adhesive tape and it wasn’t for getting noticed or having a wardrobe malfunction but to feel them more when she moved and swayed. She even wore her gaff under her panties which made her feel even more right.

She wore some nice perfume and just a little make up and for her outfit she went with a nice grey skirt not too long and not too short but one that went well with her long pink cashmere sweater that came partway down her skirt and she set it off with a slender white belt and matched her white belt with thigh high stay up stockings. She went with a faux pearl choker and a pair of white gold earring studs in the shape of cat faces. A pair of her grey goes with everything two inch heels and she thought she looked okay.

She really, really hoped that she looked okay.

Okay…

Wow…

Oh…so okay the look on Danny’s face when she came down the stairs and knowing all the stuff that he knows and he still was looking at her that way was just.

She was actually trying not to tear up from getting looked at like she was actually pretty.

Even as far as she’d come there were times where you just look in the mirror or at something about yourself and feel ingenuine.

Danny was…no he had already made her night already.

And the fact he looked really cute didn’t hurt that feeling either. Even with his blue dyed hair he looked cute, not bad cute or insulting cute but geeky on the edge of cool cute. Glassed and black jeans and shoes instead of sneakers but a nice navy blue button down dress shirt with long sleeves and a nice simple back tie was a really nice look on his slender frame.

He smiled that big Danny happy smile and she smiled back. “You look amazing Johnny.”

She blushed. “Thanks, not too much?”

“No, absolutely not…me?”

“I like it it’s definitely a change from the usual Dan look.”

“So more often then?”

“No…but on dates yeah…it’ll give us girls something to look forward too and getting to enjoy a guy that’s not too into the fact that he looks better than we do.”

Danny laughed because there was a few of them at school and not the openly gay guys or the so called metrosexuals but just those guys that were always in the mirror and always had to look cool.

“Ready to go?”

“Just give me a minute so I can tell dad we’re going.” She kissed his cheek before heading into the kitchen and she checked in with her dad who gave her some just in case of cab fare money and made sure that her phone was charged and working.

Dan even had offered his hand down her steps and opened the car door for her which was cool and she took her time getting the whole slipping into the seat right, and god it felt so right. Johnny liked the way she could feel Danny watching her do that. It made her feel pretty.

He got into the car and they drove for a bit until they got to one of the nearby malls and parked in the parking garage in a place close to the elevator or as close as Dan could get so she wouldn’t have to walk too far in the parking garage and they headed inside.

He offered his arm for her to take as they walked through the mall and they headed to the movie theatre. There were a lot of different shows playing and she smiled when he looked happy and surprised when she really wanted to see that new science fiction movie Avatar that everyone had been talking about since it had come out.

He paid which was so different and really nice and he even bought their treats. She was blushing and she really tried to just get something not too expensive. She really didn’t want to be one of those girls that broke a boy’s wallet.

But it was really nice to get the full treatment and to have him being all mannerly even if he wasn’t all like formal and stuff he was still Danny after all which actually made things better.

There were a few of the other kids there from their school and while not part of the whole alpha crowd they knew who she was and they stared at both of them a bit and while it made her really sort of shaky and nervous inside she just smiled at them and gave a few nods and hoped that they wouldn’t start spreading her secret around…not that it was a secret.

“Johnny? So where did you what to eat at after the show.”

Dan said it out loud well loud enough to hear and there were a few looks and he took her free hand with his and he gave them all a look like… go ahead say something.

There might have been people there that might have said something but there was this look there in his eyes that was nice…and it was strong…that strong on the inside thing that was actually really something once you got a look at it.

It was that same kind of brave inside stuff she had seen him showing when he was in the alley fight with Jessie.

He took her hand and the walked to the theatre room with the other people going to the show and she finally found her voice mid blush. “I’m…I’m pretty much good with anything…you didn’t make reservations or something did you?”

“No, but I’m under strict parental orders to not take a date to a fast food place.” He smiled but there was a bit of a blush there too on him which following that stand up brave showed his cute side all over again but sort of new too.

“Okay…you have anyplace you want to go?”

He smiled and there was some of the Dan mischief there. “You like diner food?”

“Don’t know I’ve never been to one before.”

Again with that smile. “Good.”

Okay it was going to be some kind of a surprise and she was and wasn’t a fan of them this actually was kind of fun to see what he had planned. He helped her to her seat and he held her things and made sure she was all settled and comfortable before sitting down with her and it made her night just a little bit more yay when she heard some of the ones that had gone to the same show and knew saying.

“Uhm hello…why are you doing that kind of stuff?”

Okay it was sort of petty and definitely sort of a teen girl assertion thing but she smiled as she sipped her diet seven up and Dan took her 3-D glasses out of the package for her.

It was such a good night so far.

*Jessie…………

Okay so he had kissed Kenyon on the cheek when he had dropped him off. It was…well it was really different. Not that he had a lot of experience with girls either and he was sort of sure this wasn’t some hormonal thing since other than his condition he didn’t really have the whole female hormone thing running through his system. Well not enough to really do that to him.

No…this just sort of felt right? He honestly had wrestled with his own ideas to his sexuality since he had started budding and it became a factor. He had even read up a lot about human sexuality trying to find an answer but after everything was said and done he wasn’t sure that he cared about the sex of someone that he was attracted to. And he liked Kenyon as a person and Kenyon had been going through his own troubles with his own sexuality.

He kissed him to well maybe show him that it was okay. That he at least was okay with Kenyon being Kenyon.

Though the after feel of that little hint of teen stubble on his lips was intriguing. And kissing his first boy on the cheek in a non-greeting way didn’t seem to cause the world to come to a screeching halt.

It was a sensation that did seem to make him think though. Or rather kind of enjoy it? Yes he’d have to say that it was actually one of the good points of the day.

He went inside and too off his shoes and set them aside on the little bench landing they had just for shoes. It was one of the things that his parents had kept as a custom from living in Japan and that was that little foyer in the front for changing your shoes and to also hang up their coats and things.

It did he had to admit saved a lot of housework. He generally though went around the house barefoot so off went the socks with the sneakers and he took his books that he knew he had assignments it to the kitchen table and he set everything up to study. He took that as a study lesson from over there too. Before you even get started your homework you set out it all to the questions and get a nice fresh page to work on for each thing and set each in a pile separately.

It seemed a lot less or that you got a lot more done as you only faced one subject at a time and then you could look at the pile of things that you did and that feeling of accomplishment helped spur you on.

I Jessie’s case he was the only one home at the moment with both parents working until later so he set up his lessons and started supper. He wanted some thing different so he looked through the pantry until he found the things he wanted and some things from the fridge and he opened and crumbled some TVP (Texture Vegetable Protein.) into a bowl and some of last night’s leftover rice and then added a small container of silken tofu and then some brown miso paste and soy sauce then his secret beef like ingredient…some cold black coffee. It added just something earthy that blended into the miso and soy sauce that reminded you of that earth flavor. He mixed it together really well it was his on the fly attempt at vegetarian hamburger it was a bit wet and loose but a few shakes of instant potatoes had that fixed.

It sounds like very Asian and stuff but his mother was trying to have them eat a few meat free meals once in awhile and honestly Jessie didn’t mind once he had the texture the way he wanted he made burger patties with it and he started on the topping for veggie burgers.

Part of the biggest part of getting people to like this kind of food was to show then t didn’t suck. The miso and the soy had enough umami to have it remind you of meat and rolling them in rice flour before you fried them made them this nice brown crispy crust.

Then toppings, lettuce and tomato sure but some really thin sliced onion and some of his favorite were carrot and cucumber and zucchini all in ribbons from just peeling them down to nothing with a hand peeler. Then the condiments were pretty simple and the standard except for the hummus and the babaganuche.

He made a salad to go on the side with mixed greens and some green and red peppers and ribbons of sweet potato like he did with the carrots.

He smiled actually impressed that he had put together a vegan meal. He was actually a pretty self sufficient person with both parents having worked and still worked he had learned to do a lot of things that it seemed a lot of the other teens especially here in American didn’t seem to know or want to know.

Jessie made a coffee with the Keurig maker and sat down and started to go through his homework getting things done to have the rest of the night to himself.

His mom made it home first followed by his dad a half an hour later and while his mom was sort of worried about him lending Dan the car his dad was okay with it because it was Jess’s car and he could do what he wanted with it as long as he knew that he was responsible for it.

After supper he and his dad worked for awhile on the finished basement that they were trying to make for the house as either a den or maybe a room for movies and stuff if he had company over. They had most of the styrofoam installed and had gotten the strapping laid across the two by fours. That was all going to be the easy stuff it’s be the drywall and mudding the drywall that would take the most time and work.

Jess headed up to his room after that and straighten things up a bit and unpacked a little more. They as a family had collected a lot of things in the different places they had lived and there even now had been a lot of things still in boxes and totes.

Actually the first thing he had to do was to put together the shelving units that his dad had got him. They were just tin and painted grey but they worked and Jess put the last of them together with the screws and bolts and fixed them to his walls for some extra support and he spent the rest of the time listening to music as he shelved his books and his manga and the little knick knacks that he had from all over.

It actually took a long time to make things look descent. He did need a few other things eventually like a potted plant or two just to put something green in there and he had a few paintings that he wanted to hang up.

It took him more time than he wanted but his room looked actually more like his room than it ever had since…well a long time. Moving around a lot had this whole semi-permanence thing that sucked. It was almost as bad as the havoc it wrought on his grades and transcripts for awhile and having friends.

Everything done he went to the bathroom and ran himself a hot bath. He added a few things to the water and undressed and eased in. Jessie smiled a little as he sighed there were somethings that his condition had that were those good and bad things…like wearing a bra…but then there’s that feeling of taking off the bra. That was a good thing and there was something to the way that the bathwater felt on his breasts that was so soothing.

He didn’t know about the bottom bit but he could see why women liked a bath or enjoyed it more than some guys did. But for Jessie there was nothing quite like a really descent soak. He sighed again and he took a long slow breath and leaned back and slid under the water and just shut out the world and let the water and the heat just let him be.

Just being was a very good thing. If you could just do that or get there for just a few minutes each day he was sure there would be a lot more happy and saner people.

He slowly sat up letting the water slick his hair back and he just laid back and listened to his music and relaxed and let his mind drift.

It went back to the kiss he had given Kenyon.

He had liked doing it actually.

But…

What if it had gone further?

Would he have liked it?

He closed his eyes as his hands drifted up with some of the warm water covering his breasts he held them and gave himself a gentle squeeze…and a caress, then massage…but in Jessie’s head he was trying to picture how this would be…how it would feel if this was Kenyon doing this to him.

His mouth opened partway…it really did feel good and it certainly felt good enough to get him aroused and hard…he was sort of habitually shy of doing things like this or he had been when he was younger but now…now there were possibilities? He had a lot more privacy too and…he arched a little pushing his breasts into his hands and his feet pointed down and flat as he caught his nipples in between his thumb and his forefinger and gently pinched…the rolled the little pointy tips…then held them again and tugged…

Oh…oh that was just amazing…and the feelings and the jolts…he had to bite at his lip from being vocal and he was torn between keeping both hands where they were or freeing a hand to send it further south…

He imagined though Kenyon there…doing this…and reaching down and Jessie pictured Kenyon’s nicely muscled body…and how it might feel to be held by someone like that where it’s the sculpted power, the whole maleness that he’d bring to the bed instead of the soft sweet smells and amazing and delicious curves of a girl.

It wasn’t turning him off and he’d have been loathe to admit to being such a guy and being all…well horn dog and a bit of a pig about it but part of the fantasy slipped into images of Johnny and Honey and even Lindsey…even if most guys might not ever reveal it or act on it they do think about sleeping with their friends.

He had to lay there breathing in an almost state of amazement? Sorta shock? He had never experienced it when everything was going and he felt the usual release he had learned from self experience but there was this other sensation there too like parts of him were humming pleasantly.

He set the was cloth he had used to catch things aside and he soaked in the water until it was cooling and he had recovered enough for a nice scrub and washed his hair and then tidied up the bathroom and headed to bed slipping into the sheets naked and snuggling up to some of his extra pillows like they were someone and he had his arm tucked around them and head resting on them.

It would actually be nice to have someone really there, to hold and to be close with. Jessie wasn’t sure if he’d ever really get to have someone to connect with though. A kiss on a cheek was one thing but more…with the way that he was might be too much for some people…for a lot of people.

He let out a sigh and settled in and decided to maybe let things be a little better while he was dreaming.

*Honey…………

It’s been a good day, there were things that had been kind of freaky and scary like Britney losing her mind over what Johnny had been wearing and the thing where Nick had been jumped that was scary, they beat him up pretty good until Lindsey came along and stood up to them.

Lindsey was actually really impressive; she wasn’t really that well off like a lot of the other kids that she knew. Times were tough in a lot of places including her home too. But despite that and despite the fact that Lindsey wasn’t curvy like the other girls she was really brave.

And that made a whole lot of difference to Honey…she had always been picked on for the opposite reasons but it was so hard to actually say stuff back to some of these people like the Moo girls.

She smiled getting into the house at the way though that Johnny had just sort of taken over and helped Lindsey with her clothes and stuff. She might be skinny and not have a lot of curves but Lindsey did have two things really going for her. One was her long straight blonde hair in that almost Nordic people kind of way and she had legs for miles. By the time Johnny had been done she looked really almost like someone else.

And then there was everything else.

Cooking off the store bought lasagne in Home Ec. And them all getting together for this whole kind of pot luck get together thing and Brian joining them and that nick guy who was really cute in this really seriously almost lethally shy way and the fact that he couldn’t really talk to people because of his stutter and him being able to use his phone and even learning to sigh from that friend of Danny’s Sam…you could see that little bit of ooooh…wait…life doesn’t completely suck?

That was still hitting her.

She was so not used to not having her life sucking all the time. And it had been too, she loved her mom but where they had lost her dad…home was sometimes a big reminder of that loss and home was sort of a refuge from school…because school had been just hell.

If someone had asked her the worst part of all of it she’d have to say it was the terrorism of being bullied. Not like the whole international bad guy stuff on TV but at the same time sort of. Both groups made their victims suffer mostly from waiting to see what they were going to do next to them…or rather her.

It hurts worse than the actually moments of bullying she’d say just because of being scared all the time and having her guard up.

She hated when bad things like school shootings or someone going postal happened but she sort of got it too. The same with teen suicides…really there’s only so much fear you can take and being on guard from being hurt all the time before that does something to you.

For Honey…she had come close to cutting…she had heard of it and she was actually pretty desperate to feel something else other than the stuff she’d been feeling. And she’d maybe have admitted to the appeal of never having to feel things too.

Less than a week, tomorrow would be the first official Friday and the first weekend of the school year and everything had changed so much.

Even her.

Being with the others, seeing them fight and stand up for things or help those that stood up for others like Johnny helping out Lindsey…it was fighting, it was fighting without the going loco and already she’d mouthed off or more like actually said something more now that she ever had in her life.

That felt good.

She did her homework and the laundry and while the weather was nice hung it out to dry. That still got them looks from the neighbours. Apparently having a clothesline and using one wasn’t done. It made you look low rent or so it’d seem. She was ignoring the looks from a few of the neighbour busy bodies.

She didn’t like some of them very much. Sure they were all nice and sweet and stuff when her dad had died after all he was a firefighter but it really hadn’t taken a year for them to have forgotten that and him and start looking at her and her mom as dirty Mexicans.

She waved at them this time and gave them a great big smile and she headed into the house and she got things to start supper but she opened the kitchen window and she looked online for some mariachi music…she really didn’t like it and it wasn’t actually her culture either.

Nope she was putting it on to piss them off a little maybe.

She smiled though as she dumped the hamburger into the pan to start browning as Mrs. Gardner was staring at the house and towards the kitchen with this frown on her face. She really didn’t know the woman that much but enough to know that since her dad died she’d been a complainer and she was still trying to set up one of those neighborhood standards things.

She put the macaroni on to boil and she danced a little bit in the kitchen window. And just maybe the hand that she had the wooden cooking spoon in it might hand had her middle finger showing.

*Lindsey…………

It had been a day for the books and she wasn’t even sure that it was going to be a good one or not. That whole thing with that asshole beating on the poor guy that was so messed up from his social anxiety disorder that he couldn’t really talk to anyone in public…just how was it fair to pick on a guy like that.

So she had to do something.

It’s when you do nothing that the assholes win.

The assholes are always doing some thing.

So she was pretty sure that because she had whacked the bastard in the kisser that there had likely been a phone call home and she was sure to get the reaming out from her parents. Her uncle/dad on her getting involved in something and that she might have been hurt and her aunt/mom with the whole tomboy thing.

Yeah they might be her Aunt Jordan and Uncle Duncan but even with them being the way they were they were heads and shoulders over her bio-parents. It's why they were Mom and Dad now.

Even with that stuff sort of looming over her head the rest of the day was actually likely the best day she’d had in school since like the seventh grade.

By the time eighth grade had rolled around she had her growth spurt and had shot up like crazy and that was about it. The rest of the girls in her class all or most of them had started to get their periods and with that cam their breasts.

They were so smug about it and the kids were total asses out of her being plain…and flat and lacking all the other curves and stuff that other girls kept getting. So either she was being teased or she was ignored…it was mostly the guys that ignored her and sometimes purposely did that and that hurt.

It’s not like she’d ever asked to be like this and she did try a lot at being a girl. She sort of had the clothes for it mind you they were sort of thrift store stuff and hand me downs and heaven forbid that someone wear something that was out of what was the current “in thing.”

It was mostly her common sense that had kept her from getting into too much trouble. She’d never really fit in with the other kids and mostly the other girls and it wasn’t just the looks either. It was her, Lindsey just never really got the girl thing…she did to a point but at the same time the whole whiny, pouty, vapid stuff that they did half of the time just hurt her brain.

Why was that the popular way to act?

Did people really like girls that used their looks to get attention and then acted way dumber than the were or not she swore it was like when they decided on being that kind of dumbassed bimbo that any brains the had got switched off and atrophied or something.

Grrr…

She didn’t really ever get the knack of make-up or any of that girl behaviour either in fact she was kind of asexual…well not she liked guys, there were some men out there that she thought were really fine.

Vin Diesel was really fine and watching him made her definitely feel her girliness but usually it was…aside from her fantasy life most people were great big friggin let downs.

Until today.

She met this ragtag group of people that actually did what they said they’d do and more than besides.

Honey…she was a nice refreshing change. The girl was this sweet shy Hispanic beauty that had these really massive breasts and curves to die for but she was this really nice girl that actually somehow never let the way that she looked get to her head.

It sucked though that she had been dumped on by a lot of the bitches in school. But it said a lot too because a girl like her so could have easily went the other way and went all vapid brain dead super bimbo and taken her place up there in the alpha food chain. She knew that there were some of the Hispanic girls in that club who were “rockin the booty.” And those girls were really not nice girls.

She supposed that’s exactly why they picked on her, cutting the weak gazelle out of the herd.

Actually all of them in the strange mismatched crowd worked even Johnny…yeah wow…Johnny she actually felt bad about not looking passed the whole bullshit about her and not trying to get to know her first.

Like a lot of the kids in school she had made a lot of assumptions and stuff about the tranny boy. Yeah she had lumped Johnny in there with that entire stereotype and she felt bad about it now because after getting to know her…yes her she was a really nice girl. Actually she was a whole lot more of a decent woman than likely half the girls in their school. She’d know all this stuff about clothes and hair and stuff and even though she hadn’t come out and openly said it.

When she had looked in the mirror at the little changes that Johnny had done and the way she had looked with the clothes and stuff her first reaction was “Holy shit.”

It was as close to feeling like a normal girl as she’d felt since puberty. It was actually really nice.

She stopped at the front door to the house and checked herself out just to sort of savor the look before going inside the house and she slipped inside and she headed to her room to try and have some peace and quiet before the lectures began and she’d gotten halfway down the hall before she heard her mom.

“Lindsey is that you?”

“Yes Mom.”

“You want to come here and tell me just what had happened at school today?”

She sighed and turned around and headed to her mom’s room and she went inside setting her books down. “There was this guy getting bullied and I just couldn’t stand there while this moron jock pounded on him for no other good reason than he could.”

Her mom was staring at her.

“What?”

Her mom got off her bed where she was looking through a catalogue and she…she…

She flailed her arms and squeed….

Squeed…

“Oh my god look at you! How! Why!” her mom hugged her and pulled her to the bed. “Okay you sooo have to tell me everything.”

Lindsey closed her eyes as she was being pulled to the bed.

Getting grounded would be less painful she was sure.

*Nick…………..

He looked up at his dad as he came through the door and his dad had asked. “Hey, are you okay? I was called by the vice principal of your school. He said some guy had beaten you up.”

Nick looked down and took off his sneakers. “I…I was. There was this guy and he was making fun of me and he tried to break my computer.”

He didn’t stutter anywhere near as much when he was at home. He looked up at his dad who had a big scowl on his face. “What the hell is going on in this damned country? You kids are there to go to school not to get beat up by a bunch of thugs that should be in juvy.”

Nick nodded and hugged his bag to his chest. “Y..Yeah…”

“Well your mom and I are headed down there right now and we’re meeting the police there too so get your things.”

“Mmm…My things?”

“Yeah I want some answers and we’re definitely pressing charges against this asshole.”

“We..we are?”

“Yes…now come on we’ll go and get your mother at work.”

He put his things back on and he had to do it slowly from the bruises. His dad was usually kind of a hard ass and pushed him to try to be more…out there…he didn’t get that people and places he didn’t know super well and he didn’t mix well.

His dad thought that if he just man’d up that he’d get over it. He knew better, his dad and his mom had been with him to all the therapy appointments and it still was sort of hooey to his dad.

They went out to the car and Nick got in the back seat and his dad looked at him as he started driving. “So did you fight back at least?”

Nick looked down….he was so close to tears why couldn’t he see that he just wasn’t him. He couldn’t be the guy that his dad seemed to think that was buried in there.

“I tried.”

His father shot him another look in the rear view mirror and made a face but just drove a bit faster.

Nick closed his eyes and leaned his head on the glass of the car door window. As if the dad didn’t just suck enough.

*Kenyon…………

The afternoon had been rough; he almost got a ticket going home because he was so distracted he ran a red light. There were no cops around so he’d been lucky that way but his mind was on Jessie.

Jessie had kissed him.

Jessie knew that he was having a hard time… (No puns please) but he had leaned over in the car and he had kissed him on the cheek.

Guys didn’t really do that outside of like cultural stuff like the french did and stuff. So him doing that was so a definite deliberate kiss.

A definite deliberate kiss.

And it had him distracted through supper and through trying to get through his homework and even when he was playing pool with his dad a bit after supper.

His dad cracked a beer and passed Kenyon one. “So…what’s up bud, you’re worse than usual tonight.”

He sipped his beer; yeah his dad was pretty open and a guy’s guys when it came to stuff. So having a chat over pool with your kid was a beer moment. Actually Kenyon didn’t mind that he actually liked beer and his dad didn’t let him drink outside of the house or away from him.

He looked at him….part of him really wanted to open up and tell him. But even if he might be okay with it he might not be either. Being gay was something else entirely when it was under your own roof.

“Nothing much just thinking about someone.”

“Cute?”

“Uhm……” he though and had all these images in his head from gym and the showers and the car. “Uhm…actually really cute.”

“Oh…snap so you’re finally getting some action!” His dad looked and seemed really excited. It nearly made him cringe.

“I dunno, it was just a kiss on the cheek.”

“Oh…but you like her right?”

Kenyon took several large swallows of beer and just nodded.

“Well it’s a start just be yourself and don’t overthink it, overthinking stuff it’s like the worst thing you can do.”

His dad’s motto for sure.

“Okay, I won’t.”

They didn’t say much after that but he could so tell his dad was as happy as it got and even when he left to go to his room he was sure that his dad was bragging the whole thing up to his mom.

He took an extra long shower and went to bed early…maybe he’d be able to get some sleep after tossing and turning and not sleeping the other night.

……………………………………………………..He was so surprised by the kiss and the way that Jessie smelled, he smelled good, nice and he smelled like more.

He reached out and caught him by the wrist as he was leaving the car and Jessie looked back at him with those sexy eyes and some of his long dark hair had come loose from its pony tail and drifted in front of his face.

He had to.

He just had to.

“Kenyon?” Jessie asked and it was almost this sexy quiet whisper.

He didn’t say anything but pulled Jess into the car by his wrist and all the way in until Jess had slid into the car and was resting on his lap.

The look of surprise on Jessie’s face made his eyes all that more sexy, handsome…but more than that…there was this bit of vulnerability there that he could see because Jessie had been hurt before.

He cupped the side of Jessie’s face and slipped his thumb over those sweet lips and he shivered himself as Jessie’s mouth opened in this autoerotic response…god it gave him this shy wanton look that was just.

He leaned in and pinned jess to the steering wheel and he kissed him…he kissed him hungrily and deeply then slowed it down to deliberately and softly and over and over again and Jessie’s hand slid down his ab’s and to his pant’s and pulled him free.

“Jess…Oh Jess…please yes…”

Kenyon’s eyes flickered open as his body took an arch then pumped…into his hand and this long whine came out of him as all the other times he’d done this paled in just how…just how boiling over he was right now.

He fell back panting and he wasn’t seeing spots or stars but those eyes from his dream and he groaned in longing and frustration and pulled his pillow over his face.

*Johnny…………

The movie had quite honestly blown her away; she had always like science fiction and stuff but had always been closer to being a fantasy fan more than that and liked some of the modern horror stuff like on TV too.

C’mon who doesn’t like Supernatural?

The movie was way better than even the hype and it had actually made the date that much better and it had been really good right up to that. But there were little things that made her smile during the movie that had nothing to do with watching it.

Like sharing popcorn and touching hands.

Yeah it was corny as heck but sometimes corny and cliché just work.

After the movie she went to the restroom and there were a few of the girls there that had seen her and knew her or had that knowledge spread about her and she got a lot of looks and some of them were dirty.

A couple of girls she didn’t know were muttering and were getting madder and madder and looked like they were really going to say or do something. She heard one say. “Freak…fucker shouldn’t be here.”

One of the girls from school was nodding and whispering in that one’s ear and Johnny looked at her. “I’ve got a legal right to use the bathrooms just like any other girl Melisa.”

The one she had been talking to took a step towards her. “Like fuck you do get the fuck out of here before…”

“Before what? You and these other girls jump me?”

She got a predatory look on her face and smiled at Johnny and looked to her friends. They were definitely getting that same look.

Johnny reached into her purse and in one hand she took out her lipstick and in the other hand she took of her can of pepper spray. She smiled and re-did her lipstick as Melisa and company backed off. “You can’t have that!” Melisa squawked pissed and scared.

Johnny used her pinky to wipe away a little extra lipstick getting things just right. She didn’t even really look at them instead using the mirror to keep them in sight. “Sure I can Missy, see the thing is this isn’t school, I can actually have something to keep people like you from jumping me because they’re bigoted bitches and closeted lesbians.”

Melisa glared and was trying to think of something to say but Johnny turned and stared and smiled at then and backed her way out of the bathroom. “Later ladies it’s been fun.”

She left heading as fast as she could to meet up with Danny and he looked at her and took her hand and started walking. “What happened, you’re upset?”

“Effing bigots….some of the girls got some of the other girls all pissed off about me using the ladies room.”

“You have every right to use it too.” He sounded a bit offended, offended and concerned.

“Yeah well apparently to them you need a uterus to take a damned pee.” She sniffled.

They quickly went to the car and Dan pulled out pretty fast too and he started driving and he was she thought actually looking for trouble? Yeah they might have had boyfriends…just great…just effing great she thought.

It brought up some bad memories and a lot of hurt feeling and she didn’t want this to happen, she really didn’t. She started to sniffle and tears came shortly after.

“Dammit…I hate this…” (Sniffle.) She looked over to him. “God Danny I’m sorry, I’m muffing this all up aren’t I?”

He stopped the car at the lights and he reached over and he pulled her across the seat to him and smiled at her. He gave her a light kiss on the lips. “No, not at all Johnny, you didn’t do this they did.”

(Sniffle.) “Are you sure?”

“Yeah I’m sure…hey just lean here on me and I’ll fix this.”

(Sniffle.) “Fix it?”

“Trust me.”

She looked him in the eyes when her asked her that and he looked her back and he really did seem to know what he was asking from her…she could see it in his eyes and that honest sweet and still goofy sort of smile he had on.

“Okay…”

Johnny leaned on him and dabbed at her eyes and even closed them for a bit as he drove and he finally stopped the car. She wasn’t really familiar with the part of town they were in but they were close to the interstate and they were parked in front of this old styled diner with the big windows and all the neon and stuff.

“We’re here.”

“Okay…I’m not really hungry now…”

“They have cake….”

(Sniffle.) “I like cake.”

He did the gentlemanly thing again and that actually felt good even after the thing with Missy and them and he opened the door to the diner and they went inside and got a booth down at the far end of the place near one of those old fashioned jukeboxes.

Okay half way into a slice of really good red velvet cake and a few sips of a strawberry milkshake and she was smiling at him again.

“Thanks Danny, this…this helped a lot.”

He smiled. “I’m glad.” Then he got up and he went to the jukebox and he put some money in and it started to play. He reached over and he pulled her up to her feet and started dancing to these old songs from the fifties and the sixties with her and a few other people that were there dining as couples did the same….

It was…

(Sniffle-Glomp.) “Danny…”

“Hmmm….”

“Thank you for making it better.”

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To Be Continued...

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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*Brian…………

It had been right up there in the days that completely sucked really. All the stuff with Britney and getting into the fight in the hall and in trouble it stirred up even if he hadn’t started the fight.

Yeah lots of trouble.

He had to wait after school for the police and his dad to show up since when he got out of class and headed to his car he found it keyed with scratches and even some things like fag, and bastard and asshole scratched in the paint and his tires had been slashed too.

He looked at his dad as his father got into the van and started to drive. He didn’t say much for at least three sets of lights then he pulled them into Wendy’s and parked.

“C’mon Bry lets get something to eat.”

“Okay…” His dad was taking this pretty calmly. His car had been taken to his dad’s mechanic shop by tow truck after the police had gotten done with it. So far he hadn’t batted an eye over any of this.

They went inside and ordered. Wendy’s wasn’t his first choice but his dad liked the frosties and to Brian food was food most of the time. He opened and bit into his burger and his dad was spooning into his chili and after a few bites asked.

“So what happened between you and Brit?’

“We broke up.”

“She didn’t take it well.”

Brian sort of smiled and shook his head as he chewed. “No.” he said after swallowing.

“So…what’s this I heard about you liking a guy?”

Brian blushed. “It’s not like it sounds dad, her name is Johnny but she’s one of those trans people.”

His dad raised and eyebrow as he sucked on his frostie.

Brian took a drink of his Coke. “She’s a girl born in the wrong gender.”

“And you like them?”

“I think we’re supposed to say her dad.”

“Okay, so you like her?”

“Yes, No…I mean I was thinking about it.”

“Son you either like someone or you usually don’t.”

“Dad, it’s pretty scary stuff.”

“Worthwhile things usually are.”

“Huh…What? I thought that you’d be freaking out?”

“Are you two sleeping together?”

“No!”

“Dating?”

“No, but I was kinda thinking about asking her out maybe.”

“So that’s fine but can I ask why you like her? Is she pretty?”

“Yeah, actually she is but not like in that whole she’s hot and that’s why I like her thing.”

“Okay then why?”

“I think she’s a good person…she’s actually nice.”

“Nicer than Britney?”

“Oh hell yeah, Britney’s….”

“Britney was a bitch.”

“Dad!” He stared at his dad, he’d never really came out and said stuff like that. He took a breath and looked at his father. “I thought you liked Britney.”

“No. I tolerated her.”

“Why?”

“Mostly because you’re a teenager and if I told you that your mother and I hated your girlfriend it might have pushed you deeper into being with her.”

“You guys both didn’t like her?”

“Hmm, let’s see….she’d be over at our house and it was like you could feel her planning on just how to spend our money, she’s mean to little kids according to your mother whose friends say she was a nightmare as a baby sitter. She’s mean spirited, a bully…again from your mother and entitled. It’s her huge sense of being entitled that rubbed me the wrong way Bry. I didn’t like being made to feel like we were luck that you two were dating and that we were lucky to be in her presence.”

Brian nodded. “She got worse this year day she’s obsessed with social climbing and she thinks she gets higher the more people she steps on.”

“You’re better off without her Bry.”

“But you’re okay if I’m interested in her…then?”

“Bry as long as you’re happy and careful you’re mother and I will stand by you.”

Brian sighed with relief and they finished eating and his dad went and got something that would be warmer for his mom and they headed home.

His mom was looking at them when they both came through the doors. She was eating popcorn casually and the cordless phone from the living room was smashed to bits on the floor. She smiled at both of them and looked at Brian.

“You had a few calls.”

“Mom…are you alright?”

“Me?....oh I’m fine, so would you care to explain why there’s been a non-stop flow of abuse coming to all the phones in the house directed at my son?”

Brian blushed. “I broke up with Britney.”

His mom raised her eyebrows. “Okay….so what has that have to do with this?”

“She’s pitching a fit because I’m being okay and friendly with a transgendered girl.”

“Friendly? Just how friendly.”

“Just friendly right now.”

“Right now?”

“Yeah…I still haven’t decided if I’m going to ask her out yet. But I still like her and I still want to be friends with her though.”

His mom nodded and took the bag of take out from his dad. “Just as long as you’re committed to either thing Brian, she won’t need just someone that’s curious for the sake of being curious.”

“Mom….”

“Trust me on this Brian she’ll have been hurt before this, she’ll have baggage and she’ll need people around her to actually be stand up friends.”

“Okay…you know some transgendered people mom?”

She nodded. “I had a friend back in college Bry, one that I should’ve been a better friend to and should have really been there for and now she’s not.”

“Oh…..”

“No honey I’m not saying you’ll do that just that be careful, keep both eyes open and your heart too.”

“I will mom; she’s a really nice person from what I’ve seen so far.”

“Well then she’s miles better than Britney.”

Brian shook his head and went over and kissed her on the cheek. “Guess I really messed up dating her huh?”

“Yeah sort of I’m just really happy that you’re starting to think with the big head.”

“Mom!!!”

She laughed and Brian blushed and headed upstairs. “I’ve got an early practice tomorrow and I should get to my homework then see the damage.”

Still blushing he headed upstairs and opened his computer up to his accounts and….and there was a lot of damage.

*Lindsey…………

It was so not the reaction that she had expected from her mother. It was shocking and appalling at the same time. Her mom was a bit miffed at her defending Nick and betting into a fight at school.

In her house there were two trains of thought on how she should be raised. There was her mom who just didn’t seem to get or want to get that she was never going to be the “Girl” that she had wanted and had always tried to raise.

Her mom was one of those girly girl types and they really did not compute.

Then there was her dad. He wasn’t around much working all the time but he said that she should try to be a lady. He also said there was nothing saying it required her to take any bullshit. He mom didn’t care for that too much but Lindsey liked that about her dad at least. But then again he wanted all of his girls to be able to take what life would dish out.

She had two sisters and two brothers and she was sort of right in the middle, her dad was an in city delivery truck driver so money was tight and he worked crazy hours and for Lindsey she was way too icked out that her parents made up for lost time.

Nothing gives you the skeevies then finding your mother’s panties where you don’t want to find them. Like between the couch cushions just when you’d gotten all snuggly.

Lindsey headed to her room to chill out before suppertime and she turned on her MP-3 played and she started to listen to some music and tried to get the encounter with her mom out of her head.

Her mom and her sisters were these girls that well were just so girl even if Mandi…yes with an “I” wasn’t so bad she was not like any of the three of them and as far as her little brothers were concerned she was one of them by virtue of being a girl and to them girls were yucky. Brandi again with an “I” was the oldest and she was a bubble head…friendly, honestly she didn’t likely have a mean bone in her but she was an “OMG” girl that talked in valley girl mixed with chat speak.

Brandi would actually say LOL in a conversation.

Mandi was shy and into music but she was still really girly and into all those swoony angsty shows like Vampire Diaries and stuff.

She took out her books and things from class and stood in front of her mirror trying to see where the cute girl was that Johnny and honey had said there was there. She just couldn’t see her there, she looked different in the clothes and the way that Johnny had played with her hair but she to her still looked like Lindsey.

She did sometimes wish she had whatever gene or hormone that made her mom and her sisters the way that they were. They had pictures of guys on their walls and bands and even some magazine covers and stuffies and such. Lindsey didn’t she had a nice poster of a black grand piano that just looked nice, a wolf poster and several ones for some of the bands that she liked that really weren’t the girly kind of bands like those her sisters liked. There was No Kylie Minogue or Lady Gaga instead she had U2 and Iron Maiden and Buckcherry on her walls though her favorite was her Queensryche poster for Silent Lucidity.

That’s actually the song she settled on first before letting it just go to shuffle. She went from looking at herself in the mirror to getting undressed then changed in stuff for just being at home. Like a lot of girls she had some at home ugly clothes stuff that actually just didn’t matter much and were really comfortable. Her’s was an oversized sleep shirt and sweatpants and bare feet or it was tonight.

But today had her sort of put back into that part of her that she sort of hated….she looked good after all of that and she had made some friends at this new school but it had Lindsey doing one of the things that she sucked at and that was looking in her closet at her thrift store clothes and hand me downs and hand me sideways things and having absolutely no idea what went with what and what looked good.

She hated the feeling of it being like she was somehow flunking out of being a girl. And she wasn’t going to try the things that her mom and sisters did because she was definitely not one of those girls.

“Why the hell is being a girl so damned complicated?”

She let out a big sigh and turned her tunes up and started in on her homework until supper was ready and after helping with the dishes and getting grilled over her day and the look she came home with from her sisters…her mom must have blabbed/gossiped to them about it she was more than ready to claim first dibs on the bathroom and then hid out in her room to read those Elizabeth Haydon books for that Rhapsody girl she was writing about.

She’d gotten pretty into the first book and was getting close to turning her lamp off when her phone rang.

She rolled to her side and looked at her clock. “It’s quarter past ten? Who’d call me this late?”

She picked up the receiver ready for some preppy prank phone call.

“Hello?”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee! OmigawdLindsey! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

“J..Johnny?”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! I had such a good time!”

She was going to ask if she knew what time it was but she just couldn’t and she sat up in her bed while Johnny was in that whole alien girly squealing with happy thing and smiled a little.

“Okay…okay…breathe Johnny, breathe and tell me what happened.”

*Honey…………

Her mom had come home and they ate supper together. Honey had made one of their favorite meals just hamburger with macaroni and some tomato soup over it all. It was something that her mom and her both found funny that because they were Hispanic people assumed they ate like tex-mex food all the time. But they didn’t they just pretty much ate like a lot of people did.

She did the dishes telling her mom to relax and take a hot bath. She worried about her mom a lot with the extra shifts of switching eights for twelve’s her mom was working really hard to keep the roof over their heads and while they had her dad’s pension coming in it still wasn’t enough with the bills and the amount the house payments had increased.

And her mom was all she really had so while she was the kid and her mom was the adult she tended to work extra hard at home to give her a break.

They relaxed and her mom helped her with her homework, especially her math. Her mom was actually really smart, smarter than a lot of people thought unless they worked with her. Nurses either NP’s or RN’s or LPN’s all did a lot of stuff and it was one of those jobs where you’re always learning and getting new material sent your way to learn and there’s a lot of math involved in just the everyday stuff they do.

That was a big bonus because math and Honey had seldom been friends.

It was a pretty good night even with her and her mom in her room and going through her clothes and even some of her mother’s clothes and some of the old clothes she had saved and boxed in the attic. Johnny had sparked an interest in Honey since they had started hanging around together. And it was just too Honey was tired of dressing to hide herself so she wouldn’t be teased.

Though it was kind of fun to see some of the clothes that her mom used to wear and teasing her about how vintage they were and at the same time her mom had packed away a nice collection of jeans, though the high waisted ones were kind of eew.

She never really done any of this with her mom the last time they really played with clothes together her mom had been putting her in cute little dresses when she was in elementary school.

She wasn’t sure who had a better time her or her mom but it was a lot of fun. She even showed her mom the make up she used and put on some of her music. And her mom shocked her by actually having and knowing how to use an I-pod. Actually she owned a mini that was pretty cute and she showed Honey some of the music she grew up loving.

And some of it was pretty heavy stuff with bands like Alice in chains, Nine inch nails and Pearl Jam.

“Mom? Where you into the grunge thing?”

Her mom nodded. “A little bit it was really becoming the big thing then.”

“I can’t see you like a grunger kid.”

“Well I steered clear of the whole flannel clothes thing because people see that stuff then and thought gangs. I went with wet look hair, no make up and jeans and big baggy tee shirts usually one’s of your dad’s.”

“Wow…” She sort of looked at her mom and tilted her head from side to side trying to picture this almost forty something woman with the highlights in her shoulder length hair and the way she’s usually seen her in a comfy skirt and like a sweat shirt or a tee with a hoody at home or her scrubs for work as a grunge girl or being in a mosh pit.

She started to giggle thinking about it and her mom seemed to guess why and frowned a little before pinning her to the bed and started to tickle her. “Hey! It’s not funny I’m not that old!”

They laughed and joked until the phone rang and her mom picked it up. “Hello?”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

Honey’s mom laughed and passed the phone to her daughter. “I think that’s for you.”

Honey took the phone. “Johnny?”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

*Nick…………

That after school had just been more and more miserable as his dad had pretty much went back to the school with him in tow and went into the office intent on reading the staff the riot act.

He was miserable through the entire experience. His dad was an alright guy but unless you had something wrong with you like Nick had most people never got it, couldn’t get it.

The way that just being with people can short you out. How it takes time to get used to new people and new things too. And all these things cramming together in your head it chokes you off from talking…from being normal no matter how much you want.

And the scene in the office was as bad as things could get for Nick.

His dad being angry at what happened with Keith and the whole situation with there not being anything remotely like “real security.” Here which pissed off the school’s security guys and the VP was getting angry and there were other of the office staff and faculty there and he could just feel them staring at his father and then him by extension. Even the actual police that had been called in while they were there for something else he had cornered until he was satisfied.

His father was pressing charges against Keith. While it was the right thing to do Nick knew it was also going to get around to Keith’s friends and the other’s like him and he’d have a target on his back.

So to Nick’s way of thinking nothing had come of the whole damned mess except for Nick feeling like he was going to be ill and a stress headache.

Which actually got worse when he saw some of Keith’s friends glaring at him in the halls after they’d gotten out of practice.

He stayed quiet the entire drive back home and tried to tune out his dad’s rant on the neo-thugs and petty small minded bureaucrats in the school. Nick just wanted to get away from people and even at this point his family.

His dad and mom were those geek parents with tech jobs and made good money but they were that still kind of socially accepted hipster types and there were times he really felt despite all the stuff they did to help him they were still people from a whole other world.

He skipped supper and went to his room and put his things away and set him computers up so he could just sit down and start in on things.

First thing though he stripped down and went to his bathroom and ran a bath….he added the salt he usually did because well his bath wasn’t to get clean so much as therapy…hot salt water and he turn the lights off in the bathroom but left the door open for some light and he eased himself into the water and sighed…shook a bit and then he took a breath and sank under the water.

It was so soothing and so peaceful under there and he did that for a long time like some broken dolphin just coming up enough to breathe and sink back down until the water was getting cold and he started to prune.

He dragged himself out of the bath and slowly dried off wincing because of the bruises he did get from his encounter with Keith. It was going to get worse….he knew it was just going to get worse.

He looked at his computer and with everything going on right now he was just too hurt to even look at what was going on and what people were posting. He powered it all down and crawled into bed.

He didn’t care about all the stuff guys weren’t supposed to do instead he just pulled the covers over his head and held one of his pillows close and shook until the tears stopped and sleep came.

*Donnie…………

Things were just getting started with the haves and the have nots in the school while lunch had been pretty good and the afternoon sort of peaceful it hadn’t really stayed that way.

Mind you he wasn’t around to have seen it but he had heard after stepping out to do some boarding from some of the kids that had been there that Brian’s car had been hit and it had a really good scratching job done to it enough to wreck the paint job and the tires had been slashed.

Then he thought he saw Nick pass him while he was boarding in a car with what might have been his dad heading back from the direction of the school.

He shook his head after seeing that in sympathy. Nick looked like he’d been through hell. Not that hard to see either with Nick’s issues.

He sighed and headed to the ramps, they were set up by someone in the areas in an old building lot as a place for the kids that boarded to go and hang out without too much trouble. He saw some of the usual suspects there and he smiled and greeted some of them and took up a spot to wait his turn.

Donnie liked the skateboarder culture, it fit him because he really didn’t fit a lot of the so called culture that the other black kids enforced.

Oh it was peer pressure sure but there was these layers of things that you had to be in order to be black sometimes, only sometimes but he still didn’t like the fact if you didn’t talk a certain way the other black kids looked at you funny. And if you dressed in what was normal clothes the other kids wore you were trying to be a kissup, or if you acted smart and dressed normally you were being uppity.

He hated the street clothes styles too, Donnie had no intention of looking like a brother from “The Hood.” or a “Gangbanger.”

So he wore skater clothes. They had their own style and brands and he went with the stuff that said skater-kid more than some of the generic stuff. Sure it sort of took him out of the whole normal social groups the other black kids were in but he actually wanted that. He wanted it as much as he didn’t want to fit in with the herd of white kids.

The thing was the whole thing was a disguise.

Donnie was able to pass as a girl. His body sized and face, the little body hair….he was very feminine. Not that he wanted to be or acted like he was but like his sibs and cousins liked to tease him he could pass…like Ru Paul did even in drab. Actually if he didn’t try to butch up he could and had been asked if he was a girl trying to pass herself off as a boy.

It set him apart from his family and it caused a lot of friction between him and his father. His dad wasn’t a thug about it but he could tell he wasn’t happy…He’d put Donnie into boxing and a few other sports to likely try and butch him up but while he did okay in that he never loved it and the coach was an asshole who kept trying to break the girly boy. He was sure he’d been a sparring partner more than the other kids, almost twice as much. Plus not being able to hide his looks he was definitely targeted by the other kids….the lets teach the fairy a lesson types.

And him being a skater kid never sat well with his dad either.

He did, here at the park the other skate kids were misfits sort of too. They didn’t care about race or color, or money. There were a few other black kids, a couple of middle eastern ones and a few Asians all mixed in with the regular skater white kids. Here he was Donnie or D and to some of the goofballs he was Donatello and to most of those kids he could have just as easily been a ninja turtle as much as anything else.

He finally got his turn and just let the half-pipe take him out of the bullshit of school and home and let him think. And recently with the changes in Dan’s gaming group and Johnny and Jessie being around now he had a lot to think about.

*Yasmine…………

She got up early and set out for her run. Black track suit and her hijab with her I-pod and she took off before dawn to get in some private time before her day started. She was really nervous about being here and starting a new school. Being in America was scary enough sometimes when you were middle eastern. Yasmine was half technically but that never matter to the haters. He father was an America Air force pilot and he’d been out of the actual service and was flying commercial planes when he and her mother had met.

She actually liked that story. She was working and he was between flights when they had met in Dubai at a mutual friends house. It was pretty much love at first sight despite the differences they had and it had been before nine-eleven so the level of hate then was just between the family bigots on both sides. If their best efforts for family peace they kind of stayed transient. Her father taking piloting jobs all over the world and they lived I a lot of very cool places and some that weren’t o cool. The year she spent in England post nine-eleven had been hell. You’d not think that with the melting pot England really is these days but Yasmine had received more than her share of being bullied.

Yeah…moving around hadn‘t been fun…she had no real roots or friends except for a few online but even then someone finds you‘re muslima and they‘ll drop you. And yes she had relatives the could have turned to but there were many that weren’t happy with her mother still for marrying her dad. He never converter either, she knew he wasn’t big on any faith but he loved her ad her mother enough that some one had married them… Still though some were angry since her mother had refused to remarry after her father had died.

Some fresh tears ran down her cheeks as she jogged. He’d gotten her into it. Before prayers before sun up he’d go out ad run. It was a hold over from his armed forces days and once she was old enough it became their thing. The morning run and then morning prayers and the start of the day. He wasn’t muslim but he still prayed like one with them, he was just a really good man.

Her mother said, he was an honest man.

She missed him. They both did.

He died in Beirut he’d been there on a routine flight and had been on his way from the airport to the hotel when he died. Nothing nefarious nothing political just a blood clot…but it still took him away from her and her mother.

Her mother’s family wanted to take them in ad they had take up several of the offers but there were always complications. Several wanted her mother to remarry, some wanted to arrange Yasmine to be married.

It became one fight too many and they moved to Chicago…to his family, her dad’s family and in with her father’s parents. They actually had bought them a little house close to them and moved them in and she had aunt’s and uncles living close by too. Lot’s of cousins, ones she rarely seen unless it was a serious family occasion.

For good reason in her mind. Some of her father’s family were more than a little prejudiced. Some of them weren’t just the republican types but they were part of this tea party thing…They moved in just a little less than a month ago and she’d been exposed to a lot of bullshit.

Too much bullshit sometimes…she’d gone from being a good girl and wanting both of these faiths to just stop and be peaceful, they both kept talking about peace so much and her dad was like this bright bridging gap.

She lost him and things just got worse and worse ad she had gotten just more and more fed up until she just wanted to be left alone, eve in temple she just wanted her own space for peace.

She was tired of some people there telling others how Islam should be followed, of how she and her mother should live. And she was more than sick of the whole so called Christians spewing their hate out at her too. Now this, the first day of school, of being in an American school….it was scaring her.

Yasmine hated being alone, she hated feeling this lost too…and right now the only thing that made any sense right now was breathing, running, and trying to outrace the bullshit so she could feel that quiet stillness when she prayed, like she used to.

She ran home but slowed passing a café place in an old brick building that smelled wonderfully of home, of breads and cardamom and good coffee. There were a few signs in Arabic with the daily specials and it looked busy too. She might have to stop in…it really didn’t look like much from the outside though.

Maybe later, maybe a place she could escape to?

She made it home in time to shower and her mother was making coffee with that still waking up look. She offered Yasmine a smile at seeing her come in from her run and sipped at her coffee. She never took part in the morning runs with her father. Yasmine sort of smiled back, her mother was still sort of a mystery to her and still someone she was sort of angry with.

Part of Yasmine just wanted roots, to be stable and it would’ve been nice, even tolerable…if they stayed over home. She didn’t have to fit in so much over there, she could’ve just blended in…maybe even take one of those offers of marriage.

It sounded odd really but most of those sons would gave gone to university, it wouldn’t be like instantly married and Yasmine would have been lying that the idea of starting a family and settling down hadn’t crossed her mind.

A normal life would’ve been nice…

But her mom had been really opposed to it. Enough that she’d angered some of the family. Enough that she was labeled for it.

Enough that even now she was still sort of mad at her for doing that.

She did her morning prayers in her room then she dressed for school. Black hijab ad she wore a short sleeved purple button down blouse with a long skirt again I black and her bangles and rings and her piercing, she just had an eyebrow ring and a nose ring and she wore a few charm necklaces and yes one was Islamic.

The last thing she took was her fathers old leather jacket, it was miles to big on her but she wore it anyway.

She skipped breakfast for three cups of coffee and headed out and caught the bus. She’d gotten whispered stares as she got on and headed to school. It wasn’t to bad being able to drown them out with her I-Pod.

It wasn’t a big school and yet it was still more than scary…a lot of white kids and black ones too and she really didn’t know any black people either.

There were some middle eastern kids too.

But she was the only one in a hijab.

Deep breath, ask for strength…head to the office.

This raven haired boy? No…he has….? He opened the door for her, with a whole sort of group there with him.

She nodded at him? Yes he was a he but he was wearing a tight t-shirt, a boy’s tee but he had a bra on…..

And he was a decent B-cup.

The rest were just as mixed up too, a short boy with long blue hair, a skater girl? She couldn’t tell this Mexican girl that was in a revealing top and jeans with all these holes in them and a couple of good looking popular boys. She headed quickly to the office only taking another look when this tall long legged athletic blonde called this other pretty girl with pink streaks in her hair Johnny?

She sped up a little confused and looked back at them meeting up with some others none of them looking like the kind of people that’d be friends.

“What kind of school is this?”

She hugged her backpack tighter for some sense of security and headed into the office to register for her classes.

*Jessie…………

He woke up in the morning to his stereo playing instead of the damned monkey going off. The sounds of Winds of Change by the Skorpions playing made him smile. They were an older band but her liked older music and he liked older tunes.

Older rock and roll or metal songs were still going strong in other parts of the world and still got a lot of play. He’d slept really well especially after last night and the whole time thinking about Kenyon.

He went through his morning stuff and grooved to the music and smiled he was having a good morning. Actually he was sort of having a really good morning. Boxer briefs and looking through his closet and drawer for a good bra to wear he called up Daniel.

“Morning…” He still sounded asleep.

“Cameron? Are you still in bed?”

“………………………..” Then a snerk. “I’m sick Ferris.”

“Sick, your not sick it’s only in your head, now get dressed and come over and pick me up.”

(Sigh.) “You want me to pick up Sloan too?”

“No, we’ll both pick up Sloan.”

“Okay see you soon.”

Jess dressed and got his things and took the money his dad was holding up. “There’s chore attached to that Jess, I want to do some work on the back yard this weekend.”

“Sure, cool…can I bring in some help?”

“Good idea, I can use the new grill.”

“Then that’s what I’ll do.”

“Sounds good, be careful out there.”

“Thanks dad.”

Jess went outside and waited for Dan to pull up in the car and Dan slid over to sit shotgun as Jess got in.

“Thank for the car Jess, that was amazing.”

“The car or the date?”

“Both.” Dan grinned and they both drove heading to get Johnny first and Dan really talked about the date and the movie but more about how upset those girls had gotten Johnny but how he did what he sort of thought that he should do and how it seemed to go over really well.

“I’ve never had red velvet cake, what’s it like?”

“Yummy, but so was Johnny.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I could so definitely go for another date.”

“Brian’s interested.”

“Oh…you think he’ll have the guts to ask her out?” Dan seemed concerned.

“Maybe, but it better not be to just spite Britney.”

“Yeah, he does seem to be kind of an okay guy though.”

Jessie nodded and pulled into Johnny’s place where she was waiting with a smile and she hopped right in and leaned over the back seat and kissed Dan who kissed her back.

“Okay…now I’ll have a boner all day, thanks Johnny.” He grinned and she giggled and smacked him lightly. “Danny!”

“Hey just saying what’s the truth.”

“Yeah but…”

Jessie looked back in the mirror at her. “You have a nice butt.”

“Jessie!”

They all laughed and slipped over to pick up Honey and then the phones were out and they met up with Kenyon and Brian at Dunkin Donuts and all grabbed coffees there before heading to school.

They parked together in a highly visible spot so that people didn’t mess with the cars and the others were actually drifting over to start talking, about gaming, and the date and the new news that there’s an emergency faculty meeting tonight because there’s been a special session of the school board being called for Monday night.

Sam worked in the school store and that was right by the teachers lounge where he seen them talking about it.

He grinned a Jessie talking or trying to as he finger spelled and signed. “Your popular Jessie, I saw them say your name a bunch of times.”

Jessie smiled. “I figured that much, they need someone to blame right?”

They actually passed the VP who was standing outside watching everything looking upset or at the very least irate about having to be doing it and there was one of the security guards out there too.

They went passed and Dan grinned and said to the VP. “Mr. Rooney.” The VP looked confused but nodded and Dan snerked and Jessie grinned and Bryan laughed and stared at Jessie. “Yep, definitely Ferris.”

“Ferris?” Johnny asked.

“Abe Froman.” Lindsey offered.

“Abe who?” Johnny asked.

Brian grinned. “The sausage king of Chicago.”

Kenyon groaned. “You had to mention sausage around the gay guy didn’t you?”

Everyone stopped…stared at Kenyon.

Lindsey grinned and took Kenyon’s arm in hers. “Best coming out ever.”

They all laughed and headed inside getting all sorts of looks.

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

Squires-14

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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*Johnny…………

It was really an amazing date and she was still just sort of floating. Yes Danny was a friend and it’s nice to go out with friends but it was really way more than she had really ever thought that she could hope and dream for to get to go out and have a real date.

Girls like her rarely ever got to have real dates, not unless they passed really well and they were really into transition. The few lucky ones that looked really passable got to date sometimes in school but those were really rare times because out of all the TG people that you hear about in blogs or on the news getting to have prom or stuff like that there’s a thousand sad hurt and lonely stories.

Last night even was a hairs breadth from being torpedoed from a bunch of hater girls that thought that she shouldn’t be allowed to date or be in public much less using the ladies room.

She stood her ground but inside…

Inside standing her ground had hurt like standing up on broken glass.

If the world was fair she would be seen just as real and valid as those other girls. Hell if the world was fair she’d been born a girl instead of having to look in the mirror and see things that just are supposed to be.

Gender disphoria hurts.

It’s as painful and as crushing as depression can be and it’s a whole lot less accepted.

But then there was Danny last night and even when the good date had turned to crap it had become so much better. Shortest guy she knew and yet he was just so good and he was so strong for her and not in that grr Tarzan way but he took her and he’d held her and taken her to a place that he liked and where it was kind of romantic and he wasn’t afraid of it being that way.

Milkshakes and red velvet cake and the juke box and this amazing sweet song that made her girl heart ache and sniffle and cling to him tightly through the dancing in front of the juke box.

She looked for it and had *All have to do is Dream…* on her phone now to listen to.

She couldn’t hold it in after she got home…even after talking to her parents about it and laughing and even hugging her self and a pillow on her bed because this was…well it was actually huge.

Danny even if he was her friend he’d take HER on her first real date she’d ever been on in her life. And it was so a real date…he treated it like a real date and she did like him…there might actually be something there beyond friendship even…he knew, he already knew and it was so perfect.

It was that perfect she ended up conference calling Lindsey and Honey and talking for hours and hours about everything. She knew she’d repeated herself and that Lindsey was okay with most of it to a point but at the same time she was kind of not into the whole girl talk.

She and Honey though had talked and giggled over all these little details and stuff Lindsey was more interested in who the hater girls were and what had happen there at the theatre and she was bored to groaning over the girly bits and when the conversation had turned from what she’d been wearing to what they’d be wearing tomorrow.

That’s where Lindsey admitted. “I’m completely lost on the whole clothes and wardrobe stuff. I mean it’s mostly thrift store stuff and hand me downs and pass me sideways stuff anyhow.”

Johnny was actually a bit excited really vintage clothes rocked and she had made Lindsey take out her clothes and show them to them on video chat. Lindsey looked a little tortured by the whole thing but at the same time once Honey and she had seen what Lindsey had and what would work she paired up a few things so as to give Lindsey a different look.

Which they were going to finish in the girls bathroom.

They were heading there when Jessie slid beside her. “We should keep an eye out today.”

She nodded. “Yeah those girls at the theatre go to school here I’m already expecting to get searched for my spray.”

“You bring it?”

“No, I knew they might do this so nothing with me sprays today.”

“Good idea but just keep an eye out and a camera ready for the Muslim girl we passed coming in.”

“I must have missed her, okay…I will.”

“I get the feeling she tries to be overlooked but that’s not going to fly here with here wearing her hijab.”

“Hijab?”

“Headscarf.”

“Oh okay…this might get bad?”

“It really might.”

“Okay… be safe.”

“You too be aware.”

They hugged and she went with Lindsey and honey into the bathroom where they got Lindsey redressed for the day. Tall thin blonde and skinny they went with a bra but one with gel inserts to help out a little making Lindsey blush fiercely until she stared in the mirror.

“Holy cheese I have boobs!”

“Yes you’ve got great little boobs.”

“Little’s the key word. I swear part of me has always thought that if my breasts were bigger I’d actually feel more girly…even this doesn’t make me really feel girl just more like…less slubby…less dishwater?”

“You’re not slubby and you’re not dishwater you’re slender and long legged and really hot.”

“I’m not hot. I’m…I don’t know.”

Honey looked at Lindsey. “Actually you look like a teenaged long haired version of Tilda Swinton.”

“Tilda who?”

“The actress that played Jadis.”

“Who?”

Johnny snerked. “The white witch from the Narnia movies.”

“Oh great I look like a villain?” Lindsey rolled her eyes as she slid into the bellbottom jeans she had brought with her and took the women’s red Nike racer back shirt that Johnny had brought. “You sure that I can wear this?”

“Uhm…yeah…duh we’re girlfriends we share clothes and stuff.”

“Oh okay but why does this never work with my sisters?”

Johnny looked Lindsey over and sat up on the counter and pulled her in and around and started to braid her long blonde hair. “That’s because you mom and sisters see you as a girly girl like them and they don’t know how to be anything but who they are.”

“So why are you so good at this then?” She was trying to pull down the hem of the shirt futilely.

“Because I know I’m a girl but for awhile I really had no clue as to what kind of girl that I was so I experimented with stuff until I found the me that’s just me. Linds…it’s supposed to show some belly button.”

“God…really I have to be one of those girls?” Lindsey complained looking down towards her navel.

Honey looked at her. “Seriously you don’t look like one of those girls, and you’re skinny you have a nice flat sexy tummy so show it off because half of “Those girls” are lazy and stuff and are sporting a muffin top.”

Johnny grinned and leaned over. “Just the shoes and we’re done.”

“Shoes?”

“You’re a sort of geekette right?”

“Sort of…yeah…why?”

“Red top and blue jeans what would go better than…” Johnny paused for effect.

Lindsey looked at her lost. “I have no clue.”

Johnny pulled out an old pair of canvas running shoes with a very tell tale theme decorating them. “Ta-daaa…”

“Spiderman sneakers?”

“Yep it’ll work really.”

“Really…? Are you sure?”

“Yeah it’ll be girly geek cute chic and it’ll say that as hot as you look you’re still a geekette and therefore not one of the vapid crowd in crowd.”

“I don’t look hot.”

Johnny turned her around so she could see herself in the mirror. Long blonde hair pulled back into a long single braid, red racer back lycra Nike shirt that showed off her shoulders and her navel and worked really well with the enhanced bust she was sporting and the hippy now more sort of vintage hipsterette bell bottom jeans sort of took the jockette feel out of the look and she had to admit they sort of played really well in this geekette sort of way with the sneakers Johnny had in her hands.

“Okay…okay just no make up its just eww.”

“Okay, sure baby steps, baby steps but a bit of perfume.”

“Perfume I don’t want to smell like one of those skanks.”

“Nope, no way…would you just trust me?”

“Okay but I want to smell them first.”

She held up a pair small sprizters of perfume then sprayed some of each on some paper towel. She passed it to Lindsey.

“What are those? This isn’t bad?”

“This one is orange flower water and this one is essence of vanilla.” Johnny grinned. “My own inventions actually.”

“Really?”

“Yes…I’m good at chemistry and interested in cosmetics and scents.”

Honey smelled it too. “Okay I like this no one else in school has this smell.”

Lindsey took them and looked them over. “Vanilla-orange creamcicle…okay where do I spritz and how much.”

*Kenyon…………

He couldn’t believe he had just said what he had said to everyone and it was the fact they all sort of took it in good cheer and went with the joke and Lindsey being really cook about it took a whole lot of the OMF out of a very major OMF moment.

He waited with the others a few minutes as Jessie had a confab with Johnny as she and the girls headed into the girls bathroom and Jessie just went in there too like he had every right to in the world.

Okay well maybe he had two major rights for that.

He sort of leaned against the wall and was going to put his hands in his pockets and sort of lounge slub and Danny took his hand?

“Daniel…what are you doing?”

“Are you like out out?”

“Yeah I think that I am….it’s not like people didn’t here me say that just back there and it’s likely already going around.”

“Okay then well Sam had a great idea.”

Kenyon looked over to Sam who was finger spelling pretty fast with Donnie and Nick was trying to keep up and so was Brian. “Okay…so what’s this great idea?”

“Well when one of our friends comes out we start a little coming out tradition.”

“Okay…” Dan holding his hand was getting looks and whispers down the hall of course Daniel being Daniel seemed immune to the thoughts of the masses and looked up at him in this almost exaggerated sweet way.

Then he stood up on his tip toes and gave Kenyon a light sweet kiss on the lips.

“Happy gay day.”

He blinked totally gobsmacked and he stared at Daniel until he heard another pointed cough in front of him and Donnie did the same and gave him a light sweet kiss.

Then Sam…and then Nick who tried to stutter out happy gay day too but was blushing so hard his head might explode and then Brian…Brian the jock and everyone was watching and a whole bunch more had come to see these geeks, these boys kissing…actually kissing this one boy.

And there in front of everyone Brian actually kissed him on the lips…and even touched his sides with his hands…it was instant wood. Brian smiled at him and tilted his head and said loud enough that some people would over hear.

“Huh…two guys kissed and look the world didn’t come to an end…Happy gay day Kenyon.”

“Uh-huh…oh wow…are you gay?”

“Sorry but no, still you’re a great kiss though.”

Kenyon blushed and looked down and there was a lot of whispers going on and he thought he seen some faculty heading their way and the girls were out of the ladies room and he looked up and Jessie was there and he smiled that sweet sexy smile of his and Jessie leaned over and kissed him too.

It was a little longer.

It was a lot closer.

There was straining bulge grinding against straining bulge and Kenyon was sure that sometime was close to popping in his pants painfully.

Jessie broke the kiss. “Happy gay day I guess.”

“Uhm…thanks…”

“Well seeing as we’re sort of treating it like a birthday what would you like as a present?”

Kenyon stared at Jessie a dozen and a half things going through his mind and three quarters of them sexual and dirty and making the whole situation in his pants a whole lot worse.

He swallowed the fear down and took some strength from his friends actually having his back the way that they did.

“A Date.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yes, really okay.”

“Saturday?”

“Saturday night’s better.”

“Okay…” He blushed he seriously blushed and he dipped his head and he really had no idea what to do next.

That’s was about the same time that the faculty member came over to “see” what was going on. They were wearing a hall duty sash and looked not too pleased with wearing it.

He had a frown on but with no one making out any more he just gave them all this pissy look and turned and walked away.

Jessie grinned. “Must be waaaay too early for him to be doing this kind of thing before his second cup of coffee.”

There were general nods of agreement and they went together for their second cups of coffee in the cafeteria before the bells went off for morning classes.

*Jessie............

He’d really never intended to go as far as he just did with Kenyon but with things in life sometimes things just happen even when you’re the one making them happen.

He really, really tried to keep an open mind when it came to his sexuality because of his condition. He was pretty sure as much as the way that he was just sort of drove some of the red necks up the wall with him being different like he was there would be some that might just be the opposite.

Hate nearly killed him with this.

But all that hate had taught him life was way too short sometimes and it could end pretty easy.

So when he cane out of the doorway to the girls bathroom and saw the guys all kissing Kenyon in this gay day sort of welcoming we accept you solidarity thing he waited until he had a better moment and when he had stepped up to Kenyon there was more than a little bit of the other morning in the car there.

And the kiss was longer.

And the kiss was hotter.

And there was that whole thing where they crotch touched and he felt Kenyon aroused and straining against his pants but that straining was pressing into his own arousal and it actually felt good. Not freaky, not something that felt even close to him needing space or panicking it was…

It was actually hot…and steamy and it made his nipples tighten and swell and get harder than he had ever felt them outside of when he directly was well…yes, that.

So…hard and delicious feeling and awake…clothed, and there with other people having one person do all this…saying yes was actually pretty easy to do.

Jessie wondered as they walked. Does dating a boy go differently when you’re a boy? And what’s the rules? He was asked out so is he the?

Datee?

He wasn’t a fan of the whole idea of someone being top or bottom because people change from day to day and Jess also wasn’t fond of the whole who’s the girl thing straight people tend to ask gay and lesbian people. He was a fan of the analogy of that being like asking someone which chopstick they were.

He looked at everyone as they got coffees or something else. “Dad’s having me working most of Saturday morning and stuff on the backyard everyone but he said it’d be cool if everyone came over though he’d fire up the grill and we could have a get together and a barbeque?”

They all looked at each other Johnny grinned. “You guys got a pool?”

“Nope but a big back yard and it’ll be fenced it one well, once we build the fence.”

There was some laughs and everyone said that they’d come. Honey even asked if it would be okay if her mom came over too.

“Actually sure, I’ll talk to the folks and we’ll have maybe a big multi-family get together since we’re all friends anyhow plus my folks will be more than happy to make some friends and meet people too outside of work.”

Donnie said. “Y’know not a bad idea considering all the brouha that’s going on with stuff here and the school board meeting.”

Nick tapped stuff out on his phone for the voice app. “The meeting will be Monday night down at the district hall.”

Jessie looked at him. “Good to know they didn’t post that on the school webpage.”

Nick actually smiled a little bit, it was shy but it was a smile. “No, they didn’t and they won’t and they’d moved it too.”

“Moved it?” Jessie raised his eyebrows.

“They used to have it here in the auditorium of the school.”

Jessie frowned. “Well, that was decidedly sneaky who did that the admin here or the school board.”

Nick tapped out. “I think it was both.”

Jessie nodded and paid for his coffee and took a drink. “We better tell people, my folks will want to go and I want to go too but we should wait until the school day’s out before going viral with this.”

The other’s looked at him and Daniel nodded. “Right because if they’re still here and working and find out during business hours for both of them then they’ll change it and reschedule it all over again.”

Jessie grinned. “Right, we want them to not be able to change that at the last minute.”

They started to head off to their classes in groups…Jessie made sure that they all had a couple of people with each other from the gaming kids and them to even Donnie’s skate friends and a few of the LGBT kids who had come up to Kenyon and had him blushing all over again as a few of them kissed him and told him “happy gay day.” And promptly said they were all stealing that and that they all were really brave for standing up like that with Kenyon.

Jessie smiled at all of that. “It just seemed the right thing to do at the right time I guess, besides it’s not a bad thing really to shake up some of the haters.”

He gestured towards some of the hater kids and there was a mix of the jock-holes and the rednecks and the churchy hater crowd all talking or rather almost protesting at the few faculty members that were in the cafeteria and pitching a fix about them… “having the right not to be subjected to the sick perversion at school.” They were very brazenly pointing at Jessie and Johnny and Danny and Kenyon.

Lindsey got that “Lindsey” look on her face and took her phone out and walked up pretty close to the churchy hate group kids. One of the teachers gave her this look. “Put the phone away no more recording stuff in school. You’re violating the privacy laws protecting the students.”

“I’ll do that when you do something about these jerks.”

“What do you mean…and I don’t like your tone.”

“I don’t like the fact I heard then use the word faggot with you a half dozen times and nothing happened so how about you worry less about me being mad over something damned offensive and do something about it.”

The woman looked a little more than pissed off at what Lindsey was saying and she started to say. “Look here you little tram….”

Jessie did this Yoo-hoo whistle to the teacher and she looked up and the entire group had their camera phones out.

Danny grinned and imitated Emilio Estvavez from the movie Young Guns. “Smile, I’ll make you famous.”

She turned several colors and she turned on her heel and headed off and another faculty member was coming over and this one didn’t seem in favor by the churchy kids who looked to see who was coming and left grumbling and shooting them more dirty looks.

Some even pointed and didn’t seem to care they were on camera. “You’re going to get yours faggots.” Another one added. “God’s going to make sure you burn.” And there were others muttering fags, dykes, fucking queers as the left.

Jessie grinned at everyone. “Well there’s a good way to start the weekend.”

The group nodded and laughed and snickered some with that but all of them shook hands or hugged as the bell rand and headed off it groups more than aware that there were people that were going to start something at some time with someone.

Jessie told all of them…every one there. “Be safe, be aware.”

He looked over as he was leaving and the alpha kids were in their own huddled group talking closely amongst themselves and sharing out several hate filled scornful looks mostly aimed at him and at Lindsey and at Brian.

It might just be a rough ride today to get to the weekend.

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

Squires-15

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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*Yasmine…………

She was expecting the worst really. It was something that some of the relatives and stuff she still sort of talked to had said to expect when they heard she was coming to school here and in America in general.

Not that she had a whole lot of contact with her cousins and stuff since her mother was still in this sort of family argument slash exile over her coming here. They had a big family really on her mother’s side of things and they were all over the map on this and the relatives here in America we’re seeing things as the ones in Dubai or the ones in Jordan or in any other part of where they were living.

The great grandparents of the family didn’t really approve but then again it had been a long road she heard for then to even warm to the idea of her mother being with her father and him non-converting.

That had been a big issue too except with her relatives in Jordan because there was like a split in that side of the family with some of them being Coptic and most of them being also very much liberal Muslims too.

But she still had about six or seven cousins that she really only knew online still freely talking to her.

They all were worried about her living in America.

Except Jamal, he was worried for her living and moving to Chicago and the rates of violence there and gun crime and stuff.

But it had been a whole lot less traumatic so far than she had thought.

So far.

But then again she was almost expecting a lynch mob.

There were no metal detectors and armed guards there who would look through her book bag. And she hadn’t been stopped and searched by security yet.

There was however a lot of looks sent her way from some of the students there and she could tell the popular kids from the not so popular kids…sort of.

That bunch with the strange girl boy and other’s seemed oddly popular too. Not like what she sort of new to be the case but like people sort of looked up to them or something?

They seemed like a whole bunch of the nerds and the outcast types and the kind of people who didn’t hang up in the halls talking in their own group instead of hiding from the whole pack Alphas of the school.

She did get looks from those ones though…especially some of the girls and there were some real hateful glares there though. Her hijab drew those like a magnet. She got a little shove by someone she didn’t see and some girl in nice clothes faked spitting on her and some African American kid glared at her and said. “Go back to Deerborne hajette.”

And that was before she got to the office to register as a student. That was a long and grueling process really between the forms and picking classes and juggling those with these odd slots meaning different periods on different days…?

It was really confusing to her and was way more confusing than it should be. It was a five day week but the school called the schedule days as one through six…then each day you had six periods for classes but you had seven slots for courses and those slots were number based on the schedule of the teacher running said class?

And if that wasn’t enough they called her into the guidance office before she even had gone to a single class to talk about how she was adjusting and her really messed up marks and school records and about prayer…and dress code.

No burkas…that was kind of obvious and she got a glare for rolling her eyes at that. It was America. Had she worn a burka here she’d have been lit on fire or something already.

Yes Mrs. Kirkston was definitely not amused with the eye roll. And she opened a file folder and she jotted something down. Then looked at Yasmine again and tapped her teeth with the end of her pen before she continued.

“Look here Yasmine, things have gotten a lot more complicated here in schools since nine eleven. There are people that will take offense to things that they really shouldn’t and that’s not fair but it’s also the way that it is. Many of the things are for your own protection.”

“Like no Burkas.” She new she was being a smart ass and part of her liked that as much as a large part of her just wanted to get along with people and just maybe have friends…

“Yes…like the no burkas policy. Now we can’t object to you wearing your hijab but many of the Middle Eastern girls here don’t and I would stress that you think about how you would like to fit in here. It’s always best to avoid fights true?”

Yasmine bit on her cheek to not say anything she wore her hijab out of faith and honor, she wasn’t sure that she liked that there were Islamic girls here that didn’t. It didn’t seem right and she wasn’t sure that she liked the fact that she glossed over Islamic and Muslim with Middle Eastern instead.

“I think that I’ll keep my hijabs ma’am they’re important to me.”

“Okay that’s fine. Now…we don’t allow any shirts or flags that denote any religious connotation. That’s more to keep the peace, and all religious icons like jewelery are allowed as long as they don’t exceed one inch in length.”

She nodded but she didn’t like it either, they land of the free wasn’t apparently. Though she could see how a person sorting a shirt with the flag of Islam or a Middle Eastern would start something here…and she was sure that there wouldn’t be a whole lot said about someone wearing one of the Christian themed shirts.

She chewed on her cheek again and nodded trying to be respectful to her. “Yes ma’am.”

“I know I don’t have to tell you that daggers and knives are not allowed on school grounds regardless of your faith is that understood?”

“Ma’am…I’m a Muslim not a Sikh, I do not carry knives or any other weapon.”

The guidance councilor chewed her lip and scribbled some more into the file she had opened on her desk.

“And lastly prayer, we have been served an injunction last year that prevents us from allowing prayers during class times. I know that seems wrong but we’re tied up in amendment red tape with that one. We do have a room number 312 that the drama club has donated from being their storage so students can have a place to pray during breaks from classes.”

Yasmine nodded, she had again expected as much and had even been warned about it but being told about it was something else and she wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

She was released from the office and sent out with one of the office girls who looked like a student that was working here instead of classes. She was dressed pretty secretarial so she thought maybe some co-op education class? This Adrianna gave her a quick tour of the school since it was too late to go to class and it was almost time for thee morning break. It was a fairly new building and pretty big with three floors if you counted the library and the music rooms placed on the third floor.

It was all pretty fast and this is this and that is that but it wasn’t the “Real” map of the school…who hung where, who sat where at breaks and lunches…what areas belonged to who and this Adrianna didn’t look that friendly enough to ask. Not mean to her but one of those you’re bugging me I was busy people.

That kind of made her hunch a little as they went because with the moving around as a kid and the stuff after her dad had passed.

It just seemed that she was always a bother to someone.

Even her Mom sometimes, like she was somehow to blame for all of this? Yasmine thought she got it some…it must be hell to lose your life’s love. She could even get maybe her mom sometimes taking it out on her since she was pretty much the only person around most of the time.

But it didn’t mean that it never hurt.

She got lost in here head for awhile looking up a bit surprised when the bell rand for the break and her and the office girl were in the cafeteria.

“There you go, your all set.” And she didn’t really wait for a reply as she was already walking away clicking her heels and threading her way through the students.

The place was filling up pretty quickly too which made her nervous. A lot of people made her nervous, she wasn’t fond of the whole crowd thing no matter where she lived. She went and got a coffee like many others were and she bought a muffin to try something called pineapple cranberry which sounded promising even though she thought cranberries were an American Thanksgiving food.

She looked for an innocuous place to sit and set her book bag on the table close enough to keep people from grabbing it but also to sort of hide behind.

“Nothing to see here just a girl and her muffin.”

Instead she watched people, trying to get a handle on things.

Her fellow “Middle Eastern” students were…there were scarily westernized…local cloths and almost the mall trendy stuff for both sexes and the guys all shaved…not that all of them needed to but she barely saw anyone sporting facial hair who was “brown.” And not that many girls she saw wore her hijab or anything like most girl their ages would and even some showed a lot of skin.

Yasmine was pragmatic and she wasn’t a prude either but her shirts fit and she wore stockings or leggings most of the time but these girls were really westernized many in pants and some in really short skirts and shirts that didn’t fit.

And…their noses…no piercing in most of them and they didn’t have the regular noses she’d grown up seeing. But these small pert western noses like…like they had them.

The thought of plastic surgery was kind of repellent to her and to fit in?

Just…eew.

And there was also like this subconscious thing were they sort of avoided each other in a way? Like they were sort of saying to everyone else we don’t know each other that well…which could be true but she doubted it.

The school had a pretty wide mixture of kids but white was the blanket color here. Then the blacks and then there were a pretty even number of Middle Eastern kids and Hindu kids and the Hispanics, there were some Asians too but they were in the minority groups.

She noticed the kids forming up into their friend groups or peer groups in some cases. The sports teams seemed to congregate together and they seemed to have the cheerleader types and the kids with the really nice clothes with them too ad right on the fringes of them were the next bunch who wanted into the group like they were holding court and almost flanking them were these sort of satellite groups with these clean cut…Very Christian types that obviously were showing their faith despite the apparent rules and some of the ones she encountered first thing were there and then there was these other kids that looked like they fit in with these “Christians” but they had shirts on that said stuff like don’t tread on me and had a coiled snake on them.

Definitely the Alpha wolf pack here and stuff and between them and their hanger’s on and fringe groups there were quite a few of them.

And they were even able to scared or intimidate some people just by looking at them…pointedly looking at them and saying things she was too far away to hear but seemed to have an effect.

Then there was a commotion with them as this really beautiful girl came in looking like she’d went to a salon before coming here and she was stunning and crying at the rush of faked almost formal care and concern they had for.

“You poor thing…he’s a bastard…he really is gay we seen it this morning…”

Yasmine sat and almost shook her head saying to herself. “Do they live in a bubble? I mean can’t they tell how fake they’re all being?”

It really was in a way like watching bad acting.

And this girl…she was really beautiful but she was going on and on about some boy called “Johnny the fag“…and how “Brian was fucking the tranny.” And she went on and on crying and alternating with calling people low and really as much as Yasmine hated the term…well she was being a bitch.

This Britney was someone to avoid.

There was another stir in the Alphas as the boy-girl…that dark haired one with breasts showed up with their friends in that motley crew and they were talking and chatting. It was a whole unlikely group too when you got a look at the from afar. Geeks and nerds, a couple of jocks, one in a varsity jacket, a black skater kid, some one using sign language a busty femme Latina and this tall slender almost boyish beauty with straight long blonde hair and a few others just sort of a loose group.

They were getting coffees and drinks and raiding the sweets counter and they didn’t seem too much like the typical groups of kids that formed cliques…too many were too different.

But they seemed friendly and even popular..ish. People talked to them and people were going up to this sandy haired jock boy and hugging him and kissing him…even some other boys? They were saying “Happy Gay Day.”?

Then the Britney girl caught sight of them.

*Brian…………

It had been an interesting morning especially after word blazed around the school that he kissed Kenyon. It sort of added to the him and Johnny rumors and he actually had started to find it kind of amusing and weird.

He hadn’t minded the kiss and he really didn’t feel a thing from it other than it was actually kind of fun…it felt good to thumb his nose at the haters and stuff.

And weirdly…as much as he was getting the hate on from his old crew and stuff he was getting kind of friendly respect? From kids that he never knew or had used to give him these looks.

He was getting what those looks used to be because they still were giving them to is old crew…the look said you’re an asshole but I’m scared of you.

It was kinda nice for people to sort of see him in a different light.

And he had wondered just how much he’d been caught up in and found guilty by being with Brit for so long.

God…it felt good to feel clean.

And he found the way Kenyon blushed at him between first and second period funny as heck.

But kissing Kenyon brought one thing to his mind really clearly.

If he could kiss Kenyon then he could definitely kiss Johnny…Oh sigh…wow…yeah thinking of kissing Johnny despite the name had Brian actually feeling turned on. He even tried to think of Johnny as a guy…not because he was rejecting it but like a mental experiment…to see if he could.

Nope…

It was her face…the blue eyes, the platinum blonde hair with the pink streaks in it and her ready smile she seemed to have.

And Honey, Lindsey and the others…he was so not used to a girl actually being real friends with her friends just because…no agendas. Johnny was so a nice girl and he was pretty sure he was starting to like nice girls.

It was actually kind of a decent day given yesterday…and then Britney came in through the other doors.

She was right on top of her game with a definite makeover and a look that was calculated too. He’d seen her do it where they were dating. “Looks state before you say a thing.”

So she had a school hoody the zip front on to “Look” like she’s having a hard time getting it together…her cropped v-necked sweater thingy…soft wool but shows off her navel and cleavage, Yoga pants because they show off her ass and he could see under all of that “Can’t cope look” she was wearing some of her expensive lingerie stuff.

And there were fake hugs and fake sympathy from her, for her… “Like Ohmigawd like he almost gave you the AIDS.” Oh and lots of fake tears too as she was upset enough that she was sort of sidling up to Shawn Locke the rising star of the school on both track and basketball and on the short list for top senior guy and prom king next year…maybe even this year depending on how he medaled.

He was getting lots of shitty-dirty looks too from people as she cried and said stuff…in that sneaky way not loud enough that you could hear her from there but loud enough that they were getting the gossipy overheard stuff she was “Confiding.” in friends with.

Brian kind of glared and sort of hunched and knew the bullshit was thick over there and that he was getting shredded even more. He blinked when Jessie passed him a chocolate milk and a hot chocolate chip cookie.

“Uhm…thanks…”

“You look a little lost.”

“Sort of…I’m glad to be clear of it but that was my normal over there.”

Jessie took a drink of his strawberry milk and nodded. “I get that you two dated a long time I hear.”

“Since middle school.” He sighed. “I think I really didn’t know what I was getting into with Brit and then when it was heading to me not liking her very much I’d been so long that I didn’t know how to get out.”

“You just described most abusive relationships Bry.”

“Pfft…no I’m a guy, it was just me not nutting up.”

Jessie looked at him. “Most…most abusive relationships aren’t physical Brian it’s about power.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m stringer than her Jessie.”

“No not that kind of power but…” Jessie watched Britney for a few seconds then broke off a corner of the cookie he gave Brian and ate it causing a stir with the people interested in watching them. “Let me guess…you guys didn’t go anywhere or do anything that she didn’t want to do…and if it got to a fight it was her whining and ten bitching until you caved and then…if you were winning the fight she’d bawl…get upset and make you feel like shit for making her feel bad and then you’d cave.”

Jessie took another sip of strawberry milk. “Then she’d reward you sometimes with sex.”

Brian looked at Jessie offered more cookie which Jessie took. “Sounds like you two were dating.”

“Nope, no how, no way…I’m sorry but the stuff I said it’s abuse pattern stuff. My mom worked with a lot of abused poorer women in some of the places we lived at. Britney was treating you the same way that guys treat their women like shit then are all flowers and I’m sorry baby.”

Brian just sat there a few seconds and hen looked down at his sneakers. “Shit…”

Jessie leaned over and gave him a one armed hug around the waist which was weird but considering that Jessie had breasts the sort of girlness of it wasn’t totally unexpected…but it oddly just felt like a friends gesture.

“Thanks Jessie, y’know you’re one of the first people to just cut the bullshit ad tell me stuff like it is.”

“We’re friends Brian, I knew we’d likely end up as friends when you and the guys you were with didn’t jump in on the fight by the dumpsters.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you’re an honorable guy and that’s rare y’know.”

Brian blushed, he didn’t really know what to say. People didn’t go around and took stuff like that into account…much less say it and it kind of felt good. Kind of like this morning standing up with all of them as Kenyon came out. He hugged Jessie back in the same way and blushed more as he felt Jessie’s breasts pressing into his side. “Shit sorry I didn’t mean to…”

“Bry, their just boobs, it’s okay…half the planet has them. It’s not like you copped a feel.”

“I know but…”

Jessie laughed and it wasn’t unpleasant or a full on guys laugh but smoky like a guys but with a softer edge to it. “They are kind of fun though when they have that effect though.”

“What?”

Jessie just grinned. “You doing anything tonight?”

Brian looked at Jessie. “You asking me out? I thought you were going to date Kenyon?”

“I am going out with Kenyon but Danny and I thought we’d get a game going over at Kenyon’s and us be there as moral support.”

“Moral support?”

“He hasn’t told his family yet.”

“Oh…shit. Yeah I’m there. So what are we playing?”

“Dan’s got a few choices but we might just go with Star Wars.”

“Uhm…like running around with light sabers and stuff, isn’t that for kids?”

“No, no it’s Role-playing like Dungeons and Dragons make believe but more than that, it’s why it’s a game.”

“Oh okay, I’ll give it a shot.”

“Cool we’re trying for something everyone knows so it’s either that or AMSH.”

“AMSH?”

“Advanced Marvel Super Heroes, because most people have some knowledge of Star Wars or comics.”

“Yeah, never played anything like that before.”

“It’s actually kind of fun though I haven’t played much either.”

“Sounds really geeky.”

“Hey, Geeky and nerdy are really in.”

“They are?”

Jessie looked at him grinning. “Yeah and y’know nerdy girls can be hella cute.”

“Hella? You’re learning.” Brian grinned and Jessie smiled and shrugged.

“I’m going to go and ask some other people too.”

“Jess?”

“Yeah?”

“Is Johnny a geeky girl?”

Jessie grinned. “Hey Johnny are you a geekette?” he called out.

She yelled back from where she was talking. “I love blue police booths!”

Jessie grinned. “There you go.”

Brian looked confused. “Huh…what?”

“Look up the Doctor.”

“Doctor Who?”

He didn’t get why Jessie was laughing. “Exactly! Meet me during study hall we can bone up.”

Oh the head snaps from the Alphas…he said Bone on purpose.

*Johnny…………

She hadn’t really stopped smiling all morning. The date with Danny and then actually having girl-friends to talk it over with…okay so Lindsey wasn’t exactly into the whole giggle-girl-squee thing but she did listen and she did talk and she was becoming her friend. Honey…Honey was just as girl-friend starved as she’d been and they had a great time talking even with Honey’s mom chirping in it’d been fun.

Then this morning. This morning was great with the getting Lindsey made over and…and then there was Kenyon coming out.

That was brave…it’s so hard coming out.

And for a guy like Kenyon that doesn’t come across as the wispy, primping stereotype it’s kind of harder. It is really if you come out and you already fit the stereotype a lot of people shrug it off. But if you still challenge their perceptions the haters come at you a lot harder.

That’s a fast lesson when you’re TG.

But then Sam the deaf kid and she was sure Danny and Jessie went and started this whole kissing Kenyon in this Happy Gay Day thing that was still going on here at morning break. She loved the fact it was this kind of peaceful loving style protest before the haters got to Kenyon.

Even if some kids didn’t like gay PDA’s it was one of the fastest easiest and coolest things that she’d seen. It’s have never been able to happen this long in her old school. Here it wasn’t liked but between their group into it the LGBT kids as few as the were and a few of the just socially conscious or social rebels there must have been fifty or sixty kids.

That’s a lot of kids for the faculty to start stuff with or rather that’s a lot of parents.

She smiled and chatted during the break with some of thee new kids. That was a whole lot harder than she thought. They hadn’t talked to her before this, she’d been here a good chunk of last years last semester and they never came near.

Or defended her, that’s what else made this hard. She was the only openly Trans person here and until now they hadn’t really gotten near her.

But here they were and other too talking to her and she was talking to them and it got tense a little when Bobbi Cambridge the L queen came over and shook her hand and gave her the light social hug.

“Hey cool thing you guys did with your friend, we might have to steal that.”

“It was really Sam’s idea.”

“Who’s Sam?”

“The guy over there signing and stuff.”

“Oh, well very cool I didn’t know he’d be up on the LGBT issues.”

That was the first little tweak. “No, there’s a lot of people that are really better versed in sex and gender equality out there than some think.”

She was sharp and she got it, their eyes clashed for a moment.

“Well some think that but unless they live it the only get part of it.”

“Lots of people get it and are going through it without the need to be official about it.”

“I really don’t think that some people get some issues…Johnny..” She smiled but sort of emphasized her name….like a guy dig.

“Oh I wouldn’t know Bobbi, that could be that I had to form my own opinions.” There was a dig to Bobbi’s name and the fact they never came round before.

They locked eyes and stared at each other. Bobbi got closer and into Johnny’s face but was very calm and quiet about it.

“Look, I’m not trying to start something why are you on my ass about it?”

Johnny looked back and was fighting hurt and anger and was very, very close to tears. “I know you don’t like me, I know that you think I’m some guy or something trying some sick joke or something but I’m not and…and…and you fucking hurt me.” She was angry whispering and breathe red hard through her nose to not cry. Not now not in front of everyone…her and the Alphas.

Bobbi whispered back. “What!? I never did anything to you?”

Johnny stared at her hard right in the eyes. “Yeah…exactly…”

Bobbi looked like she was going to reflexively say something back and she stopped and stared at Johnny and blinked a few times her mouth even hung open a little as stuff hit her.

“Oh…shit no we didn’t did we…?”

A couple of tears slid down from Johnny’s eyes and she quickly wiped them away and sniffled. “No…and no one did at my last school either…I thought this wasn’t going to be any different.”

“Oh dammit…Johnny…shit it was just…” Bobbi looked apologetic.

“Trannies freak you out?” Bobbi nodded.

“I just don’t get it…and here you are with that name.”

Johnny sniffle laughed. “You’re a fine one to talk.”

Bobbi sniffle laughed a little too. “Bobbi is so much better than Roberta, cuter too.”

Johnny nodded and smiled a little. “It really is.”

They stared at each other and both let out this exhaled sigh and hugged. They slipped over and bought coffees and just leaned on the edge of the bench table they were using. Bobbi took out some nicotine gum and chewed.

“Can I ask you something though since we’re clearing the air?”

Johnny nodded. “Sure.”

“Why Johnny?”

“I went back to it actually I was Jennifer before this.”

“You’d make a good Jennifer.”

“No, I didn’t. I was everyone’s door mat until I couldn’t take it anymore and as soon as I did they made sure that I knew that I was only being tolerated.”

“Being tolerated?”

“They beat me until I needed to be hospitalized and missed the rest of that year.”

“Oh fuck…bastards…”

Johnny nodded and leaned into the hug that Bobbi gave her from one side and Lindsey from the other who’d just slipped over and was quietly listening.

“I purged everything that was Jennifer out of my life and was going to swear to stay trapped in boy mode for however long I was going to live.”

Lindsey stared a little more than that and hugged her tighter.

Bobbi asked. “So you’ve never tried another fem-name?”

Johnny shook her head. “No…I didn’t need to. I was in recovery and web surfing trying to take my mind off of everything when I saw these videos of this Trans singer girl on you tube and she has a big following and she’s on I-tunes and stuff and the thing was…we have the same name. She kept her boy name and she turned it all on it’s head.”

“Okay…” Bobbi nodded.

Johnny smiled. “She’s really pretty and the thing is it’s not a gimmick or a stage name it’s her name and she said once. Hi I’m Johnny and I’m a girl.”

Lindsey nodded. “You are too so Johnny is a girl’s name.”

Bobbi nodded. “Like Frankie or Toni or even like me.”

Johnny nodded. “It’s kind of like something I hang onto now as like a personal truth…I’m Johnny and I AM a girl and there’s nothing they can do to change that.”

Bobbi nodded. “I agree it really works for you.”

Johnny nodded. “Not for everyone some girls really do have their real names very different than their closet nameplates. It just fits for me.”

They hugged and started talking about actually taking the LGBT a bit further in the school as Johnny pointed out that besides the lesbian and gay kids there’s others here that need a safe haven too especially the gender-queer kids that don’t really fit in the lines anywhere.

*Lindsey…………

She nodded as Johnny talked adding in. “That’d be me.”

Bobbi looked at her, actually Lindsey though again…but she was never sure. “You?”

“Yeah, I’m like gender numb or something. I sort of feel not like a girl, not like a guy and I’m not really attracted to either.”

Bobbi looked her over this time like she was looking for something. “Low hormones?”

“Not as far as I know, I have periods like everyone…like normally.” She gave Johnny a sorry smirk who waved it off. “It’s just it doesn’t compute most of the time for me.”

“Really you look great?”

“Thanks it’s nerdy-girly-sporty-butch courtesy of Johnny here and Honey. I just used to wear whatever I could afford and what hand-me overs would fit or could be adjusted.”

Bobbi nodded. “So you think there’s a definite need?”

Lindsey nodded. “Heck yeah it’s high-school we’re all kind of messed up y’know I think that there should be a safe place for us all really. And there’s got to be a lot of people that are in hiding because they don’t want to be outed as something freaky.”

Bobbi nodded again. “We really need to look at all of this stuff way more then you girls want to help out?”

Johnny was answering some Dr. Who thing Jessie asked and smiled at that. “Yeah, sure I’d love to actually get in on something that’ll maybe leave the school better for others after graduation.” She looked over to Johnny. “Hey Rose you in?”

Johnny blinked and grinned. “As long as we can paint the doors blue.” Lindsey grinned wider because Johnny had a pretty spot on English voice just then and of course catching it Dan held his hands over his heart. “I knew there was a reason I’m so attracted to you.” he said to Johnny.

Lindsey laughed as Johnny said. “Oh you’re just interested in my wibbly-wobbly gender bendery bits.” And kissed him on the cheek and that’s why she liked these people. They get her, they as just as geeky and odd as her and brave. Before them she had no friends and had to reign everything in and while she might not get exactly what was going on with her she was Lindsey here and not Dishwater and that was good enough for all of them.

Poor Bobbi though all lesbian hip and trendy looked confused at the sudden flirty geek storm and why others were laughing.

She moved to beside Bobbi. “Don’t worry young padawan I’ll translate stuff for you.”

“Padawhat?”

Lindsey just grinned. “It’s the…You will learn grasshopper you will learn.”

They all talked together as Jessie and Danny were talking about the game over at Kenyon’s house and getting Kenyon to call his folks to see if he could use the garage game-den and have people over.

*Kenyon…………

Oh it had been the morning of like all morning with him coming out….and then this whole Happy Gay Day thing.

That, that was borderline super embarrassing. He’d have nixed it right away if he new it had been going to happen but then again…

It seemed to be doing something good and he got to be kissed…Danny and Donnie were surprising more than anything and Nick was so shy that is was cute if he’d thought about it. Sam who came up with it was alright too but Brian…Brian had kissed him…this straight good looking athletic guy and that made parts of him stir to life in a very gay way.

Thinking on it he was pretty sure that he liked guy’s like Brian if he was going to be the kissee…and with some of the other gay boys that seemed a little “Softer” he felt more the aggressor kind of feelings. If he’d have to say he had two different types.

Then there was Jessie…

Oh…when Jessie had kissed him he got an instant boner and he had it most of the morning. Jess has breasts which were…if he had to be honest they were okay…well he suspected they were likely awesome for their size but it was not why he liked Jessie so much.

It was everything else.

Sigh.

He’d been kissed a couple of times between first and second classes and there had been some girls kissing him too. That he didn’t mind but at the same time…it was still that whole in shock kind of distressing that they really didn’t do much for him.

And while it’d been cool there was some backlash starting. A few people mostly the popular kids or the entourages that were associated with them had been giving him some dirty looks.

The churches said. “Faggot…Queer…Cocksucker…You’re going to hell…and God hates fags.” some was quietly aimed at him in class and more openly in the halls and there responses from the kids that were around him right back.

“Bigot….Sheep…Jealous…”

Lindsey…he was really finding them getting closer like friends. She had hit one bunch of them with. “Fantasizers.” It actually took some of them a few minutes before that sank into the thickheads.

Danny used. “Yeehaw…” and a fake spitting thing like a weapon and Jessie just had that so cool hands in his pockets sexy cat-guy walk and said. “Banjoes.”

He never really expected this from people if something like this happened and he could kind of see that besides the whole Happy Gay day thing that the friends he had and the unified front was sinking into the other kids, or some of the other kids. By morning break they’d all sort of gathered with a lot of the LGBT kids and some of the other kids that were the odder set like the theater and the band kids and the glee club types.

What was embarrassing was the attention he wasn’t really a spokes person type but he was really getting talked to by a lot of kids. And more kissing but mostly the whole friendly in solidarity thing.

It was so strange.

He’d worked out like crazy over the summer, weights and protein powder shakes and running and lots of drills to get on the basketball team…to be popular. He’d been a faceless nobody back in his old school and if anyone knew him it was for his brothers.

Now he hadn’t made the team this year yet and he was popular all of a sudden for being out and gay?

That was just weird.

Jessie came over near the end of break and he felt his heart speed up. He looked so hot…the dark hair, the intense eyes, that sexy smile that you really only seen on movie stars…Jess had definitely this sort of Johnny Depp thing there with his smile…that sexy I know something smile and the old army jacket he wore just added something to him that the ‘Murica! Teabagger kids or rather the ones that called themselves the Young Patriots just couldn’t pull off.

Yeah seriously there were these kids with that whole political stuff in school just like the churchy crowd. They’d been as edgy as edgy gets all morning and right now looked like them with him all being gathered together was really getting them going and talking and bitching until…until Brian’s ex showed up.

He nodded in her direction as Jessie came over. “If I was gay before she’d definitely do that to me.”

Jessie grinned. “Yeah but you have better taste that her right?”

“Right…are we…?”

“Still on for Saturday night?”

He nodded. “Yeah…?”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“You are?”

“I’ve never dated before and I was hoping to before college.”

“Really?”

“Yes…” Jessie actually came over more and leaned on him.

He smelled so good…like Jessie and like nice cologne and more recently chocolate chip cookies. It was making him hard again.

Jessie looked at him. “You’re going to tell your parents?”

“I have to it’ll get out to them before the night’s out it’ll be all over those sites about the school.”

“So might be already then?”

Nick typed out on his phone saying. “It is.”

Kenyon looked up and breathed. “Oh god.”

Jessie touched him…a hand on…an rubbed his chest…he felt his heart race at the touch. “We’ll deal.”

“How?”

“We have a party.”

“A party?”

“Sort of. We do the happy gay day thing at your place while we set up with people coming over to have a game in that den you said you guys had.”

“Game?”

“RPG Danny want’s to try running a game now that we have way more than enough numbers.”

“Oh cool that’s a lot of players.”

“Yeah but Dan’s got a good idea.”

“Oh?”

“AMSH.”

“I’ve never heard of it.”

“Advanced Marvel Super Heroes, it’s older but really easy to play I guess and perfect for a newb crowd.”

“Uhm makes sense, I thought I heard him talking Star Wars a second ago though.”

“Too many players for a good storyline.”

“Oh..and this?”

“Dan? Why AMSH?” Jessie called over.

Daniel gestured all around them. “Isn’t it obvious? We do Xavier Midwest.”

Both Kenyon and Jessie nodded and Dan was suddenly explaining that idea to the others and Jessie looked over to Kenyon. “So, we set up a game and have lots of people over and we make it safer to break it to your folks?”

He wasn’t sure it’d work but he wasn’t sure it wouldn’t either and he nodded. “They might be okay with this because well we know gay people and some kids and family with gay kids but…”

Jessie smiled and rubbed his arm. “But being okay with someone else’s house isn’t your own. We’ll be there.”

“Oh, okay really?”

“Yes and with food and stuff, we’ll load them down before we tell them. We’ll even have a cake.”

“A Cake?”

“Hey we can’t buy them booze.”

He laughed and nodded “True.”

“Call them okay? Make sure it’s okay first.”

He took out his phone and called home getting his mom who was more than excited that they were going to have kids over like when his brother was home. Kenyon let her go on a little before saying they’d see her later then he sighed with relief and put away his phone.

“It’s cool and no one from the office called about the fight.”

Kenyon bit his lip and he looked around and Brian gave him this odd look and nodded and took a few steps using his size to block the view of him and Jessie and he leaned down and gave him a soft kiss.

“Thank you, I’m really not sure if I’d make it through without you.”

Jessie pulled his lips in and tasted the kiss… then that smile. “You’re welcome…”

The break bell rang and Jessie gave him a quick kiss back. “See you at lunch? Be aware, Be safe.”

*Jessie…………

Things were good, almost too good really and while he was having a good time and starting to see people, regular people getting together he knew the “Alphas” were up to things.

Despite the whole hub-bub that started when Britney showed up and stuff and the dirty looks the older heads over there were acting like this was no big thing and he especially didn’t like the almost casual smiles.

He told everyone to “Be aware and Be safe.” As they headed to classes and he tried to do the same thing for himself.

Tough he was still surprised at how much he found himself liking Kenyon, and kissing him. He had told himself he was open minded given the way he’d been born but it was still a pleasant surprise to like the way he tasted on his lips and the double tingle from his breasts as is nipples had gotten pointy and hard and the semi-hard-on he gotten from the kissing too.

But the coming out party, and the meeting Monday night and holding off until after school to get the news out that the school had changed the meeting of the school board to Monday night and where.

Nick had really saved them a lot of frustration by learning that and telling them that.

He finished early in English and used his laptop to type out a letter/e-mail about the stuff going on here at the school and the change in the meeting as a dodge towards the kids and the parents that might show to protest what’s going on. There were several local new stations and lots of bloggers that he was going to send this too and there was a whole other list of people in city hall his dad had from work he was going to send this too also.

And a few civil rights organizations too like the ACLU.

He saved it on his laptop and a USB drive and he pocketed the drive in a front pocket. He looked up at a couple of the kids from the entourage pack and let them know that he knew they were watching him.

It came to a head before lunch in the changing room before gym class and he’d enjoyed Kenyon’s blushing at him as they changed and he joked around a bit with the guys who were getting more used to him being there and having boobs.

He still refused to show them when asked as he changed to a sports bra and he saw this look of anger in the eyes of those Christian boys the whole time with him and Kenyon.

He was especially kind of proud at the average guys being all not a big deal about Kenyon coming out and even joking with him about how cute he found them. Kenyon was really blushing but after a few minutes he played along a little bit saying he hadn’t been openly gay enough to really be objective.

“Bullshit.” The Churchy mouthpiece swore. “You’re a faggot, you dream about being a sodomite.”

Kenyon looked at them and actually looked pissed.

“Look…I didn’t want to be gay, I fought it for your information. No one wants to be different or ostracized let along be something that everyone knows is hard as fuck to live as.”

“Liar, you love being the perverted freak you are.” He looked ready to get into a fight with Kenyon and Kenyon looked ready to fight back.

Jessie couldn’t help notice Kenyon was actually pretty solidly muscled as he bristled.

Kenyon actually got closer to the churchy guy. “Yeah I’m gay, I like guys and I have sex dreams just like everyone else. I like COCK and I might want DICK but it’ll be a cold fucking day in hell before I’d lower myself to sleep with the likes of you douche-bags.”

That’s when the fight happened.

The Churchy kids swung on Kenyon jumping him and started punching him as a group and some of the cammo-kids too and the rest of the guys and Jessie jumped in to break it up and it got worse when one of them pushed Josh away from him and there could be heard. “Get your dirty hands off me nigger!”

It got really violent them with about a even match between the kids involved and the kids that had tried to break it up and Jessie felt someone punch him in the back of his head and ripped at his sports bra.

Then the whistles and the coach and assistant coach were there and the assistant coach had the walkie talkie out and was calling security.

They all missed Gym and since the whole thing had amounted to bigotry and racism and hard feeling on both sides it had most of them in the hall outside the gym getting reamed out by the coach.

“Gentlemen and today none of you really deserve that term… sex and sexual orientation, race and faith had no place in my classes…in my gym and there was one ruler in that gym and that’s sportsmanship!”

There were some looks of protest building and Jessie just nodded a towel wrapped around his chest.

The coach cut the about to’s off. “No…don’t say a damned word you do and you’ll get an incomplete for the year.”

There were some shocked looks from the haters and the mouthy churchy boy stepped ahead and got in the coach’s face.

“You can’t do that you’re violating my rights! I was exercising free speech and my freedom of religion!”

The coach thundered back. “Oh YES I CAN…Good Sportsmanship is the foundation of the whole curriculum it’s the FIRST thing they say to teach in the books for the classes. I know that I covered that with ALL of you and seeing you’re FAILING to how good sportsman’s like conduct you’re NOT completing my class! Therefore you get and incomplete! Now sit down and be quiet!”

Jessie had to admit…it might not be within the rules but it could definitely be argued that it could be in the coaches powers too. Especially if the teachers union went to bat for him. He was honestly impressed.

There were no detentions just sit outside as they were in the hall and to think about it. The assistant coach got Jessie his shirt he was going to wear but they all just sat there.

“No taking, no walking around just stay right there until you all decide to act right and shake hands.”

They were twenty minutes late for lunch, the Coach literally put his foot down with the faculty that came over to see what was going on and while the VP looked upset as did the guidance councilor that the coach had punished them and argued against them all being suspended for fighting. His gym, his rules. And he didn’t back down either. The actual Principal or who Jessie thought was the Principal showed to look but he avoided the entire scene like he didn’t want to know.

Hmm…that seemed to say a lot. He looked like he was just putting his time in.

The Coach though…he had some more respect for. That was someone tilting if he ever seen it.

The guys that were on his and Kenyon’s side of the fight/scuffle on the plus side joined them at their tables they need two now really and the haters went to their cliques and there was a lot of talking over there. The word “Sue” came up several times loudly over there.

Jessie smiled at Kenyon who sat down while some ice wrapped in a shirt and gave it to Jessie for the back of his head.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, it was a dirty shot.” There was a lot of agreement.

“Bastards.” Lindsey spat.

More nods and agreements.

Jessie winced. “It’s not really my head but my chest, they yanked off my sport bra and I’ve got bra-burn or something.”

The girls did a collective wince and Honey covered hers reflexively.

Jessie smiled at them all. “Thanks, the sympathy really does help.”

Daniel grinned. “I could rub soothing, soothing cold cream on them for you? It’s what a friend would do.”

Some of the girls smacked him calling him a “Perv” or “Imp.”

He laughed at imp and Burns steepled his fingers and chuckled evilly.

Jessie smiled an shook his head making it ache a little more. “Ow…dammit and I was just healing up from the last fight.”

There were some nods and looks of sort of respect from the guys that had been in the fight.

Then he looked over at something and sighed and he got up. “Dan, guy’s… a hand?”

He walked over to where the new girl was and she looked stunned…just standing there looking shame faced as she looked at her clothes…covered in tomato sauce and her hijab gone her hair falling down in front of her face.

Britney giggled as she walked away with some of the other girls and some of the guys moved to sort of innocently flank them. “Whoops sorry, I didn’t see you there!”

The girl had tears starting to fall down her face and Jessie quietly leaned close but didn’t touch her. He spoke quietly in Arabic.

“~Sister please go with the ladies and allow me to deal with this.~”

(I’m using ~ to denote Jessie speaking in another language.)

*Yasmine…………

She’d been quiet, she’d been quiet and just kept quiet through the rest of her classes until lunch break then she went to the interfaith room to pray. It was pretty nice actually with donated items and decorations and on a board someone had used a wood burning kit to write in a whole bunch of languages. “Only Truth.” She liked that though it looked kind of new there. There was a few others there meditating or some such and reading except for one girl that was tuning a violin and was dressed in an extremely dark dress and loads of make up.

No one bothered her there at all until she left and she sort of had the feeling she was being followed…there was some giggles…and titters of laughter and she heard the voices of those mean fake girls.

“She’s stacked….Big ass too…Camel tits…”

Then some guy’s voice. “What do you call a pregnant Muslim?”

“What?” That was the fake girls.

“Bomb-maker.”

The laughter froze her in her tracks…she’d never heard anyone say something like that since she’d come to this country…it…they were talking about kids…babies and…she felt her knuckles tighten and she tried to fight for calm…for peace but it was so hard and she just walked into the cafeteria when they passed her.

“Whoops sorry I didn’t see you there!”

The girl that had came in late at morning break…and she was covered with tomato juice…

That’s when she noticed they yanked off her hijab too and she saw one girl bump pass it to some guy and another and it went into a garbage can in their area and several lunches got dumped on it.

Wasn’t anyone…

She saw her own people the other middle eastern kids ignoring it or looking away and the few that did look pissed off were getting stared down but these…these…she hated the word but infidel…in the whole sense of the ignorant on purpose cruel…

No…she wasn’t worth…and she could feel them so smug and satisfied and she looked to the teachers and guards and they were looking at her confused, some frowning and she though…one a woman a little smug?

The shame and the tears came then…

!?

“~How…How do you speak?~”

It was that boy, the one with the boobs and his friends…she was a little scared but him saying Sister in Arabic helped…she spoke several languages herself from moving so much.

“~I spent time in Africa my father made wells and irrigation things, some stuck enough that I kept learning.~”

Yasmine nodded still shocked and even more when the black skater boy took off his hoody and passed it to her.

“I’ll get it dirty it’ll stain.”

He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter it’s a shirt, you do though miss.”

The short blue haired one nods. “He means it’s an honor Miss.”

Honor…?

She started to go with the girls and she saw the boys walk right into their midst and lots of the bullies were standing up and faculty and security were moving and this boy with the breasts and these others were…

He walked right over to the garbage and he started digging through the mess and the food. He passed the stuff to the black boy and the blue haired one and they dumped the splattery messed back on their tables.

There were screams from the nasty girls and shouts and the security man yelled. “Cut it out both of you! Now!”

This very angry looking man came stalking over and snarled. “Stone! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

She didn’t want this…but…in all the schools she’d been in no one ever tried like this either…

She hoped he wasn’t in trouble.

*Jessie…………

He looked at the VP and held up the hijab covered in food and greasy gunk. “I’m getting this sir, you know what this is?”

“Yes I know what this is, it’s a hijab.”

Jessie nodded over to the girl. “It’s her hijab and it’s over here…all the way over here and in the garbage…you think she took it off and dunked it all the way over here then dumped all that on it?”

The VP looked at his staff that were there and the teacher from the morning that had a clash with Lindsey spoke up. “We were busy, we can’t see everything.”

The VP turned from her looking mad at her too and looked at Jessie.

Jessie stared right back. “No one did anything sir, it’s not right.”

“It’s not your job Stone.”

“Then do the job sir.”

“Stone…”

Jessie looked at him. “Let it go sir, you know it’s bullshit what they did and you know that this’ll get out of hand.”

The man wasn’t Jessie’s favorite person but he wasn’t a fool either, this could spark something racial and if not here then once it got home with the muslim kids here.

The VP looked around frowning. “You have witnesses that seen this Stone?”

“Yes sir including myself.”

“Okay what happened?”

Jessie explained how the events unfolded and there were several of the kids on Jessie’s side saying how it happened and Nick spoke on his phone.

“It’s recorded sir.”

The VP stared at the boy that couldn’t talk and frowned. “Recording video is against the privacy code of the school and the law.”

Jessie looked at the VP. “They can’t charge that many of us sir it won’t stick and you know the parents won’t allow a cell-phone blocker without a huge fuss. You don’t need to use it legally to use it as administrative evidence sir.”

They stared down at each other again then he nodded and the alpha kids involved were yelling at him all at once and threatening to call parents…do you know who my father is?…I’m calling a lawyer!

The VP pinched the bridge of his nose and turned on them. “Enough!…In school suspension for you and you and you…” He pointed out the offending members including Britney.

“But…But it was an accident! I didn’t take her rag Jerry did.”

“You splashed the young lady.”

“Shelly hit my elbow it was an accident! Look at the video!”

She was staring the VP down too. Any everyone knew it was planned and everyone knew she was lying. But knowing it and proving it were very different.

He breathed out hard. “Fine…but you and her are on notice, the rest of you all next week plus Saturday detention this weekend!”

There was more bitching and complaining from the Alpha kids that did it and there were some mutters from some of the others in the student body. He had the security guards literally escort them to the office.

He looked at Jessie. “Go to the janitor’s and get this cleaned up Stone.”

“Yes sir.”

“And Stone…”

“Yes sir?”

“It’s not your job.”

“Then don’t make me necessary.”

There was another tense few seconds and the VP left with the guards and the kids stopping only to gesture at the teacher from earlier giving her this come with me now finger gesture.

The place was quiet and some of the others like Brian and Sam came with the cleaning stuff and told Jessie. “Go take that to her dude.”

Jessie took some cleanser there and started working it into the cloth hoping to get the worst out even taking his Tide stain pen out of his jacket and pulling the top out with his teeth and headed for the girls bathroom.

He stopped and looked at Nick.

“Thanks for having our backs Nick, all of us. That was brave.”

There was a look between them there two…

Nick blushed and then looked at Jessie. “Y…Y…You can’t stop the signal M..Mm..Mal.”

Jessie grinned and he walked alone out of the cafeteria people moving out of his way until he went into the kitchen of the school and used their hot water to wash the hijab clean.

There was a lot of people watching…No one in the kitchen stopped him either.

He left looking for the girls.

There was buzzing and talking as soon as Jessie was gone from sight and some people moving and changing tables. They were upset…upset that Britney got away clean…like always. Britney shot then all a smile and walked passed he guys cleaning her nose held high and spared only a look of hate for Brian. She met with her part of the Alpha’s court as they had moved outside and left with their bunch en masse following the seniors amongst them who were talking and looking like they just were…amused.

Danny couldn’t help it.

He started whistling. “We’re not gonna take it.” By Twister Sister as they were vacating and he and Donnie and Sam and Brian and Kenyon were cleaning up the mess.

*Johnny…………

It was the guys…Jessie…just he just didn’t stop and he just sort of drug people with him into the light.

Them all standing up for the girl…Donnie literally giving the shirt off his back.

And the thing with Jessie speaking Arabic or something to her and going over there…to root through food and garbage like his pride had nothing to do with what he was doing.

The girl was Yasmine and she was new to the school…her very first day here and this had happened.

She knew it was the hateful bitches too Yasmine was really pretty, in that Arabic kind of fine features and light skinned way and she had the generous curves she’d seen in Middle Eastern girls. Yasmine was a looker and she was definitely a muslima girl adding jealous skank to racist assholes.

Honey went and got Yasmine spare clothes from her locker now that they were getting the idea from Johnny’s spares in her locker.

Yasmine was really shy and quiet too with really good English, a bit of an accent but it was a good touch not a bad one.

Her and Honey and Bobbi and Lindsey plus some of the other girls watched her trying to wash Donnie’s Hoody in the sink and wiping at her eyes until there was a knock at the door and Lindsey who was playing guard let Jessie in.

Yasmine looked shocked and Honey leaned over whispering that. “Jessie has breasts so…”

Yasmine nodded but still looked nervous like this was really outside what she knew.

Johnny smiled and wiped at her eyes when he passed Yasmine her hijab washed and damp but clean.

Yasmine’s hands shook and she started crying and Johnny watched Jessie do with her what he had done in the library holding her. He leaned on the sink counter and pulled her close and said something soothing.

“~We’re not all that way sister, we’re not you’re safe amongst friends here.~”

Johnny wasn’t sure what he said but Yasmine shook and cried really hard…She and Honey moved to settle in on other side of them both and settled into hugging the poor girl too.

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

Squires-16

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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*Jessie…………

He’d stayed with Yasmine even after the end of lunch bell and Johnny and the girls had made sure that she was okay before he left. The security guard he always seemed to end up talking to lately was there and Jessie looked at him.

“Officer, help you with anything?’

“Nope other way around Stone.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah I heard what was going on in the Caff and what you did from the kitchen girls and thought since this was one of those good turn things with you standing up for the girl so much that your good turn deserves another from me.”

“Oh…” The guard passed him some hall pass slips.

“Give these to the girls in there okay; no one needs to be getting detention over something that’s actually a good thing.”

“Okay…thanks I thought you’d be pissed off at us for everything lately.”

The guard shook his head. “Look Jessie, I’ve been doing this work awhile and no not here this is the gig I could get after being in the forces. But I’m really not disagreeing with you at all. We need the cameras but there are laws against it and injunctions against it and my hands are tied with that part.”

“But we can fight that and work to change that.”

“Yes, you can I can’t I make waves with a contractee and they’ll only take that for so long before they get nasty about it and fire me.”

“But you do agree?”

“Oh sure I do, cameras in the halls and in the cafeteria and the parking lots. It cost’s cash but it’d be worth it.”

“Yes it would.”

He gave Jessie his card. “Look we can talk about this when I’m off duty I can’t do anything to help you kids with this but I can offer advice.”

“I’ll be in touch then.”

“Good, like I said Jessie things need to change here and in a lot of other places in this country. In my day you could face bullies like this head on and the internet was a hard sciencey thing. Now you look at someone the wrong way and you’ll get sued for it.”

“It does need to change, school should be a safe place, it should be as safe or safer than being at home.”

The guard nodded. “See you Monday night Jessie.” Then left to do some security thing.

Jessie nodded. “Yes, yes you will.”

He waited until the girls had come out and he passed out the hall pass slips and he headed off for the last classes of the day.

*Bobbi…………

She didn’t know what to think of things really it had been the most messed up afternoon she had had in a long time. Jessie and Johnny were people she hadn’t really counted on meeting really and it had…

She wasn’t sure she was mad or not.

Johnny…they looked like a good looking girl, they acted well like a girl but she was one of those trans girls and she wasn’t entirely comfortable with that.

It was like it was a trick or something, like a lot of lesbians have some really good reasons why they don’t like guys. And not just sexually some had really good reasons to hate the male gender period. And here’s a person that says that they’re female in a male body and are working to change that and it’s like…it’s sort of like a guy being skeezy enough to do anything to get laid.

She didn’t believe that…that’s too weird to be true and too much effort but at the same time there were parts of the whole thing that gave her the jeebs enough to keep away.

And maybe…maybe if she was really honest she might have been transphobics about being sexually attracted to a she-male…

She was also kind of miffed at Johnny’s response…okay she knew she had been a total cunt to her by avoiding her and stuff but Johnny had not been all “like wow.” About her coming over and talking to her instead it was…well she was just expecting a different response from her at having her talking to her.

And she wasn’t sure she liked her and Jessie sort of stealing the spotlight with this either. She had put in a lot of time and hours into the LGBT here at school and fought for respect and her place in the school and she was like known for it. Then they came along with “Happy Gay Day” and suddenly they’re like…the talk of the school or something.

It just felt like suddenly she wasn’t as…as her as she used to be with these new kids around and stuff and she didn’t know what to do about that either.

She could still hang with them and stuff and see where things went or dive in a bit harder and stuff but she wasn’t too sure about that because…well she was pretty sure that Jessie and them did their own things in their own ways and she really wasn’t good at taking orders from people.

She liked them and kind of didn’t want to and she sort of felt like she was being a bit of a conceited cow about all of it.

Especially when Pen her girlfriend was talking about Jessie at length during class and how kick ass it was and how it was all stand up guy of him to do it but with such a hot little “rack” too.

“Jessie is a guy y’know Pen.”

“I know but he’s so hot though he’s like not shaving smooth and dark haired and the way that he doesn’t hide the girls he’s got it’s still all kinds of hot.”

“He’s got a penis Pen remember?”

“Yeah, yeah okay not perfect but hey maybe it’s like a body hot strap on.”

“Penelope Jeezus!”

Pen just grinned. “Oh come on you where there in the bathroom with him as he did that whole sweet thing with the Middle Eastern chick.”

“Yasmine, her name’s Yasmine.”

“Okay, yeah and she’s scarf wearing so likely not playing girl on girl despite me wanting to pull apart her pita.”

Bobbi face palmed.

Pen blinked. “She’s right behind me isn’t she?”

Bobbi nodded.

*Yasmine…………

She’d never had a day as bad or as good or as scary and she had been so thrown and been so shaken up by what had happened. She’d never cried on a stranger like she had with Jessie…just him? her?

Just Jessie treating them human after what had happened and being that nice and being just considerate and there.

It was taking so much to hold things together after they took her hijab…you don’t do that…you don’t it’s….It’s as bad or maybe worse than being stripped nude by force…even as good they had been to her she was still upset.

Jessie thankfully seemed to get that at least a little. And he’d been considerate enough to wait outside for them.

And then he had those hall passes and she was still sort of shaking and Johnny had stayed by her and took her by the office and told them. “I’m taking Yasmine to the faith room.”

“There’s classes.”

Johnny held up the passes.

The girl went and got the guidance councilor. “Johnny what’s going on is there a problem?”

“Nope, but I’m taking Yasmine to the faith room.”

“You both have classes you should be in them or heading to them.”

“Yeah I know but you’re the guidance officer, you’re supposed to be there for the whole council ling thing right?”

“Yes…”

“And after everything that happen just at lunch you don’t think she needs some time?”

The woman took a deep breath. “Fine good point, give me your slips.”

They passed over the slips and she signed them. “This period only and you give these to the teacher at your next class.”

Johnny grinned and took her by the arm and walked her to the faith room and she’d even stuck around and watched.

She felt a bit self conscious for the first while but then she sort of felt that she needed the peace more than she needed the awkward feelings and confusion.

It was actually very nice and something that she thanked Johnny for she really hadn’t a clue what to expect with Johnny either.

Study hall was her next class and she headed there intent on trying to sort things out.

Johnny, the people that were sort of nice to her, Jessie…what he was and what he did for her too.

It was huge personally and yet it was scary…Jessie was a guy, a he and here he was with breasts…and she had no idea how or what to think about that fact except that as the girls had been talking she had been listening in since it was study hall and her first day she had nothing yet to really study and had been spending her time sketching.

She who admit that he was a handsome sort of boy if not for the breasts. She just did not know how to feel about those.

And then…

Then this Penelope girl is talking about Jessie like a girl and the she says…

Pull apart her pita?

What?

Then the mental image clicked with the fact that this girl was a lesbian and what she said had sunk in and she.

Then that Penelope girl turned around to look at her and she…she couldn’t help but pull her books to her chest and blush…she was sure she wasn’t gay but still at the same time when someone looks at you like you’re…like you’re something…or attractive…it feels…

Nice and really scary.

She kept her head down thinking. (Please, please, please don’t say anything.) And it wasn’t that she didn’t want anything to do with these girls it was she had no idea of what to say or do.

She took another seat getting a look from the duty teacher which made her flinch and she looked over at the too lesbians who smiled at her and gave her this wiggly fingered wave…what did that mean, did that mean something!?

Yasmine gave out a whimper and head desked.

*Honey............

She frowned at Courtney Long and Bess Connors as they whispered and chatted like two psychotic hens.

“Fucking school’s going to the crapper, the fags and dykes were bad enough but the trannies are really going to wreck the place.” Courtney…Honey was pretty sure that she was dating one of the cammo boy’s.

Bess nodded like a bobble head. “Uh-huh it’s so sick like eww…and y’know it like totally wrong that that fag Johnny can dress and try to look like us and fuck up like totally hawt guys like Brian.”

Courtney frowned. “Totally she really just needs to like get the fuck out of our school, she’s like going to like ruin the place. Here and that Jessie freak.”

Bess bobble headed some more. “Uh-huh, like Kenyon was like in my school like before here and he was like cute and shit and I was like soooo sure he’d get on the basket ball team this year and he got like all buff and shit and what happens the freak comes here and they’re all like look at my tit’s and my dick and he’s like turned Kenyon into a raging fag.”

Honey glared at them. “It’s not like that you don’t know them. Johnny and Jessie are really nice people.”

They both looked at her and glared. “Oh shut up Moozer…” Courtney said and Bess gave her the finger. “Yeah like mind your own business beaner just go back to where you came from.”

“I’m from here you….” Honey didn’t finish it just clenched her fists and bit her tongue. She wasn’t going to stoop to their level. Well she was pretty sure that she couldn’t at least not without a lobotomy.

“Ooooh good comeback wetback.” Courtney said. Just how could they say stuff like that and keep those smiles on their fake little faces like that.

She smelled her food burning both her sauce for class and the cake she’d been baking for Kenyon’s party tonight.

“Eeek, dammit!”

She ran to the stove and tried to save the sauce and her cakes were smoking in the over reduced to having badly burned edges.

Yvette Wilkinson smiled as she stirred her sauce. It hadn’t taken too much to get the girls talking enough to catch the tranny’s friends notice and after that it was just slip past doing her work and crank the dials to full.

Heather was right; the trick is to get back softly, smartly not like Britney and her little air heads who wanted to be like them.

It was more fun though that she thought; she really didn’t like this Honey girl. She was sweet and beautiful…beautiful to have some serious sway if she was going to go that way.

She had nothing against the Hispanic girls that hung with them they were really nice and cute and they were so happy to be allowed to hang with the right people.

Key phrase is hang with the right people. They’d never actually be the right people.

She just watched Honey get more upset as the place filled with smoke and the teacher open the windows and turn the range fans on full blast and Courtney and Bess laughed and giggled at her making it worse.

*Nick…………

Lunch had been exciting and scary and he’d been almost waiting for the office to call him down for speaking up all the way through the first class of the afternoon.

But it never happened and while still nervous he was sort of privately reveling in the fact he spoke to Johnny and had a kind of cool thing to say and Johnny thanked him for standing up and backing him up.

He’d never stood up for anything before…not IRL.

It felt so damned good.

It felt good to be part of something bigger too and that he had an invite to Kenyon’s disarming the parents and coming out party and that was…

Scary…really scary since there’d be so many people there and stuff it made his social anxiety disorder have mini fits just thinking about it.

Jessie came to his rescue in history class and sent him a copy of the online e-mail letter than was going out soon and got him to proof it and then asked him about doing a coordinated thing for the phones so that they could play a song on them as a group all together.

He had to think on that one and he said that he’d get back to him at Kenyon’s and he followed along in class while working out the problem in his head and worked on the design for a private message board and forum for his rebel site for the school and some other things like going through sites and pages and saving memes and stuff he was going to talk to Jessie about starting a collection to get these things printed off like hand out leaflets for school.

He left class with Jessie and they were both heading to Civics when several of the apes tripped him up and he fell with jess catching him and turning on them.

“Nice, classy you know any other way to play other than dirty?”

Two of them tromped over towards them and Nick really wanted to hide but just…just…he hated confrontation he wasn’t good at it. But Danny went up there at lunch with Jessie and Danny was like thirty pounds smaller that he was and four or five inches smaller and…

He got up and he stood by Jessie and glared at them shaking. “Y…y…y…you want to try th..the…that to mm..muh..fff…face?”

One of them stopped and he looked at his phone.

*Brad…………

Yeah, he thought watching enough of this stuff…Heather’s right this isn’t how the game’s played. It’s Trenton and Cliff and while not bad guys not the sharpest knives in the drawer. He texted Trenton. [Don’t they want you to look even worse, tell Jessie you don’t fight girls and make fun of Hawking but back off say it was an accident.”

*Nick…………

He was shaking and the hockey thug looked at his phone and ignored them and blinked and put it away. “Yeah, sorry it was an accident y’know…you don’t have to go off on a freak and be all hyper-sensitive and shit.”

And he added. “Or hormonal.” Looking at Jessie. He smiled and backed off of them. “Suh..ssus story I ruh..ruh..really mean it too.”

He tapped his thug friend and they both backed off heading to the last class of the day and they started laughing as they did and turned about a dozen feet away and burst out laughing some more.

Nick couldn’t stop shaking and crying he hated that he was crying and that there were tears streamlining down his face and he wanted to shout at them and he wanted to scream at them and he even tried to especially after they burst out laughing at them again as they were leaving.

It’s like they took whatever good he’d been felling and ripped it from him and shredded it like it was nothing, like he was nothing.

He spun on his feet and sort of just stomped, bent over upset so much his stomach cramped and he wanted to hit something so bad!

He hated this!

He hated them!

He felt Jessie take him down the hall and off and under the stairs where the door to the boiler room was and he sort of watched and sort of paced as Jessie took some wires out and a thin little allen key and did something was he…

The door swung open and the lights were off and Jessie pulled him in and looked at him.

“Scream.”

Nick shook his head….he couldn’t.

“Scream, it’s just me and you and the machines Nick scream nobody’s here.”

It just bubbled up and he grabbed the railing of the stairs they were on and…

“FUCK………………………….!!!, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK….! I GODDAMNED HATE THEM! ASSHOLES! BASTARDS, SON’S OF BITCHES!”

Jessie added in. “Knuckledraggers.”

“YES KNUCKLEDRAGGERS!, KNUCKLE DRAGGING COUSIN HUMPING THUGS!”

Jessie crossed his arms. “They’re Repugnant.”

“YES…REPUGNANT!”

“Repugnant.”

Nick looked and stopped sniffled wiped his nose… “What..!?”

Jessie smiled and did it again this time trying to do his best impression of Brain. “Repugnant.”

Nick blinked and sniffled and in all the memes and vids and tubes he’d watched the episode of Pinky and The Brain” Jessie was using popped into his head and a half crazy titter came out.

“Nick…”

(Sniffle smile.) “Yeah…?”

“You never stuttered once.”

Nick looked at Jessie and blinked a few times and turned and spun holding onto the railing and threw up.

Jessie rubbed and gently thumped his back and said. “Hey…getting there, getting there.”

Nick nodded and coughed and Jessie reached into his “Jacket of holding” and produced tissues and mints.

“Come on let’s get to civics and not give the knuckledraggers the satisfaction.”

Nick nodded. “Jessie…”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

Jessie hugged him with one arm and led then both out into the hall and towards the last class and the got a few looks from some people, a couple were part of the whole alpha thing and Jessie looked at the girls and popped a mint himself.

“Hey...” With just a friendly nod, nothing cheap or snide just a hey.

Nick looked back and he laughed…he actually laughed out loud a little at the confused look on their face and went all the way to class like that arm in arm sort of hugging with Jessie.

He felt a little crazy…all loose and stuff like something broke or burst open and he just didn’t have it in his tank to get worked up enough to be freaked by what they were doing.

It felt so strange that the knot he always had inside was untied right now.

He snickered at Danny as they got to class and Danny was taping a hand made sign saying “Imperial doctrines.” With the symbol of the Star wars evil empire on there and the three of them went inside.

*Kenyon…………

He pulled into the yard making sure there was enough space for the others before going inside the house with a lump in his throat. He smelled his mom’s homemade sauce. It was sort of a spaghetti sauce but it went on everything and he could also smell pepperoni cooking from the kitchen he went inside and he hugged her.

“Hey, thanks for this mum.”

She dimpled at him. “Its fine honey we’re just really glad that you’re making friends already.”

“Yeah well they’re a little geeky and stuff but they’re really good people mum.”

“Good I can’t wait to meet them.”

“Good…” He bit his lip.

“Honey is everything okay?”

He looked at her and he took a breath and hoped she wouldn’t freak out. “Mom…this isn’t just a get together it’s kind of an intervention sort of maybe…”

“An intervention is someone on drugs?”

“No…well I don’t think so but more like a buffer for me.”

“A buffer? What for?”

“Mum…I’m gay.”

She blinked at him and stared. “But you have posters of sexy girls in your room?”

“Yeah and I really thought that I was into them and stuff and then I started to realize that I was gay and I just, I mean it’s not like I could put up like a fireman’s sexy poster thing right?”

She stared at him and blinked again. “No…..i suppose not that would have raised some flags.”

She giggled and slapped her hand over her mouth. “Ooops I guess it really would have wouldn’t it?”

“Mum!” Kenyon stared at her in shock and she giggled some more and he blushed. She gently shoved him. He snerked and looked at her. “You’re not mad?”

“No I’m not mad and I don’t hate you and your father won’t either but he’ll definitely be surprised.”

“Him surprised, it’s still surprising me.”

She laughed. “I think a party is a good idea.”

“I’m still scared…I…I don’t know how to be…gay mum.”

She hugged him. “Kenyon, you’re already doing it, being gay doesn’t change who you are or who you were really it’s just you already honey.”

“Thank god I really was dreading learning how to mince and do that limp wristy thing it looks exhausting.”

His mom burst out laughing. “Go, go on and help me get ready and clean up the den if we’re having company over you boys haven’t touched it in forever.”

“What I’m supposed to be all clean and neat because I’m gay?”

“Yes! So go do it or I’ll report you and they’ll take your gay card away.”

“But…but…”

“Yes I know you boys are all about the butt.”

“Mum!!!”

She laughed and kept laughing all the way into the kitchen.

Was she always this weird?

Maybe that’s where he got the being a smart ass from?

He face palmed heading upstairs to shower. “Great I’m just freshly out and I’m already stressing about being like my mother.”

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

Hi everyone Bailey here. I just want to give a huge thank you and a shout out to Tarzana who co-wrote the letter that’s featured here. It came about from a talk between us and she came up with amazing things. Really she did about three quarters of the work in there so….thanks and enjoy!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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Squires-17

*Jessie…………

He left school with Johnny and Danny as well as Honey, Lindsey and Nick. He had Nick in his last class and Dan too but Nick was a little more vulnerable to some of the people in the school who were less than friendly to the other kids that were a little bit different.

They dropped Honey off first and then Danny and Lindsey and finally Johnny before heading to Nick’s place and he looked at the clock. “You have wireless?”

Nick nodded. “We’ve got a really g..good system.”

Jess looked at him. “You stutter less around people in smaller groups?”

Nick nodded again. “Su..Social Anxiety Disorder…n..new people and..cr..crowds and me d..don’t mix.”

“So me being not so new and it just being us helps?”

“Y..yes..”

“Good to know, we can work on that then.”

“We..we...can?”

“Sure we’ve got a good group of people who already like you as is, the whole speaker phone thing and all so we just get you slowly more used to us and the group and the familiar thing should work itself out.”

“M..my shrink said I should try and b..be..more outgoing…but when you have a social disfunction it’s…it’s h..hard to m..m..make friends. Th..then the assholes l..like t..to trigger my issues once they think they c..can hurt me.”

“Some shrinks are okay and some of them aren’t worth their degrees all you need is someone to actually give a shit and see your issue as something to work with.”

“W..work with?”

“Yeah it’s a thing a part of you that makes you, you Nick either they drug you up or make you fight it instead they should be listening and trying to work with it.”

“I…I don’t get it?”

“You get to shore a whole lot faster when you swim with the current instead of fighting it.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah, and you can have some really geek fun with the whole voice app stuff too.”

“Like?”

He started to talk about some of his ideas as they got out of the car and Nick invited him in for a drink and he got them both a soda. Some of Jessie’s ideas had him laughing out loud.

It drew Nick’s mom into the kitchen and she definitely stared at the two of them and she was definitely staring at Jessie’s chest.

Jessie noticed and smiled at her and waved. Nick blushed but his mother went back to doing what she was doing leaving them alone.

“She thinks I’m a girl.”

“I kn..know..S..sorry…”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Oh..okay.”

“If they think I’m a girl will they give you less grief over the small stuff here at home?”

Nick thought about it. He nodded. “They..they would be thr…thrilled.”

“Then we don’t tell them any different until it changes?”

“W..what changes?”

“Your relationship status.”

He stared in shock at Jessie. “Mmm…me?”

“Yes you You’re a smart good looking guy Nick you just have a few quirks.”

“H..ha Q..Quirks.”

“Hey is Sam a mess?”

“N..no…”

“Then neither are you.”

Nick sat there blinking at Jessie really not sure how to feel or how to act since no one had really sat here and talked to him like this or looked at him like this. And he ducked his head and blushed a little and sort of smiled.

Smiling with people didn’t come naturally since they rarely amounted into times for smiles.

Jessie leaned over to look nick in the face and caught his eyes after a minute. “Nick…you’re not broken.”

“I’m not?” No one had ever told him that he wasn’t. Not the doctors or the therapists or even his parents.

Jessie leaned over more and actually gave Nick a kiss on the lips, softly and gently and over and over a few times before breaking it.

“Maybe a little dented but not broken…no.”

Nick exhaled and shivered from the kiss. “Woah……” he blinked then tasted his lips and stared at Jessie. “I…I thought you and Kenyon?”

“We’re going out tomorrow night; I’m not even sure how it’ll go or even if he’s my type.”

“But you kissed me?”

Jessie shrugged. “It just felt right Nick…what can I say that close…what we were talking about…and my heart just went kiss him.”

“Y..your heart?”

Jessie nodded. “I’m human Nick, sometimes my head rules the day and sometimes it’s my heart and sometimes it’s both.”

“Oh…” Nick sort of got it. It was one of those things he sort of understood about people. Actually he didn’t because this is the stuff that they say, and want to do and dream about or write about but Jess was the first person he ever met that just actually was truthful enough to actually do it.

“Nick?”

“Y..Yes…?”

“Did you mind it? I mean that I kissed you?”

“No..N..No Jessie it was nice.”

Jessie smiled at him. “Good…I didn’t want to weird you out.”

“N..no, just surprised…I d..don’t think of m..myself that ww..way.”

“I know, it part of why I kissed you…you don’t deserve to think of yourself like that.”

Nick blushed and Jessie smiled but blushed a little too and took out his laptop and brought up the document that he’d been writing to tell people about the meeting. He showed it to Nick who read it and then read it again and ran his fingers through his hair then even sort of crossed his arms like he was hugging himself.

“So…what do you think?”

“It’s a rant…it’s a good rant a sp..sp..speach even.”

“Too much?”

“N..nn..no, people need to see something like this. Th…th..the status quo needs to..to…”

Jessie grinned. “To loose a little of its precious status?’

Nick nodded. “Jessie, it’s good ff..fine pu..people nn..need to here someone being passionate abut t..th..this.”

Jessie nodded. “I was thinking of sending it to some of the local new channels.”

“Who else?”

“Anyone really, students and teachers and parents, the cops.”

“I..I can do that.”

“You can?”

“I have all th..the e-mails for the school…the staff…and students…the PTA and the School Board.”

Jess gave Nick this solid look. “You would considering.”

Nick looked at him and nodded slowly. “Suh…something had to bb..be done…”

“I agree, you must be really good with computers then.”

Nick shrugged. “G..gg..good enough to get federal time and gg..good enough to be working for them instead of it.”

Jessie raised an eyebrow and Nick just looked back. Okay jess thought he’s really not kidding. Jess could use a computer but all the deep programming stuff and jargon and he was as lost as everyone else.

“So you can get this all set up?”

Nick gestured. “We’ll need my real computer but yy..yes.”

They went to Nick’s bed room which only partway looked like a bed room and the other half like a starship bridge with all the computers and keyboard and interface stuff. He even had three monitors and three flat screen TV’s mounted on brackets and shelves with games and games and books and books and some of them looked like really odd phone books and stuff.

“Wow are you rich?”

“N..no…but some of these are salvaged from d..dd..dad’s upgrading at work I just had to bb..buy the cards and stuff tt..to upgrade them. I bb–bought one TV and the other’s are yuuh used.”

“So just amazing and smart then.”

Nick blushed and shot Jessie a look and jess just looked back. “What you are and I’m not going to be shy about telling you Nick.”

“Wh..why?”

Jessie looked at him and smiled and leaned against one of the stacked shelves hands in his back pockets and that could have been to show the “girls” off more or just comfortable.

“You stand up for things Nick, you’re out muscled and outgunned and you had some pretty long odds against you even before you started all of this. That’s brave and it’s a damned honnorable thing to do in my book.”

“I..II…’ He was seriously blushing.

“That’s why I kissed you…you deserved it…heroes deserve a kiss…guys like you should actually know what they’re worth especially when everyone around them is wrong.”

“J..Jessie…”

Jessie moved to go and sit beside Nick and looked at him. “No Nick I’m right, you are worth every word okay?”

Nick stared at Jessie.

He felt it a little easier to dig down deeper to get past the anxiety and he bit his lip and nodded. “Okay…Uhm…l..ll..let’s get to work.”

Jessie gave him his e-mail list including some of the e-mail addresses for people in city hall, police, fire department, they sent to every news paper in the city, The ACLU, two of the local news channels and everyone connected to the school.

Jessie smiled as Nick worked he played tunes and he’d have pegged him for the kind of techie that’d be into all the techno music but he actually played some older rock which was pretty cool.

*Something to believe in.* By Poison was a song in that playlist that just sort of fit the whole spirit of what they were doing.... “Hey Nick?”

“Y.yes..?”

“Will you get traced and caught doing this?’

“No..nnn..not likely…I..use different servers and ha..ha..have places that will send it out after…random cycles…so it doesn’t come back to mm..me..”

Jessie nodded but really didn’t have a clue and shrugged and even blushed when Nick stared at him. They both sort of smiled together over that, over everything today…it had been a really long day and at the say time they’d been through a lot together from it.

Definitely a good thing.

Nick finished all the things he needed to do. He had set up the whole defense idea for his web page so it’d ne hard to trace and even harder to kill. Mind you he had no illusions of the FBI or DHS finding him if they really seen him as a threat. This wasn’t the kind of thing that would bring that kind of heat…exposing people for who they really where and calling out like this against bullying and the status quo at the school wasn’t exactly domestic terrorism it actually was more like the anti version of it.

They looked at each other.

Jessie pushed their chair over and got close to Nick and they looked at each other again almost cheek to cheek…kind of electric and yet kind of just two defiant teens getting ready to Tilt.

They clicked… Send All together.

 
***To all those concerned please read this letter.***

There is a meeting that was scheduled for tonight to be held by the School board of my district and the faculty of my school, West Chicago High School. Please note that this meeting has been changed to Monday night at 8 PM In the auditorium and please all who get this please attend.

The purpose of this meeting is for them to come up with a “Solution.” To the problem of kids that are fed up with being victims outing their abusers and abusers of others by using camera phones and posting these things up to the light of public scrutiny.

In case you do not know that is illegal in this state.

For everyone…apparently you can join the military or own a firearm in this state given the correct age but you can’t record your abuse or abuser without facing charges.

We aren’t even allowed to have cameras placed inside the school. I’m no fan of too much big brother but…we’re talking about a public school and in public hallways where the expectation of privacy is at the very least nebulous.

Why are those that are causing the most harm protected form being caught and punished because their right to privacy somehow trumps my rights for a safe place to get an education?

Please come and voice your opinions, many of us in the student body will be.

I guess I'm still looking for some sort of a silver bullet that will make the BS go away. Make the Bullies leave people alone. Make the world peaceful and prosperous. And let us be who we are.

To people in general, I have to say —

I'm sorry if I make you uncomfortable - I really am. That is the farthest thing from my intention. But I have to be me, and it is immoral for you to force me to behave otherwise unless I physically harm you in some way.

You can use non-violent tactics (shun me, shame me, even shining a spot light sometimes.) to try to make me behave differently or go somewhere else to “do my thing”, but violence against a non-violent 'threat' is not right. I’m no… we are all human beings too you know, I own part of the city square I deserve my place just as much as anyone else, and like everyone else I have no choice in that matter.

Haters have a right to hate. Same  as Lovers have a right to love. We don't want any stinking thought crimes or thought police in our free society. But their right to hate stops as soon as they physically assault someone. Same  as a Lovers right to love stops as soon as they physically assault someone. Simple, fair rules that apply to EVERYONE ...
... IF you live in a just and fair society

I will never need to assault anyone to be who I am. But if I ever do 'lose my cool' and assault someone as a result of my “need to love” (or as a result of anything else in my life except self defense), I  should  have the book thrown at me.

It’s a shame that this doesn’t seem to get through some people heads…or hearts.

A Hater doesn't NEED to physically assault someone to be who they are either. But sometimes they do it anyway. When that happens, I say throw the book at them (just like for lovers).

In a fair society, the law would come down hard on thugs all the thugs: Religious Thugs, Corporate Thugs, Racist Thugs, Social Thugs or just Independent thugs.

A thug is a thug, and the first thing you should look for is that they tend to attack the messenger instead of the message. Dead give-away. (Pay attention to the news shows ...)
Right after collecting the garbage and fixing the pot holes, going after thugs should the most important thing a politician thinks about. Sigh, if only ...right?

Gray areas -  damn it, why do there have to be gray areas?! The threat of a fist in your face is just words. But what if it is made when no one of authority is around or even watching or even cares? And while I just mentioned verbal threats if that’s the attention that they get then what about the actual attack?

Am I saying that all parts of public life should be recorded…? No but where there is evidence there that will stop bullying and abuse then yes; because someone has to make it sure they’re caught hurting others. I don't know ... history shows that some people always seem to find a way to pervert our best efforts to create a nice place to live. To want to find a way to set them or someone else over others or use it to keep some people down.

ARGH! But does that have to be sort of the way it works. We are living through it as we speak. WTF? And I can tell you and you can ask any other kid in this country on the unpopular end of things…It’s not damned well working.

The system is broke, we’re tired of hurting, we’re tired of being in harms way for just daring to be ourselves.

Please, please come to the meeting, bring your cameras and your families, bring the news and bring the police bring whoever and whatever might make the least bit of difference.

This isn’t a new problem from things like Kent College to Columbine things go to the breaking point and even if the violence does come out at the tormentors then we all know it claims others…just look at the teen suicide rates. Then we ask why?

How can we as a people even dare ask why?

We all know why.

Please…please just come and help us stop this.

Sincerely, The Tired, the Hurting, The Ostracized, and The Scared.

*** The e-mails went out everywhere and some were picked up and read and some sat waiting in e-boxes and moments later the ripple effect started.

At the school………… The phones had begun ringing just before supper close to six in the evening and they just kept coming. The Principal and the VP and the guidance councillor and the secretaries were all fielding calls…..

Parents…The school board…The Superintendant…

*** Charlie Fountaine looked at the e-mail and he noticed that it had gone out to several of the departments in the building. He called Rona Morris over at the Dept of Ed.

“Rona its Charlie I just got this e-mail with this letter…”

“Yes it’s the one talking about stuff over at West Chicago…”

“Oh…it’s that bad?...That many people got this?”

“Blogger and press calls already…okay good luck thanks Roma I need to see this through here at my end.”

He got up and looked at his secretary. “Denise, I need you to stay late we’ve got something that might just be bigger than we want it to here. Make some coffee and order in but before that you’d better get the deputy mayor on the line just in case.”

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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Squires-18

*Johnny............

She met up at the bell for the last class with Lindsey and made their way to the Home Ec. Room to get Honey and saw her looking upset. More of a pissed look but with Honey mad was right next door to tears too. Honey was scraping the remains of a cake into the garbage can and had an angry frown on and almost sort of sniffling.

“You okay?”

Honey looked at them. “No…something happen and all my stuff got burned…all because of those two.”

She tilted her head at the two girls that were leaving and talking in twilightese with a bunch of other alpha wannabee ditzes.

Lindsey looked at them and frowned. “So what’d they do?”

“Oh nothing really just shooting off their mouths and being a bunch of B’s. I got mad and was kinda telling them off and…this happened.”

Johnny looked at the girls and they stopped talking and stared back at her before moving on in their little group. They could still sort of hear them though as they were leaving. In that cunty little whisper but not bullshit. Johnny didn’t like using the C word but in some cases it really did apply especially when bitch didn’t really come close.

“Eww…just like fucking eww the Tranny was like checking us out.”
And…
“Oh that’s so gross and you just gotta know that her and the dyke and the cow are doing it.”
And…
“They’re just like fucking evil perverts and like stuff.”
And…
“I like fucking hope the AIDS get them.”

Johnny took a few breaths and counted down, she knew that they were just saying it loud enough for them to try and get a rise out of her. They did it all the time, wishing she was dead or wishing she was going to die. They’d like nothing better than her to get upset and yell at them or worse start crying over their bullshit and hate.

Honey looked upset at the stuff she heard too and she was scraping harder now and her lower lip was doing the trying not to cry shiver.

Lindsey hunched a little herself with her hands in her pocket and glared at where those girls had been and stewed.

Johnny looked at her and put her hand on Lindsey’s shoulder. “Chill they’re not worth it.”

Lindsey nodded but sort of looked at Johnny shyly, more like the usual her that was that girl that hid out as a wallflower.

“Johnny?’

“Yeah Linds?”

“Do I come across as a dyke to you?”

“No…not really kinda tomboy chic now but not a dyke, dykes are a whole other kind of lesbian.”

“You think I’m a lesbian!?”

“No, do you?”

“I…I don’t know it’s not like I’ve ever really had the whole issue of being turned on by a girl or a guy before.”

“Okay…well you think I’m cute?” Johnny actually leaned against the counter arms back, chest out and was going for looking cute, it was a definite pose.

Lindsey looked at her, tilted her head and shrugged. “Better than me so yeah.”

Honey smiled at this sort of recovering from the nasty little wanna be girls. “Not gay.”

Lindsey actually frowned.

Johnny used her position to butt hop backwards onto the counter. “You seem disappointed?’

“I am…I’m being honest about it not really being something I’ve ever felt…I mean with guys or girls it’s all sort of the same It’s all just kind of…meh.”

“Well there are genderqueer people out there Linds that don’t sexually identify.”

“Great, I’m a neuter.”

“No…you still feel like you’re a girl right?’

“Yeah…”

“So…you’re not a neuter.”

“Great then what am I?”

“You’re Lindsey, does the rest matter?”

“Yes… but I’m letting it go because we have a party to get ready for and if I let this go too long I get all freaky OCD about it and I want to enjoy the first party that I’ve ever been too that my family wasn’t throwing.”

“Okay, Honey you ready.”

Honey nodded. “The cake’s ruined though.”

Johnny smiled. “We just bake one there.”

Honey looked at her. “Where?”

“At Kenyon’s house.”

“But…but we can’t do that…I mean it’s. It’s like we’d just be barging in and…”

Lindsey laughed. “Like we just barged in and made…oh my god baked good!”

All three of them laughed as they left and went down the halls and met up with the guys and there were hugs and some information exchanged with people that were coming and those that might come and then they drove home….well Jessie drove them home the ones that didn’t go with Kenyon.

She went inside the house and had the place to herself for awhile so she locked her doors and checked the windows…life had taught her that already and she went to her room and stripped down.

She kind of always dreaded this sometimes it was just.

It was just she looked so different with her make-up off and her breast forms removed and standing there in her panties and just knowing what she wasn’t.

It still took sometimes a lot of guts to not keep staring at everything that was wrong and to get away from the mirror.

And even though she was able to shrug away some of the hateful things that were said to her some of it stuck and some of it still stung.

Johnny did a big inhale and let her breath out slowly a few times. It felt odd to breathe even without that right weight on her chest and she wished like crazy her damned RLT was over and done with so she could start hormones and get on with her life.

“This, this isn’t solving anything girl.” She told herself and she went into her bathroom and put on a facial and then took a shower. It was a time saver for her usual routine and she washed her face clear last and then began the task of getting ready for the party.

This was at least not in school so she could dress a lot more her and not tone it down. Oh she wasn’t like a drag queen by any means but there were just things she wore home and outside of school that would just be way too tempting for those with a problem with her in school.

She picked out her fave mini skirt and paired it with a soft fuzzy sweater that worked really well with her bra and her breast forms and because she was expecting to dance she went a little heavier with the adhesive. There was nothing more embarrassing then having a wardrobe malfunction where you could actually lose a boob.

She was just finishing her make up when her mom came in and looked at her. “Hey mom.”

“Hey yourself…another date?”

“Party actually at a friends.”

“Party? Will it be safe?”

“Yeah it’s a coming out party for a friend.”

“Oh…so…”

“So…?”

“What’s this letter I had e-mailed to me about the parent teacher school board thing being moved?”

Johnny blinked. “Actually I don’t know…I mean I sort of know since Jessie had found out about it being moved and was going to send something out after stuff was all done for the day at school but what was actually said? I never read it.”

Her mom passed her the phone.

Johnny looked and read and smiled. “Well, that’ll certainly piss off the administration.”

“You think, just what’s going on over there honey?”

“Mom, it’s just that exactly….what it says right there. The assholes at school get away with murder because the staff either agrees with them and let them do whatever they want or they’re too apathetic to care and the ones that do give a shit well they’re not able to do anything because of the laws here that say that you can’t record people without their permission.”

“So the point of this is?”

“We want cameras in the school, we want there to be video and consequences when someone get’s caught being little asses.”

“Is it getting worse honey?”

“No but its not changing and we need it to change. Jessie’s right mom we need to not just go with the flow and let them slide these things past us and take the fight and our own rights in our own hands.”

“Sound’s like a rebellion.”

“It kinda is. Mom since when is it fair that some asshole that thinks he can get away with hurting someone get to actually do that and not get caught or even deterred. I know the freedom to have privacy is like important and stuff but when does that right have more value than my right to a safe education?

Her mom looked at her she could see she was worried and she hugged her and she smiled at her dad who was standing in the doorway. He smiled and was holding a sheet of paper. “It’s not right and it doesn’t honey and your mom and I will definitely be there and our lawyer too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, there might be some stupid law that won’t let them do this but we get enough parents behind this to keep our kids safe they’ll have to listen.”

She went over and she hugged him. “Thanks Daddy you rock.”

“Of course I do and so does your mother besides we’ll have a war council tomorrow over at Jessie’s house.”

Johnny blinked. “Oops I was supposed to invite you guys over to that how’d you know?’

“Jessie’s folks called around and we’re going to all meet and get together and things, a sort of early parents meeting.”

She hugged him again and she heard the familiar sound of Jessie’s car pulling in. “That’s them Dad I have to go.”

“Okay pumpkin, have fun and call me if you need a ride.”

“I will thanks guys!”

She hugged them both and kissed them both before grabbing her boots and her purse and rushed down the stairs and met Jessie at the door where she grinned and hung onto him for support while she slid her knee tall boots with the killer three inch heels on.

Jessie smelled and looked really good.

*Jessie…………

He and Nick looked at each other after sending the e-mail letter off and they took a deep breath together and smiled at each other after that.

He looked at his watch. “We should get ready if we’re going to pick up everyone.”

Nick suddenly looked stricken. “I..I..I don’t kn..know what to wear.”

“Hey, I’m the one with the breast that’s supposed to be my line.”

Nick smiled but stared at Jessie’s chest until he caught himself and blushed. “S..Ss..sorry.”

“They’re boobs Nick; you’re a guy I kind of think that you’re supposed to stare at them. I mean it’s normal.”

“You don’t mind?”

“No, I know it’s going to happen so I go with it more. It’s just better off to accept what’s going to happen and see it in a light that’s better for me.”

“Huh…okay…st..still.”

“It’s okay Nick I’m taking it as a compliment.”

“O…okay…B..bu..but they’re really nice.’

“I know I got off lucky they’re symmetrical.”

Nick stared at him looking confused.

“Sometimes with this they don’t come in like regular boobs, some are different shapes and some people only have one.”

“Oh I didn’t kn..know that.”

“Now you do so let’s just see what you do have to wear.”

“Uhm…okay….”

In the end of it Jessie looked through Nick’s clothes and found some things that he could wear. He had an awful lot of these very geeky kind of nerdy clothes…well not nerdy but they were clothes that a mother would buy her son when she wanted him to look ready for picture day.

But in Jessie opinion there were a few treasures there too. Nice shoes.

“You should wear these instead of just sneakers all the time. Girls like dress shoes on a man and that’s what we should go for here.”

“I..I don’t get it.”

“Nick you’re a real geek, natural born and it’s just who you are, there’s a look like maybe the guys like you in college would wear.”

“L..Like?”

Jessie started going through things. “This, you have an IBM t-shirt and an Apple one and this one here this Atari shirt is perfect.”

The Atari shirt was a red t-shirt with the Atari logo on the breast pocket in that shiny logo stuff like on those old school band t-shirts used to have.

“Now that with a pair of these casual cotton dress pants, some sports socks instead of the business type and a nice pair of these shoes.”

“R..really?”

“Yes, there’s a definite look you can fit and you might as well work it.”

He went through some of Nick’s other things while Nick was in the shower and was sorting them into outfits that would look sot of in the similar way. Sometimes the asses picked on likely looking targets first. The way that Nick usually dressed it didn’t help.

He looked over at the door and Nick’s parents we’re there watching and sort of staring. Well Nick’s mother was staring in this odd way at Jessie and his breasts and everything else and the sets of outfits that Jessie had sent together out on the bed.

It might be the mom checking out the girl in her son’s room look. He just smiled and kept folding and setting things into piles. Nick’s dad coughed. “Uhm…do you kids want anything to drink?”

“No thank you Nick was already nice enough to get us a soda but thank you.”

Nick’s father nodded and left taking Nick’s mother with him with an oddly proudish look on his face.

Jessie heard. “Henry…I’m not sure that she’s a girl.”

“Nonsense she has breasts.”

“But they could be fake…like that poor transgendered girl at Nick’s school that gets bullied.”

“How can you tell?”

“She…”

“She…?”

“She has a thingy.”

“A what?”

“You know a…a… a penis.” Jess almost laughed she sounded actually very much like her son and he could almost see her blushing through the wall.

“Really and you could tell how?’

“Henry, women always check each other out and she wasn’t wearing girl pants and when I looked there it was.”

“Nell, that stuff’s never bothered you before?”

“But they were kissing in the kitchen.”

“And how many times have we worried that Nick’d be alone period. He‘s actually standing up now and doing stuff. I‘ve always said he needs to just…just get out and live. Goddamned therapists.”

“I know it’s just…”

“Nell…he has a friend over, he’s has friends dropping him off and he’s going to a party.”

“It’s a coming out party Henry.”

“It’s Nick out of the house with people. I don‘t care if they‘re purple it‘s something.”

He heard the mother sigh. “I know it’s just I worry…nothing against any of these kids but Nick’s got so much on his plate just being himself.”

Jessie went to the hallway door and saw them just about to head downstairs. “Mr. and Mrs. Page?”

They stopped and Nick’s mom looked at him. “Yes Dear?”

“He’s going to be okay…Nick’s a really strong person y’know even with everything going on he’s going to public school as scary as it is. He stands up for people too…you’ve raised a pretty good man there.”

They stared at Jessie and Jess just gave them both a small smile and a nod and went back inside to find Nick there staring at him looking shocked and blushing.

“J..Jessie..”

“No…Nick I meant what I said and they need to see you, the real you through someone else’s eyes other than their own….I meant it you’re going to be okay.”

Nick sniffled and nodded and actually went over and it was a little awkward and a little shy…well very shy but he hugged Jessie and just stayed there hugging him pretty tightly and whispered. “Thank you…” and he actually sort of shifted posture and there was this sigh like some part of him just decompressed.

*Nick…………

Jessie was like this force that seemed to radiated change…he’d never seen or heard his parents act like that before. But Jessie had come over and they had done this huge thing with the letter but also the stuff that Jessie had said and did.

From the things in the kitchen to the stuff with the clothes and what he’d said to his parents.

He didn’t know what to say other than just that “Thank you.” And it seemed so not good enough…so he screwed up his courage and he hugged them and…it was contact other than with the parents.

He hadn’t expected it to feel so good.

And Jessie hugged him back and he closed his eyes and he just…he felt like he was protected. But this like the hug was a different protected feeling than the home and parental kind this…this was someone else someone else that had shown that they cared and that he actually meant something and they’d already been through so much together.

He shivered along with the sigh as he felt this knot thing that was usually there all the time in his guts loosen. This burl of tension that sort of sat like by his stomach and sort of behind his diagram and tied to his spine half the time loosen and unravel itself.
He almost cried from the relief…it felt like that knot had been there for as long as he could remember and now it wasn’t there.

He broke the hug slowly and rubbed at his eyes and smiled shyly at Jessie and Jess smiled back and passed him the clothes. “Go get changed I need to do the same at my place before we go and get everyone.”

Nick nodded and bit his lip a little and changed right there in front of Jessie boxers and all and he blushed but at the same time…well he didn’t know exactly but… “Jess…?” he asked quietly.

“Yes Nick?”

“Y..you know if I ever g..get a gg..a girlfriend…she’s got a ll ..lot to compete with rr..right?’

“I don’t follow?”

He actually just stared at Jessie as he dressed until he saw it sort of start to sink and he saw Jessie blush a little and that…that was kind of perfect.

*Donnie…………

It was an interesting day with things in the morning with Kenyon’s coming out and Sam’s idea.

Kissing Kenyon had played on his lips and in his brain all day. And he really was trying to get a handle on it. On the fact that he liked it.

He knew just how different he was, he even knew that it might lead to…well Donnie had always sort of avoided the question of being gay…becoming gay…he wasn’t sure that it’d happen since he liked women, and he got turned on like every other guy but….

Unless she was gay…how many women/girls wanted to be with a girly looking black guy?

Especially black girls.

It wasn’t a stereotype it was the truth. Black girl that he knew wanted the big macho guys who needed to fit the ideals of what makes the ideal black boyfriend.

Big, tall, built, plays sports and then you gotta have the clothes and the brands and the bling plus cars and money helped.

Donnie had a paper route, two skateboards and skate clothes plus he looked like an immature girl mixed with a boy.

Girls weren’t generally an option.

And now he’d kissed a boy and he liked it? Or rather it wasn’t that he liked it but it was that he didn’t hate it? He hadn’t freaked out even in his head and that had his brain going back to it all day.

Donnie didn’t want to be a bigot but he thought that he should’ve had some kind of homophobic reaction right?

But it was just a kiss.

Actually it was a light kiss on the lips when he had never really been kissed.

It was nice actually.

Y’know just actually kissing someone.

All in all a good mood until he got home.

Saw the truck, his dad was home.

“Oh yay, just what I needed.”

He when inside and took off his boots and headed up the back stairs with his books and his board.

“Don! C’mere.” His dad shouted from the office. He sighed and walked back down the stairs and went down the hall.

“Yeah Dad?”

“It’s yes not yeah in this house and take the hood off and the hat too you’re indoors.”

He pulled off both and tried not to sigh, his dad would’ve taken that as commentary too. “Yes sir.”

His father stared at him with that Lawrence Fishbourne bearded professor with the glasses sort of look. “What’s this all about?” He gestured to the computer screen.

Donnie went over to look and read he really didn’t know but he could guess. He was smiling at the end of it. “It’s a student movement thing dad.”

“Really about what?”

“About what it said.”

“Don’t be smart, you go to school there tell me what’s going on. Not this or the school’s version of it.”

His dad brought up a recent e-mail informing the parents of the changed time for the meeting.

“It’s like this sir. There’s a bunch of bullies at school, more than a bunch it’s this whole almost class warfare thing sometimes where the kids that do the picking on are getting away with it because there’s no security cameras in the school.”

“There shouldn’t be, that leads to all kinds of big brother stuff.” His father looked pretty gruff.

“No dad there should be because as much as there was that stuff in your day and all the civil rights stuff now the same people that were putting your generation down with it is using the lack of it to do as they please to whoever they please.”

“That’s not the same thing. Just stay clear of this Don. It just sounds like whiny white bullshit on whiny white bullshit.”

“It’s not, it’s bullying and it’s racial and not just blacks and whites but everyone that doesn’t fit their idea of perfect or kiss the asses of. It’s blacks, hispanics, middle eastern, gay, lesbian, transgendered, kids with disabilities that are being targeted.”

“Not your business, besides some of them chose that life.”

“I didn’t.”

“You’re fine, you just….”

“I’m different too dad and we both know it hell you hate it.”

“You take after your mother.”

“And it just fucking kills you doesn’t it?”

“Don! You never take that tone here in this house you here me!?”

“Fine, you want me to move out? You won’t have to look at me that way!”

His father swung first.

Donnie had been put into boxing by his dad and you’d think it’d have helped but his father had boxed himself and had fought a lot too as a younger man. The first hit rocked Don’s head back and it went from there.

He fought back but this was…

“You won’t ever disrespect me in my house!”….. “You’ll stay away from those people!”…. “No son of mine’s going to be some fucking queer.”

It wasn’t a long beating it didn’t have to be…his dad was a big guy and he meant what he said.

You respect him and his house no matter you think he’s wrong…he’s not, not under his roof.

He’ll stand up and fight for the rights of others. As long as you’re a Person of color and not a queer that’s chosen to offend god. White folks and the others could take care of themselves just like the blacks always had to…unless you were Arabic or Middle Eastern…then you deserve what you got for nine eleven.

Asshole, Bigot.

Most of the middle eastern kids he knew where in pre-school when that happened. Way too many people thought that black people being so oppressed and so put down over the years would be good with other people, cultures, differences.

Not his dad. Not his family really or the church they went to either.

Us first, like us first…and then be mad at everyone else because y’know it’s their fault that things were this hard.

Donnie went to his room and fell on his bed and curled up gasping around the hits and bruises.

He wasn’t going to cry, he wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.

But the tears came anyway.

He didn’t have really tight close friends…he had friends but to ask something like…

And going to any of his family would just be more of the same plus more because of the way he was.

He was trapped.

And that’s what brought on the tears.

Even though they made him feel ashamed for crying…like that somehow proved the whole fag-girl thing.

He could hear his dad banging around downstairs still angry. His brothers were lucky they both had after school part time jobs so they’d be spared the bullshit until someone said something that’d set him off on another “respect me.” tirade.

“Yeah dad way to keep the ‘dream’ alive. Respect a peaceful leader, run your house with your fists.”

He wiped his eyes and sat up.

Stopped and held his stomach for a few minutes tat really smarted he’d have to take it slowly. He went through his room and packed his clothes, well everything he really still wore and needed. His laptop and his tablet, his DS and things and set it in his closet. His dad worked tomorrow.

He needed a plan, he hated to do this but he was going to ask for help from the guys. He wasn’t going to…he just couldn’t take this anymore.

He went and showered and changed and locked is bedroom door and headed downstairs with his board.

His father looked at him from the kitchen. “Where are you going?”

“Out, to a party.”

“A party how come this is the first I heard about it?”

“Because dad it’s a coming out party.”

“A what? What’s?…..oh no, you’re not going to a place like that.”

“I’m going.”

“After the way you disrespected me you think you’ll be allowed to go anywhere?”

“After you assaulted me you think I won’t just go to the police?”

“Go ahead, you go ahead and see how much they’ll give a fuck about your black ass. It’ll be an education, now get your ass upstairs.”

“No.”

He left and walked out and he heard his father slamming the door open and coming after him. Donnie dropped his skateboard and put his arms up ready to fight this time. His father almost swung until he realized he was outside and even here in this block you didn’t go around beating on your kids.

“Get in the house.”

“No.’

“Get in the house you’re grounded.”

“No, I’m not putting up with your shit! You can’t ground me because I’m not a fucking bigot like you!”

“Get in the fucking house I’m not a fucking bigot!”

“You’re a bigot and a racist fucking homophobe!”

Donnie’s father looked ready to explode…his kid was dragging this out in public…in front of everyone that was out there just having a Friday evening and now where watching…watching them.

“That’s it!” He roared “Pack your shit and get the hell out of my house! You won’t disrespect me or the lord under my roof!”

“Fine!” Donnie started to lower his arms when his dad grabbed his wrist and started to haul him to their door.

There was the sound of a loud V-Eight muscle car engine being revved and Donnie’s dad looked up to see these two kids looking at him. One this dark haired tomboy dyke white girl and another one a white kid in glasses holding one of those small video recorders.

“What the hell do you want? Mind your business you little assholes.”

Jessie looked at Donnie, he didn’t look too good. He was already there partway out of the car with the door open when the man had looked up. They’d heard most of the shouting as they’d been pulling up to get Donnie for the party. Nick had his handi-cam out and was filming it before they had stopped.

Jess got out. “Donnie’s my friend; I am minding my business sir.”

“This doesn’t got anything to do with you, get out of here.”

Jess kept walking over to the pair. “Sorry, it’s not going to happen. Now let Donnie go or we’ll call the cops.”

“Go ahead what will the local cops do?”

“Charge you for assault on a minor for one.”

“Prove it.” Donnie’s dad sneered at Jess but pushed Donnie away towards Jessie.

“We have you grabbing him on camera, plus we saw it.”

“So what? One he’s my kid; two you two little assholes are white so my lawyer will tear the shit out of your statements. Three you can’t tape me without my permission…see you little turds I’ve been in the civil rights fighting before I know what you can and can’….”

Jessie cut him off. “Shut the fuck up.”

“What…”

“You’re a blow hard, a bully, if you were half the man you think you are this would never be an issue but you’re not and it is and I’ve kind of noticed none of the neighbors here seem to be coming to your aid here.”

“You can’t talk to me this way…and turn that fucking thing off!”

“No, see he’s not taping you he’s taping me, just like he was taping Donnie right Donnie?”

(Sniffle.) “Yeah…I gave you permission.”

Donnie’s father looked incensed and actually a bit afraid. He glared at them. “You think you’re the shit you little bitch?” He said to Jessie dangerously as he could and in a quiet growl.

Jessie actually stepped closer. “No sir, I’m Donnie’s friend that’s it. It’s all it needs to be.”

He was going to say something and Jess cut him off again. “And I’m not a girl.”

Donnie’s dads eyes widened, he looked at Jessie’s chest. “Fag! You’re a fag! You expect me to let you drag my son off to some fag party and condemn him to hell!?”

“You were kicking him out just a few minutes ago. Hit him before that, why didn’t he follow your lead?”

Donnie said. “No, it’s because I’m different and I never fit his standards, it’s because I don’t think that I deserve special treatment because I’m black and I have gay friends.”

His father yelled. “No it’s not special treatment it’s our civil rights!”

“What about others dad!? We’re not the only people that are up against it dad!” He yelled back.

“Gays made their beds when they made that choice!”

“Being gay’s not a choice dad! No more than being black!”

“It’s against the bible!”

“The bible is for slavery…don’t play that bullshit!”

“It’s not bullshit…you little fairy.”

Jessie saw a group heading over a mixed crowd now but with several old people in the lead and he smiled seeing a familiar old face come over to him and shake his hand.

*In Ndebele* ~ “Jessie it’s good to see you young one, I thought you were in South America?”~

~“We moved, Dad has a city position here now Davis, it was time to set down roots.”~

People were looking at them and the fact the young white girl/boy gay person shaking the hand of the man who ran the African market here in the neighborhood.

One of the old women looked at Donnie’s father with a squint behind her glasses. “Martin, enough boy…you’re bein an ass.”

“Mildred stay outta this.”

“I will not you little loud mouth. Now I knew you all since you moved in here and being for equal rights is a wonderful thing, trust me ah know. I was with Dr. King god bless him and I was in Detroit durin the riots. But Martin equal rights are equal rights it’s not equal if it ain’t all of us.”

There were nods and amen’s.

The African man nodded. “Yes Mildred there is no freedom without truth.”

Donnie’s father backed off and glared and sulked at all of them. “Fine you…you want him fine.”

Jessie nodded. “Thank your sir. Come on Donnie lets get your stuff.”

(Sniffle.) “’Kay thanks.”

The two boys headed back inside together.

Martin looked at Davis. “You know that one…?” He head jerked towards the car.

“Yes, Jessie an his fatha would come out to places when they lived in Cape Town and would help dig wells and give places water and irrigation.”

“Really…I’m sure that made them popular.” Martin said his voice full of bitterness.

“No…not in some places. Some places there were very bad men who did not want the people living there to have water. Jessie and Mr. Marc they come and do it anyway and nobody pay them.”

*Nick…………

He could see Donnie’s dad shut up but he wasn’t happy about it and at the same time. He knew about Jessie and him living in South Africa but at the same time hearing him speaking something actually African and knowing some one from there. It changed things and it changed them even more hearing what he did to help other people. But it fit Jessie at the same time…how he’d helped him and this with Donnie.

He never really thought that there’d be black people like Donnie’s dad though. You’d think that they would be a lot more like the old lady. He couldn’t help but admire her walker and sweater and squinting through her glasses and everything but some how still proud and strong.

That kind of strength that fought for equality and stood up to the bullshit.

And where were those voices these days? Drowned out by Starbucks and SUV’s and gotta have this and that and have to be politically correct and we can’t be upset…no can’t be upset don’t rock the boat people.

*Jessie…………

It was a good surprise seeing Davis things might have gotten worse here. He hadn’t expected the back up from the seniors from the block here but he welcomed it. He really wanted to learn more now especially about Dr. King who was spoken of still reverently in South Africa. No he hasn’t Nelson Mandela but the “I have A Dream.” speech was famous over there and had been translated a lot.

Was it karma that they can over right when he needed to help a friend? Maybe, he didn’t care he was getting Donnie out of here. They’d find a way later for some of the other questions.

Donnie had his back today when things happened at lunch, he had his now.

He was a little surprised but also not all that surprised when he saw Donnie had some things already packed to go. He looked at Donnie. “We’re taking all of it that we can because he might trash the rest of it once you’re gone.”

Donnie wiped at his eyes and nodded. “Thanks Jessie Thanks for you guys having my back and all.”

Jessie stopped and went over and hugged his friend and sat on the edge of the bed with him. “It’s what friends do…okay the timing was pretty lucky Donnie but we would’ve been here and we would’ve come looking for you especially if it smelled rotten…and we would’ve got your stuff even if we had to move the party to do it.”

“See that’s why I love you guys already…I’ve been weird like this my whole life and with you guys I just feel I can just be me. Whatever the fuck that is y’know?”

Jessie grinned and looked at him. “I own fourteen different bras and have to use hydrocortisone cream and stuff to keep the itching from driving me nuts because they’re still growing. I get being whatever the fuck Donnie. I just try to see it differently me and all of us.”

“I know, I try to too but it just gets to you y’know?”

“That’s why we change it Donnie, we take all of us otherwise odd people and we actually let reality be reality where the majority of us are odd and these haters and stuff like the alphas and stuff they’re really, really not.”

“Yeah they really kind of suck.”

“Suck? The whole thing is social lithium. Don’t be different, don’t be different…we’ll fix you…if we can’t fix you then we’ll sweep you away….” Jessie said it with his arms slightly out in this whole zombie kind of parody.

Donnie laughed. “Social lithium I like it.”

“Yeah well it’s true too just how many kids are there out on meds when just working with then, playing, paying attention and just taking the damn time would fix things…but instead they fall back on the crutch of let’s dope up the little fuckers because we can’t be arsed.”

Donnie nodded. “And they wonder why there people with issues huh.” He had gotten up and started packing.

Clothes, bedding, pillows, curtains, blinds, old toys, comics and magazines and trading cards and pretty much every thing and if there wasn’t boxes they used garbage bags until they had everything out of the house except for the mattress and box spring. Jessie had taken the bed frame apart with his multi tool from his jacket and Swiss army knife.

Donnie’s dad looked like he was going to try and say something a few times on those trips but the neighbors never left and stood watch like they were making sure he wasn’t going to be an asshole.

He made sure they were all in the car before going over to Davis. ~ “Thank you for helping us out here. I know you gathered some of them here to help.”~

~ “No Jessie they were coming here and I joined them. It is just very good to see that you are still the young man I knew so long back.”~

~ “My family is having a cook out tomorrow please come by with the family my parents will be thrilled to see you again.”~

~ “I will and you will tell me if there is anything I can do for this young man in the future. This country has been very good to us and it would be nice to return the favor.”~

~ “I will it even could be a good idea. You’d have room? ~

~”Room will be made, this is America.”~

Jessie raised an eyebrow at Davis. ~ “Oh?”~

~ “Give us your poor tired and huddled masses.”…. “That child there is poor, he is huddled and he looks tired.”~

Jessie smiled and clasped arms with him hard. ~ “You give me hope my friend you give me hope.”~

Davis laughed switching to English. “Then my young friend I am returning the favor.”

They shook again and Jessie walked over to the old black woman. He stopped and he took out his mini notebook from his jacket and wrote down his number and his home phone. “Ma’am…thank you for helping out my friend. If you need anything, anything you call those numbers and we’ll come alright.”

She took the paper and smiled at him. “Boy you’ve been raised right, I’ll expect I might just call this number a time or too. You never know I might just have the need of someone to help me finish a pecan pie off every now and then”

Jessie smiled at her. “I’d honestly love that Ma’am could I…?”

“Could you what child?”

“Could I give you a kiss before I leave ma’am.”

“You’d kiss an old weather woman like me?”

“Actually ma’am where I’ve lived being close to the elders in a community is an honor still.”

“Oh hell boy come here then and give me a kiss and call me Mildred.”

Jessie leaned over and gently kissed her cheek and then he slid from that and left a really light soft peck on her lips. “Thank you Millie, now please remember to call.”

Her eyes had widened and a smile danced in there and he could see the young girl in there still full of hope and fire facing down people that wanted to hurt her and hers…hands linked, marching, head high.

She didn’t say anything past the smile she had on and no one seemed to notice what passed between them and he slipped into his car and waved to them all as he backed out and headed for home to drop off Donnie’s stuff.

“Nick can you text around and tell everyone what’s going on and why we’ll be late picking them up?’

“O..okay..”

He looked in the rearview at Donnie who was sort of watching them and sort of sideways in the backseat staring off in space.

“We’ll get through this Donnie; you’re not alone in this.”

“I know, I’ll be okay…got any tunes?”

Jessie tuned on his player and turned up the volume as the drove the song started playing…

Mama told me when I was young
Come sit beside me, my only son
And listen closely to what I say.
And if you do this
It'll help you some sunny day. Oh Yah!
Oh, take your time... Don't live too fast,
Troubles will come and they will pass.
You'll find a woman, yea yea, you'll find love,
And don't forget son,
There is someone up above.

(Chorus)
And be a simple, kind of man.
Oh be something, you love and understand.
Baby be a simple, kind of man.
Oh, won't you do this for me son,
If you can?

Forget your lust, for the rich man's gold
All that you need, is in your soul,
And you can do this, oh baby, if you try.
All that I want for you my son,
Is to be satisfied.

(Chorus)

Boy, don't you worry... you'll find yourself.
Follow your heart, lord, and nothing else.
And you can do this, oh baby, if you try.
All that I want for you my son,
Is to be satisfied.

(Chorus)

Baby be a simple, be a simple man.
Oh be something, you love and understand.
Baby be a simple, kind of man. (Fade out)

Some people might call it red-neck music or red neck rock but those words…the cords it struck home with Jessie and he was the first one out of the boys to be singing along and Donnie followed and even Nick…who to his own surprise…even with friends he didn’t stutter when he sang along.

Bad stuff happened, good stuff too really and more would that’s life just like life’s three teenagers in an old car singing along to an old rock song.

Just like knights going off to the field of battle Jessie thought and smiled.

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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Squires 19

*Jessie…………

They drove listening to the tunes to his house with after a little while Donnie and Nick sitting up a bit more to check out Jessie’s neighborhood.

“Nice area.” Donnie commented as they pulled up.

“It’s pleasant looking but full of busy bodies and trumped up little gnomes.”

“Gn..gnomes?”

Jessie grinned. “Well it’s too nice a neighborhood for trolls but we have no shortage of these neighbours that sort of creep around and check everything that you say and do and who might be around just to make sure you fit in the rules. I went with gnomes after dad and I watched one of our neighbours sneak into our yard like at one in the morning to measure out flower beds.”

Donnie looked at him like he was crazy. “Wait…he snuck onto your property to measure the flower beds…did you shoot him?”

Jess shook his head and grinned. “No dad was having too much fun recording him on the video recorder and then making a You Tube video about the nightly habits of the suburban house gnomes.”

Nick grinned and said. “S..so..it runs in the f..ff.Family?”

Jessie nodded. “Recording stuff’s just a good idea sometimes regardless of who or where. I’ve seen nasty people with assault rifles back down because a reporter doesn’t just have a camera filming them.”

Both the guys nodded and nick gets this wicked gleam in his eyes. “Y..you want to have some ff..fun?”

Jessie nodded looking at Donnie. “I could use a laugh right about now. “ Donnie said.

“G...gg..give Jessie and m..me two of your sk..skater hoodies.”

Jess just grinned and they put on the hoodies all big and baggy and street looking and jess adjusted the radio in the car to a rap station off one of the satellite radio channels and turned up the volume.

It was first just the one neighbour watching and then another and then another as the three ganged up looking hoodlums were bringing stuff into the house of those trouble making neighbours from god only knows where.

They broke into laughter each time they brought a load into the house or into the garage.

Tilt.

*Kenyon…………

He was setting things up in the kid’s den or the play room ever since he had gotten out of the shower and had that scary and oddly funny talk with his mom.

It was actually the old garage that was built onto the house when his folks bought the house. When his dad’s business took off her changed it over for a place for the kids and he built himself a bigger and more professional garage for himself that double as his office.

So the kid’s den was pretty old and it hadn’t been used a whole lot since his brother moved out so there was some junk in it and he’d cleaned it out and asked his mom what was still good and what could be tossed and couldn’t and he swept down and swiffered the walls and ran the vacuum cleaner with some of the carpet cleaner and good smelling stuff and had just started to think about where to put stuff and set things up when he got the text saying what happened at Donnie’s.

Then he got the calls and stuff from the other people that were coming and the head count between the gamers and the LGBT kids and just some of the other kids was getting up there.

He went into the kitchen. “Uhm Mom? Are you sure that this is okay? I mean I’ve never had a party and this is kind of getting pretty big.”

She smiled at him. “Of course it is honey it’s actually great that all these kids are coming over…it’ll help settle your dad.”

“Really?”

“Look he might be shocked when he learns that we’ve a gay son but he’ll be over the moon that you’re that well thought of.”

“But most of them really don’t know me the whole thing just kind of snowballed.”

“Well then it’s a perfect chance then isn’t it honey. You wanted to be popular this year.”

“Yeah but…”

She leaned over sideways looking at him in a weird way. “Yes honey your butt looks fine in those jeans.”

“Mom!”

She snickered and giggled into her hand then passed him a list and some money. “Here go to the store and get these things we’ll likely need extras.”

*Johnny…………

She looked at her phone and frowned at the updates and what had happened to Donnie. She didn’t know how in the hell…we’ll she did but she just didn’t figure that it was going to happen like that to Donnie.

But you just can’t tell someone’s home life.

Actually Donnie was sort of a mini-mystery for her, he hid himself really well in his skater clothes and the attitude and stuff but there was something there that was kind of…not off but sort of femme hidden there.

Not trans, she was pretty sure she’d have clocked that if he was but something different. There was something sweet and something pretty in his face even…nice eyes and an almost cute nose.

Right there though that’d be enough to brand him part of the otherwise and the odd and give him trouble.

She shook her head and called Lindsey and Honey in a group call to talk about clothes and outfits for the party and how they should dress. She was already done and had been expecting to be there early and help with the party until all of this happened.

Then Honey asked if she should bring over the karaoke machine.

“Oh definitely, definitely yes!”

She almost snickered at the way that Lindsey groaned. “Karaoke…just shoot me now please.”

“Hey…My father bought it. My parents like it.” Honey said.

Lindsey huffed from her line. “See I rest my case.”

“It’ll be fun!” Johnny insisted.

“No, no it won’t karaoke is like fondue and disco best left in the past and other countries.” Johnny could practically see Lindsey on speaker arms crossed and frowning at the phone. She really couldn’t help herself.

“Oooh! Fondue that’d be cool too I’ve never done that before.”

Honey added in. “It’s actually pretty good we’ve done it before. They actually have it in restaurants.”

“Ick….Cheese.”

Honey asked. “What’s wrong with cheese, I like cheese.”

“Nothing but its like smelly cheese isn’t it?” Lindsey asked.

“ABBA! We can play and sing ABBA tunes!” Johnny added gleefully.

“No! Please god no…we’re not making this a stereotype party guys please Kenyon’s going to have a hard enough time with this stuff as it is without beating the whole gay thing to death with a stick.”

It was Honey that cracked. “Uhm…no…That BDSM Lindsey…totally different.”

Johnny snerked then valley girled. “Totally.”

Honey likewise did the same. “Totally.”

Lindsey “Arrghed” over the phone. “Stop it, stop talking like that!”

Johnny giggled. “Like uhm like what?”

“Like Them….” Lindsey hissed over the phone.

Honey and Johnny giggled together some more and Johnny agreed. “Okay, okay point taken we’ll stop.”

“Good, now…god…I need help.” Lindsey breathed with some relief mixed with a little pleading.

Johnny asked. “With what?”

“I have no idea of what to wear to this thing.”

Honey said. “See we told you you’re a girl.”

Johnny thought about it for a few minutes. “We’ll be right over Linds; Jess can pick us all up there. Honey you ready to get picked up?”

“Yup, I’m good.”

“Daddy and I’ll be right over.”

She hung up and went to go look for her Dad who was in the garage working on something her was building. He’d sort of taken up carpentry lately and what he had looked like a cabinet or something.

“Daddy? Can you drive me to get Honey and then over to Lindsey’s place?”

“Sure pumpkin what happened to Jessie?”

“He got delayed helping a friend and Honey and I have to help Lindsey outfit up.”

“Okay…well let’s go.” He went and grabbed his keys and jacket and headed for the car.

*Lindsey…………

She stared at her phone and there was the slight feeling of something kind of like dread setting in. Johnny was coming over with Honey…

And her Mom was home…

“Oh dammit I’m surrounded.”

She opened her closet and all the places she had clothes and she stuck her head out of her room door. “Mom… Johnny’s coming over with Honey!”

There was a way to cheerful. “Okay! I’ll get snacks and drinks ready!”

She waited and fretted and paced and chewed on her thumb until she heard an unfamiliar engine outside and she rushed out of her room and down the stairs. She did not beat her mom to the doorbell.

“Hi…..” Her mom stopped and blinked, looked around and even outside. “So which one of you girls is Honey?”

Honey smiles looking confused. “Uhm that’d be me…?”

Lindsey stepped in. “Mom…this is honey and this is Johnny.”

Her mom blinked a bit. “Oh you’re that girl.”

Lindsey almost thumped her head on the doorframe. “Mom….”

Johnny smiled a little taken aback. “That girl ma’am?’

Her mom looked like she just clued in on what she said.

“Oh! Oh no! I didn’t mean like that it’s just that Lindsey mentioned a girl like you at her school and I just never put two and two together with it being you! I mean you’re beautiful you were really, really never meant to be a boy at all were you? But why Johnny? I mean not that there’s anything wrong with that but I thought that most girls like you would’ve had a more femme name.”

And yes, it was all run on like this as Lindsey’s mom had a habit of happy and cheerfully rapid fire talked to people.

Honey was blinking at the barrage and Johnny smiled wanly at her mom and had a wicked gleam in her eye looking at Lindsey while she said.

“Why thank you I really try hard to look the way that I feel and it’s definitely a compliment coming from such a beautiful woman such as you Mrs. McKinnon.”

“Oh I’m not a McKinnon, That’s Lindsey’s last name I’m a Jameson.”

“Related to James Jonah?”

“Uhm…nope never heard of him.”

Johnny smiled. “I’m keeping my birth name for now since the last time I went with a femme name I got into a lot of trouble being bullied and while I was out of school I saw another girl like me with her own web stuff and everything who went by her first name and it didn’t seem to matter…I thought it fit since I wasn’t going to hide anymore and try my hardest to be me.”

Lindsey’s mom smiled and hugged Johnny and pulled both the girls into the house. “That’s so awesome I wish we had people as brave as you girls when I went to school….oh…what’s that?” she asked Honey who was carrying a great big sealed case with both hands.

Honey smiled. “My dad’s karaoke machine we’re going to take it to the party.”

“Oh that’s so fun!”

Lindsey face palmed and then looked at her mom. “We should get upstairs and get something picked out for me to wear.”

She braced herself for the squee that never came instead she opened on eye and saw her mom bouncing literally on the balls of her feet causing her other parts to do the same and she looked like she was so happy she’d bust and at the same time…very, very sad hopeful doggy.

(Sigh.) “Mom, you want to come up and help out with your opinion?”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Definitely, definitely just let me get the drinks and the snacks and the camera!” She gave Lindsey a huge breasty squeezy hug and ran off literally.

Johnny watched her go and turned and gave Lindsey this look and slowly raised her eyebrows. “Okay what gives you live with her and you haven’t osmosized any of this stuff? And what’s the deal with the last names?”

Lindsey got this pursed look on her face cloudy and still hurting.

“My birth parents live elsewhere in the city and mom and dad here are really my Aunt and Uncle. My birth folks got into this huge divorce and they got to be…well they literally turned into these self absorbed hateful assholes and dad, my dad here actually came and got me out of there between them when the custody fight was really bad.”

They nodded and Johnny reached over and rubbed Lindsey’s side.

“We tried me going home a few times but everytime it was only a couple of hours before they were telling me this and that and ranting and stuff and putting me in the middle again. So I stayed and they fought and took custody of me from them…so they’re my real parents.”

Honey nodded and hugged her and so did Johnny. “That explains a lot, but it’s really cool what they did then.”

Lindsey nodded and sniffled. “Yeah…” she wiped at her eyes a little too. “They went really broke fighting for custody too and now with everything with stuff being so tight with jobs and…I feel just…”

Lindsey’s mom came over and she hugged all three girls but she looked Lindsey in the eyes.

“Look kiddo, money doesn’t mean a thing not when it compares to my girls and you’ve been mine ever since I made your first birthday cake here.”

Lindsey looked at her and with her friends there and Honey and Johnny both crying good tears she couldn’t help her own from happening and her lip from trembling. She sniffle cried and hugged her mom hard.

Johnny said fondly. “See you’re a girl.”

There was some crying and laughing as they headed upstairs letting Lindsey’s mom in on their joke.

*Dan…………

He frowned at the texts he was getting with what he had heard happened with Donnie. It was just beyond the whole thing he knew as what family should be all about.

His own wasn’t perfect there was a gap of sorts with him and his siblings who were older than him and a bigger one between him and his folks but not matter the stuff that happened family was family and you had each other’s back.

Or should.

He did wonder about how his family would take Johnny or Kenyon or even himself.

Yeah he was just as confused sometimes with the whole thing like everyone else was. Well at least he could admit it.

Like meeting Johnny was awesome and so was meeting Jessie and becoming friends with them but it also had woke up some of those weird fantasies he had about what if’s…

And his family being Catholics he wondered. Mind you they weren’t hard core with the religion thing but still it was there and gay stuff did sort of have a bad rep as far as that went sometimes in the church’s ideas.

That being said his family was as non-standard as they were standard.

He shrugged it off letting it just be whatever it was going to be because if he “brained” on it for too long then he’d just get headaches from thinking too hard on some of it and that would go hand in hand with not being able to turn his brain off and getting slammed with his arch nemesis…Insomnia.

That as far as he knew was a family thing; several members of his family were sort of prone to that from what his dad had told him along with other things like migraines.

He had to give credit to his dad for that as much as he didn’t get Dan and his games or his books, comics and his long hair or now the dyed hair he was really cool about the not being able to sleep thing and the migraines.

He packed his books and dice and all the character sheets that he had and he took a long shower and got dressed with the extra time that he had and he went with a nice pair of dress pants and one of his Batman t-shirts and put a bit of cologne on to say he wasn’t completely geeky and added his little extras like his pocket watch and his sonic screw driver key-chain-flash drive and headed downstairs to wait.

His mom was starting supper so he gave her a hand peeling her potatoes for her for the stew that she was making and his dad came in from work and looked at him and his stuff.

“Game…” He knew his dad didn’t like the fact that gaming wasn’t something sporty and rough and tumble but he asked anyway…well asked and stared again at his hair and almost sighed.

“Maybe, we’re going to try but I’m going to a party.”

His dad’s eyebrows rose. “Party?”

“Uhm…yeah it’s…it’s actually a coming out party for a friend of mine.”

“Coming out party?”

“He’s gay dad.”

“And you’re celebrating this?”

“Dad…there’s nothing wrong with being gay but this is sort of us all being there as he breaks it to his folks.”

His dad set his stuff down and went to the fridge and got himself a beer and he took a few drinks. It wasn’t that boozer sort of thing but doing something he did anyway while he was processing it and chewing on his words.

“Well…I’m not fond of people getting involved in family business. But seeing how more and more kids are open about this and too many families are turning back on their own because of it then I’m going to have to say that it’s…it’s worth at least a try.”

Danny actually felt like hugging him then he was that sort of proud of him. he bit his lip though and asked before he thought too much about it. “So you’re okay with gays and stuff?”

His dad looked at him. “Are you?”

“Me…Not that I know of?”

His dad looked at him again. “Okay…” he sat down at the kitchen table. “The bible says a lot of stuff about a lot of things and it says that we should be against it…but it says we shouldn’t do or do a lot of stuff that doesn’t make sense now a days. I just see it like this…Judge not lest ye be judged…meaning it’s not my place to judge people really. And it say’s love the sinner and hate the sin.”

“So…?”

“So…despite what people want to tell me what someone does or it isn’t my business if they’re a decent person then I’ll be decent to them.”

“But the bible says.”

“I told you Danny there’s a lot there that’s good and bad and that’s up to each person to decide.”

“Okay how about transgendered people.”

“What’s that?”

“People born in the wrong gendered bodies and are trying to change it. There’s kids at school that are against the girl we have there that’s like that.”

His dad killed his beer and took another one from Dan’s mom and he shook his head. “I’m not in that person’s head, I can’t feel what they feel and they can’t help being born the way that they are.”

“Really?”

“Danny, I’ve been around a lot longer than you and there’s kids born different all the time…god doesn’t make mistakes…well maybe not its how you look at it and it’s what we’ve done too. It’s right back to not judging.”

“What we’ve done?’

“God didn’t make crack babies or fetal alcohol syndrome and thalidomide kids that was man.”

“Uhm okay…” He had no idea what thalidomide kids were but he was going to go with it.

His dad looked at him and actually smiled a bit. “Danny…as long as you’re a good kid we’ll love you and as long as you’re friends are good kids then we’re okay with them. I might not like some of the stuff you kids do but that’s because I’m old and I think it’s stupid…but I’m not going to come down hard on you kids for it.”

Danny’s mom nodded and kissed his dad’s cheek. “Right because our parents were so understanding of us when we were his age.”

“Exactly.”

Danny smiled. “Thanks you guys I was kind of scared to talk about this stuff y’know with you guys.’

His dad nodded. “Understandable just know that you can. No booze or drugs though right?”

“No sir, we won’t Kenyon’s folks are going to be there.”

“Good, I want the phone number on the fridge before you go and go and get a case of pop to take with you, Reilly’s don’t show empty handed to a party.”

“Okay…uhm Jessie’s having a BBQ tomorrow and his folks wanted all of us to come over. I told you that right?”

“We’ll be there, I like Jessie’s family already, parents should get to know each other like they used to.”

Danny nodded and smiled and jotted down Kenyon’s number and went to the back porch to get a case of Crush Cream Soda and he just came out when he saw Jessie pulling in with his car.

He kissed them both on the cheek and grabbed his stuff and headed outside to the car feeling a lot lighter for getting all of this out in the open…he knew that he was lucky to have folks that even if they didn’t get it or agreed…that they would still be there and that they’d try.

Jess opened the trunk and looked at Danny. “Good mood?”

“Yeah, I think I seriously underestimated the parental units. They’re actually cool with all of this.”

He took shotgun and grinned at the guys and they pulled out and honked a few times and waved to his house as they left.

*Brian…………

The afternoon hadn’t been any nicer than it had been yesterday with Britney showing back up and her and her friends and his old friends just being assholes and he was getting the whispers and the dirty looks and called fag and fruit and all of the lovely stuff that they thought was going to get to him.

Practice was tense with him getting kind of shunned by about half of the team and even the sort of neutral ones were keeping their distance too.

Lee was having a field day with the whole thing and was a complete dick when he thought he could get away with it.

Lee Davis was the center for the senior’s basketball team and self appointed god of the school next to prom king Bradley Tower…Brad was the captain of the hockey team which only marginally edged out the basketball team in the biggest and best of the popular sports. Brad was king of the school and a right royal asshole but he was sort of too big to be bothered by people…

Lee…Lee was Prince John though…his family came from cash heavy stuff like owning a whole bunch of car lots and car wash places and stuff like that and they were one of the biggest boosters for the school.

And Lee had no problem in fouling him…and doing it hard when the coach wasn’t looking.

And Britney was there too…

Cheering for Lee.

Who she was aiming for and pissing Courtney off who was Lee’s girlfriend…or not…it would be an assholish thing to say but while Courtney was great looking Brit was better looking and it seemed that Lee was at least partway thinking of switching up.

There was a whole pecking infighting order thing going on since he wasn’t there in the mix now…but he was what they were trying to score points on by hurting and messing with.

And the wannabees…they were very good at distracting the faculty when Lee wanted them too.

He loved being an asshole…it was actually Lee’s old man that hired the lawyers and stuff to get on the case of the school with keeping cameras out of here… rumor had it that Lee was almost caught sexually assaulting someone…and that’s why…

There wasn’t more than a rumor of it but he didn’t doubt it and he did know from experience and seeing it that Lee…he loved being a bully and getting away with treating people like shit.

Brad and them were effing snobs too but he wasn’t riding his ass like Lee was and he was sure that…he was sure that if he hit back after the fifth foul without being called and getting a nice set of bruises to go along with this lovely hardwood burn…he’d be jumped for sure by a suddenly aware or made aware member of the faculty.

Possible suspension…and even off the team maybe…which they’d love.

He almost exploded in the showers.

The coach was in there and he was pissed off because they hadn’t done well and that was mostly because of them using it as a chance to harass him rather than actually play in practice hard and they left him alone then but someone…just before he slipped into the shower stall had…

Had copped a feel of his ass…and he heard several… “Oooh…the faggot liked it...”

He was shocked and freaked out and honestly he felt sort of violated….that they’d.

He saw Lee and his buddies all grinning at him and making kissy faces and were trying to push him.

Push him into doing something stupid or quitting.

He was really close to lashing out and getting into a huge fight and…or…quitting.

He knew half of these guys since junior high/middle school and not one of them had stepped up.

He hunched and he hated it but he was barely dry and he was the first one out of there and headed off to get out of there.

Thankfully no one had touched his ride and there was one of the security guys actually walking around outside this time.

That was good, they were learning maybe or the guard didn’t want even more stuff to happen on his watch.

It really was one of the smaller good things that had happened all afternoon.

Though he was still that angry and hurt from the grope that he took another shower as soon as he got home.

How…how the hell did people…did girls cope with this bullshit?

He hated the tears and the way that they had made him feel so much that he went straight to his punching bag in his room after slipping on some shorts and punched until his hands hurt more than the way he was hurting inside.

It took awhile before he was calmed down enough to get ready for the party at Kenyon’s.

Kenyon…Jessie…Johnny…

If they were messing with him like that who the hell knows what they’d end up doing to them with Britney getting together with Lee.

“Oh…oh hell no, not on my watch.”

He pulled off the shirt he was going to wear and he put on one of his team jerseys and he grabbed his varsity jacket too. He was going to the party and he was going as a member of the basketball team…whether they liked it or not.

***……………… Jessie and the Danny and Johnny and the girls along with Donnie and Nick arrived together in an overpacked car with lots of laughing at just everyone trying to fit together.

Kenyon smiled at them as they half fell over each other and smiled as they started bringing boxes and bags into the den where the party was going to be and they offered to help set up stuff there and decorate and get things set up in the back yard too.

His mother was quick to greet the kids as they were arriving and she put Danny and Jessie to work along with Kenyon and Donnie in getting some of the lawn future set up and lights outside…she actually had them basement dive for a set of old electric patio lanterns.

Johnny went into the kitchen to help her cook and get things ready for the cake with Honey helping and dragging a poor Lindsey along too. Honestly shocked at Johnny’s.

“Hey Mrs. McLean can we use your kitchen to bake Kenyon’s big gay cake?”

“Sure! What do you need?”

“We’re good I brought everything I think we need.”

Lindsey looked at Johnny. “You actually did it…you actually invaded someone’s home and came to bake a cake…”

Honey was giggling and hugged Lindsey around the arms. “I think it’s cool and that it’s cool that she’s letting us.”

They got to work and Kenyon’s mom had been baking and making things already but she showed the girls where things were and while Honey was actually making the cake Johnny was making the icing.

Lindsey shuddered as she felt the egg separating in her fingers. “Eeeew…this is sick…why do we have to use our hands to do this?”

Johnny smiled. “Because it’s the way my mom taught me so we don’t get the yolk caught on the shells and into the egg whites.”

“Okay are we making a meringue?”

“Nope but boiled frosting.”

“What’s that?”

Kenyon’s mom beamed at them. “It’s a heck of a lot of work but its Kenyon’s dad’s favorite icing.”

Honey nodded “It’s sooo good.”

Lindsey huffed. “Well this part is pretty gross.”

They worked until they got the cake well cakes into the oven and Johnny had made a very rich small chocolate cake just for Kenyon’s dad with lot’s and lots of the icing on it and the words.

“Hi dad, your son is gay, sorry we’re saying it this way but at least you got a cake out of it.”

The cake for the party was a white cake filled with rainbow chips and had two layers one of marshmallows melted down to homemade fluff and another of dolce de leche before getting slathered with a thick layer of icing and decorated with all the glitter sugar and had big letters saying Happy Gay Day!

As semi-mortified as Kenyon was at the blatant gay stuff and stereotype surfing that they were doing he still had enough wherewithal to snag the bowl for the icing and the beaters and spoons.

It helped and it didn’t help as Jessie at one point was helping Nick set up Honey’s karaoke machine and had been sucking on one of the wooden spoons covered in the boiled frosting.

He actually stopped what he was doing and just stared at Jessie and his icing specked lips.

Brian arrived and had been helping out and quiet until some of the other kids arrived from the LGBT crowd showed up for the party and had heard about some of what they knew had gone on in practice.

Johnny gave him a hug around his arm and when he looked down at her she offered him her spatula with some of the icing on it.

It was so unlike all of “Them” it made him smile a little.

“Share?” He said.

“People will talk.” She said looking him in the eyes.

“They already are.”

“You really want to do this; I mean you do know how I am right?”

“Yes I want to do this and no…I don’t know you Johnny but I’d like to try.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re a nice person and I need that.”

She smiled and blushed and then nodded a little. “Okay…I…I can get that….here…” she reached over and fed him some of the icing.

Yes there were looks and Brian didn’t really care because not all of them were bad.

*Kenyon…………

Everything was starting out really well and…god everytime he though about Jessie and that spoon he got painfully excited…he wanted so badly to be the spoon…to kiss with Jessie and suck the sticky white icing off Jess’s lips.

That aside people were arriving and there was him trying to sort of co host with his mom and stuff and at the same time kind of keep an eye of Donnie and Brian who had had really shitty days.

Danny was hanging with Donnie and Nick and he was doing something that was making then laugh and smile at least.

And Johnny was talking close to Brian and headed to find a place to sit down and he was looking for Jessie when he heard his dad’s engine even over the noise of the party.

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit he thought.

He went to the front of the house and saw his dad coming out of the truck and headed into the house and he looked around at all the people here at the kids den and in the backyard and then to his son.

“What’s going on?”

“Uhm my friends are throwing me a party….”

“You’ve made that many friends already it’s just the first week of school?” he didn’t sound upset but rather surprised and kind of happy.

“Uhm…yeah…dad…”

His dad looked at him. “Okay…spill.”

“It’s my….it’s my coming out party.”

“Out of what?”

“Out of the closet…..”

“You’re….”

Kenyon just nodded getting scared and choked up.

“And you though this would keep me from losing my shit about it?”

“It…it wasn’t my idea…I…I just had no idea how to tell you.”

His dad nodded and he looked around and started walking into the house and stopped beside him and looked at him. He wrapped his arm around Kenyon’s shoulder.

“So first party of the year huh?”

“Uhm…what?”

“This is the first party of your year and the word on Facebook that it’s the first time there’s been a party like this.”

“You…?”

“Your mother called me as soon as you and she were done your heart to heart.”

“And you’re okay with it?’

“It doesn’t change a thing about you Kenyon, well nothing that really matters to me.”

“Dad…”

He hugged his dad which he hadn’t done for awhile and his dad seemed to puff up a bit more at that and grinned.

“I still want my cake though.”

(Sniffle.) “Okay…”

“And I want to meet this guy you like if he’s here.”

“Dad…yeah he’s here.”

“Is he cute?”

“Dad!” Okay Kenyon was honestly shocked.

His dad just smiled and still hugging him around the shoulders led him into the house.

*Yasmine…………

It was a really long day and a scary one that had set her on edge and had shown her some of the stuff that she had been scared of and a few moments of kindness and understanding that she honestly never thought she’d have gotten here after the early start of the day.

She was careful as she walked to the bus stop and she kept an eye out for some of the people that might have caused her trouble from earlier.

Thankfully they seemed to be off doing whatever it was that they did…

The few other kids there that used the city bus to get around to and from school were either ignoring her or they were engrossed in their own stuff. Not really hard considering the way that people here seemed to fall into the trances of texting or being on the phone or shutting out the world once they put their headphones on.

It was kind of rude for people to do that since she didn’t see that too often in the places she lived. Well except for when she was over in England, which was just as afflicted with self absorption as it was over here.

She still had the hoody that the black boy had left with her to use to cover up with after the whole thing that had happened at lunch and she ended up staring at it as she took the bus home and made her way into her home and she made some tea and took a shower to get clean…she had to get clean just because of what had happened at lunch.

Didn’t they get it?

Doing that to a girl like her it…it was a violation…not just a religious thing as much as it was one it was part of the way that she saw herself, how she could relate to the world and still show that she was trying to be a good woman.

Oh she wasn’t perfect, she had a temper and she had angry moments and she had thoughts that well…she knew that she shouldn’t have sometimes but Yasmine was enough of a realist to know that it was okay…she was a human as anyone else and well okay in her opinion she might be a little more damaged that some or more screwed up than others but…

But she was trying.

All of this, the new school and living here and moving it was all trying.

She just wished that it was a lot less scary and that she was a lot stronger than she felt she was to deal with it.

She talked herself through the shower saying some prayers for peace while the water washed some of the stress tears away and she felt better for it and calmer after that and actually having a real good shampoo.

She honestly didn’t know if it was a mental thing from wearing her hijab but a really good shampoo just made her feel better. The combination of the smell being like aroma therapy just went so nicely with that feeling when she rinsed that she was washing other things out of her head along with the shampoo.

She slid out of the shower and she took some time with her hair preferring to towel dry in mostly before taking her time to really brush it out before putting it up again.

She slid on one of her favorite long sleeved shirts that used to belong to her dad and some pyjama bottoms and while really not the way she should be dressed according to some people she was in her own home and she wasn’t really planning on going anywhere.

She poured herself a cup of tea and she started looking through things in the house to make supper. Her mother was working and she wouldn’t be home for awhile yet. She put some ground beef in a frying pan and started in on making tacos. The beef was from a proper market just to be sure but everything else was fine and taco done right was really good.

She made it pretty spicy but that was a family choice with a strong liking of chilies that they actually got into while in England more that the middle east and she took some Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and added some mint and grated a cucumber.

The cucumber had a trick in her opinion she grated the cucumber but where it was so watery you really needed to strain it so she’d put a pasta strainer in the sink and added a coffee filter, her trick was to give it a good squeeze of lemon juice and a toss.

Not to be wasteful she made a small sauce pan of rice and squeezed the rest of the lemon into the rice and grated a lot of the peeling too so they’d have some lemon rice as a side. Her mother came in from work looking tired from her day too and smiled as they shared a tea together before her mother went to get washed and cleaner up as well.

It was good to be as clean before supper and they took the time to pray before eating. It’s a whole lot different praying at home. In the mosque is good but home you can be yourself, dress comfortably, feel safe and just be open…each rise and fall dropping the weight off your shoulders almost to His feet.

Yasmine thought it made supper so much the better.

Dishes started her mother came into the kitchen from doing the laundry. “Who’s is this?” She asked as she was folding the hoody.

Yasmine lowered her eyes. “It’s a boy’s.”

“I can see that you’d be swimming in this. Why do you have it?”

“Some bad kids, bullies took my hijab. He gave me that to cover while he and his friends went and got it back.”

Her mother pulled the plug on the sink and made some more tea and they talked all about everything that happened during the day between Johnny, Jessie, Donnie and the kids and what she’d seen with the students and the teachers.

Her mother drank tea and listened, held her hand sometimes and nodded by the time Yasmine was done and then she looked at the clock. “You have the Facebook yes, you talk to Jessie and you go and take this Donnie back his shirt and you invite him over for supper sometime, Jessie and this boy.”

Yasmine blinked. “Mother?”

“Yes, we will try having people over. These people don’t seem like some of the others like before. You need friends Yasmine, life…life is too hard to go through alone.”

“But…”

“Allah praise be unto him…I believe he wants us to be happy here, it’s a better chance.”

She nodded a little unsure of just what to say her mother was always a bit different like marrying her father…and standing by him when he didn’t convert to Islam…moving instead of taking the rules of the family but still abiding by Islam in her own way.

Her mom sent her to her computer and she went to look up Jessie on Facebook and saw the letter to all these people in her e-mail box and her breath caught reading it. It was someone, someone brave enough to step up and issue this like a teenage fatwa to the evils in their lives.

She looked up a little. “You’re trying to tell me something?”

“Is this the right place?”

“Dad….?”

She sniffled and rubbed at her eyes and sent Jessie a PM and waited but she didn’t get a reply. He might not live in his phone like so many of the other kids so she waited and then went through his profile finding Donnie in his friends list and then checked Donnie’s about part and it had his address.

“Okay…Okay I’ll go…it’s just dropping off the hoody.”

She got dressed again but more for going outside on a evening than school. She learned a bit in the UK and there were people over there that’d cause you trouble just for being a girl and not being muslim but there still was that.

Plain black Hijab and she added a few extra pins to feel better about it being securely on and one on her favorite sweaters which was sort of goth actually wit the clingy high neck but the long sleeves with the gloves built into it. She wore some leggings with a skirt and added a sweatshirt with a hood and a zipper front and her grey denim jacket and her shoulder bag with her stuff from her purse including some pepper spray.

It was Chicago after all.

She kissed her mother on the cheek and more than nervous about bringing him his hoody and the invitations for them to come her mothers supper she would likely be planning.

She took a couple of busses to get there and she was a bit nervous walking from the bus stop through what was a definitely African American neighborhood she found the address went up the steps stopping when she was getting glared at by this older African American man who looked to be on his way to being drunk.

“What do you want?”

Yasmine bit her lip before asking. “Uhm I’m looking for D..Donnie sir.”

“Oh really, first he’s with those faggots and now you? I fuckin knew he was a no good little freak, now he’s fucking some little jihaddy-ho. He‘s no son of mine.”

Yasmine took a couple of steps backwards. “I’m sorry…”

He got up fast and went to grab her. She squeaked and kicked him in his crotch making him roar and double over and he tried to hit her. “Y’little cunt! I’ll get you and that little faggit!”

She jumped the three steps down to the sidewalk and pulled her pepper spray. He threw his beer can at her and she batted it away…somehow more angry than scared.

“You…you are wrong about Donnie, he was brave and he was an honorable man for me today when I was being bullied.”

“Lying little cunt…you think you people can just kill people because you love your Alli-baba more than god…blowin shit up an comin over here t try and twist up our kids inta being Mulems…” He tried coming down the stoop but his crotch pain made him lean over the side and retch.

She was shaking with anger… “You…you aren’t half the man your son is! You are what’s wrong with this planet….you…you…you ignorant….asshole!”

She didn’t swear, she didn’t but she never liked drunks and she was really, really mad at….this man was a father and he was here alive and hurting his son…a good boy and spewing his filth…literally.

He slobbered. “Cunt…” And he lunged again only to have a couple of rough looking black men catch him and throw him backwards on the steps. There was a older teen with them with a kufi on. He looked at her and the hoody she was carrying.

“His son moved out and away from his abuse sister he left with a boy named Jessie.”

“Oh…I didn’t know…”

“It was not long ago.”

“Oh..thank you brother…?”

“J’mal and you are?”

She was shy because of all these men but didn’t move away. “Yasmine sir.”

He smiled and he did have a nice friendly smile. “You should head away now, a young lady should not be here for the discussion of how to be a good neighbor.”

She nodded and surprised herself by saying. “And a decent father too might help too.”

Her eyes widened and she ducked her head and blushed and nodded and moved on down the side walk after J’mal did this gesture like he had just opened a door for her with another kind smile.

It didn’t take her long to get out of there and the bus was going to be awhile…once she saw the schedule at the stop. She shifted back and forth a lot then she bit her lip again and took out her phone and she tried texting Jessie through his e-mail listed on his Facebook page.

[Jessie…are you busy? It’s Yasmine.]

[What’s wrong?]

[I…I need a drive, I’m over near Donnie’s]

[You okay?]

[For now, I’m starting to shake though.]

[I’ll be right there.]

She stayed in the bus shelter and sure enough she started shaking and felt the tears threatening to come as she waited…and waited and she was sure…sure that they had sped because as long as it felt she was pretty sure that they made in here in just under twenty minutes.

Jessie got out along with Johnny and Donnie and all three came over to her and she tried to smile at these kids that came here…actually came here just because she called and she ended up doing the one thing she didn’t want to and started to break down and cry.

All three of them hugged her for awhile then…then Donnie lifted her up and carried her to the car. And settled into the back seat with care.

Like her dad when he carried her to bed when she was little.

Like some knight and her a princess…?

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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Squires 20

*Jessie…………

He just knew that something had went wrong someway and somehow when Yasmine had texted him. It was a lot sooner than he thought would have happened with a girl that was so shy and so very much not American.

Well not being raised American at least; her American English had an accent to it.

And given the way that some people seemed to be he might not have been surprised at her getting into trouble either. A lone pretty Muslima girl there were people that really would be less than nice to her.

He looked at Kenyon when he got her text. “Yasmine’s in trouble, I’ll be back.” And he paused long enough to give Kenyon a kiss on his cheek.

He went through the doors to the kids den where Donnie was helping Nick set up the karaoke machine. “Yasmine’s at your place she needs some help.”

Donnie got up fast and came with him and Johnny was soon with them in tow and her big purse with her and they all piled into the car. He pulled out pretty fast and drove even faster to get there. They had no idea just what they’d find when they got there and while she seemed sort of all right through the texts that might not have remained the case.

He looked a few times in the back mirror and seen Donnie looking both angry and sort of anguished at the same time. It had not been Donnie’s day, not his day at all. But also all things considered Donnie did stand up for himself, for his beliefs and even came to the rescue of someone that might be…

He looked over at Johnny and she sort of smiled after she looked back at Donnie and Yasmine in the backseat. He shifted gears and headed for Kenyon’s place.

*Donnie…………

His heart had been in his mouth when he heard from Jessie that Yasmine had come to his place and had a run in with his dad. He knew, knew that he’d be drinking as they drove, as Jessie drove. “He’ll…He’ll be half in the bag or more Jess…He does that, he does that shit all the time but especially if he doesn’t get his way.”

Johnny joined them having been there with Yasmine in the bathroom at school. “Well looks like you definitely spoiled that for him today.”

He frowned. “He’s been doing that all my life, he never got over me being a freak.”

Jess had that focused pissed but not pissed intense look that they had sometimes like when facing off the Alphas or like while driving fast. “You’re not a freak Donnie, you’re different like me, hell like everyone else on the planet.”

He had shifted as he took a corner coming up on his street. “It’s the people that think there’s such a thing as normal that are the freaky ones.”

The sound of the engine and the chirp of the tires as they took the corner sort of punctuated what he was saying.

“There, she’s there at the bud stop!” Donnie said as he spotted Yasmine. They got out of the car and Donnie almost ran over to Yasmine who looked like she was barely hanging on to herself after whatever had happened.

They hugged her and he found Yasmine’s arms slipping around his chest and she was hugging him hard. There was this sudden hurt coming up inside this lump in his throat and he hadn’t been sure what to do or how to deal with the swamping feelings and he looked down at her and found her looking up at him and there was just something there.

Something like…need and help all there at the same time.

And she was shaking so hard she was going to fall…he just sort of knew it was coming and had swept her off her feet just as he felt her legs give and her eyes widened as he held her there for a second before she shook harder and planted her face into his chest and shook as she cried pretty hard.

He carried her to the car and Jessie and Johnny helped them get into the back seat. And Jess had started driving and Donnie held her for a few blocks before she sniffled and looked up at him and shifted a little on his lap before realizing where she was and turned a deep blushing color.

“Are you okay?” He asked her softly.

(Sniffle.) “Yes…but….are you? You, you lived there…with him…”

Donnie looked into her eyes and wasn’t sure he found that kind of look there before from people ever there before, from a girl before. It was kind of exciting and scary both.

“I…it just was what it was….” He really never had been here, this close to a girl and one that was more than “Just nice” to him like most usually were. He didn’t know really what to say.

“It was bad…?”

He tried nodding through the lump. She stared at him with big eyes and pushed his hood back off his head and stared at him. “It’s amazing you’re you…that he never beat you into being him.”

“He…He tried…”

She nodded and swallowed. “They…they all try…they try before we even get a chance.”

“Yeah…yeah…they all want us to be what they want…” He swallowed.

She sniffled. “I got that everywhere I went, every place I lived.”

Jessie slowed the car to a stop back in Kenyon’s yard. “It’s why; It’s why we’re doing this. It’s not just a party or showing support to a friend or even that it’s a gay kid coming out. It’s part of our fight guys.”

Donnie nodded and sniffled but it was Yasmine who had this look on her face, red rimmed eyes and everything and she slowly nodded. “This far and no further?”

*Yasmine…………

She sort of didn’t know why it came out like that but it did. And she meant it too. She had been pushed everywhere they lived and if it wasn’t the “hopeful family” it was the community or society…they all had this whole idea of who she should be.

They all had this idea who Johnny was or who Jessie was or Donnie was or as they got out of the car and she looked around at this place and he kids around and there was so much behind the noise and the music suddenly.

What if people were supposed to be who they really were, just themselves?

She’d read when she studied that Allah has a predestined planned for everyone, the same way as some of the Christians and others thought. Some, not all…so was this too her being here part of this?

Donnie was still holding her hand as he helped her out of the backseat and she was still nervous…it was still a party as much as Jessie said it wasn’t. She looked over at him and smiled a little but blushed mostly.

“I need, I need to call home and ask my mother if I am allowed to be here.” She bit her lip and took her phone out and headed to the end of the drive way. Jessie lifted his head saying to her in Arabic. “Kenyon’s parents are here we are being chaperoned.”

She nodded and walked to the end of the driveway so the music wouldn’t be so blaring on the phone while she talked. Yasmine dialled her mother and waited nervously through a few rings until her mother picked up.

“Hello?”

“Mom? I…”

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, I am now.”

“Now?”

“Donnie’s father was there but Donnie wasn’t.”

“Oh, what happened did he hurt you?”

“No but things went bad and not just for me but Donnie to…Mom…he was a terrible man…hard…bent…he was not nice, I don’t know how Donnie lived through that man mom.” (Sniffle.)

“Allah guided and protected him honey, is he okay?”

“Yes, his friends got him out of there.”

“Good, good…what am I hearing?”

“I’m outside a party.”

“A party?”

“Kids from school, they’re having a coming out party.”

“Coming out of what?”

“From the closet mom, from hiding from being gay.”

“……………………………...”

“Mom?”

“……………………………...”

“Mom?”

“Are their parents there?”

“Yes they are?”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yes, I’d like to talk to them so can you get them to call me?”

“Okay…you’re okay with this?”

“Yasmine your path’s different than mine.”

“Mom?”

She heard her mother sigh. “I don’t know honey, are these good kids?”

“I think so mom.”

“Then maybe its okay, Allah’s will remember… everything for a reason we must be willing to embrace it.”

She bit her lip. “Okay, I’ll try….are you sure it’s okay?”

“Just have the parents call me okay?”

“Yes ma’am.”

Her mother hung up and she sighed too feeling a bit confused. What was her mom meaning? And what was she doing here? There were a lot of people in her…in the world she knew that would hate all of this.

Would condemn her for being here just as fast as some Christians would condemn her for being here…or for being Muslima.

She took another deep breath and headed back up the walk to join the others nervous but maybe, just maybe all this was happening for a reason.

And if it was then.

She looked up even if she couldn’t see anything even with the light pollution but that didn’t matter…she still smiled.

Then she looked down to the house and Donnie, Jessie and Johnny there still waiting for her so she didn’t have to go into the party alone.

*Kenyon…………

He had been kept busy by the party but that hadn’t had kept him from worrying or keeping his keys in his pocket. Jessie just had this thing about him and sometimes he was just a magnet for stuff going on.

Though in a lot of ways that was one of the things that he liked about him.

He had to be shoo’d away from setting things out and refilling the pop every time he thought it looked down and other things. His mom tried a couple of times until his dad intervened.

“Kenyon, enough…everything’s fine and it’ll stay fine go and mingle and have fun.”

“But…”

“Nothing doing mister we’re throwing a party and you get out there and have fun that’s the entire point.”

“I thought it was me coming out.”

“Exactly My son is reversing trends, go out there and find some nice boys out there to dance with.”

“Dad….!” He sort of whined.

“What….?” His dad made it all drawn out sounding too.

“I…I don’t know how to dance with guys.”

“Kenyon you don’t know how to dance with girls either just learn like I did?”

“How’s that?”

“Go out dance, be a spaz, make mistakes and just have fun.”

“Oh…dad.”

His dad stepped out and stopped Brian. “Hey football you’re kind of cute looking I think here dance with my son for awhile he’s shy.” At which Brian looked both surprised and confused until Kenyon was sort of shoved it his arms by his father.

Brain smiled and Kenyon felt his face get hot from blushing that hard. “Sorry Brian it’s just dad and…”

“Hey its okay parents can be pushy and sometimes we need it.”

“It’s not okay…” Kenyon’s brain when into park as Brian took his hands in his and took them over to the backyard lawn where others were dancing and started to dance with him to Ricky Martin?

“Brian?”

“We’re dancing just relax the point is to have a good time.”

“Uhm….” He knew he was being really clumsy and uncoordinated but as much as it was scary and embarrassing it was kind of fun and he was dancing with a guy. Brian…and if you cut out all the alpha jock assholes he was one of the hottest guys in the school and as much as Kenyon really liked Jessie Brian with that nice smile and kind eyes and sport sculpted body was seriously not hard to look at.

Actually if he wasn’t as into Jessie as he was he could really get into Brian even though Brian might have a thing about Johnny and he was sure that Johnny might like Brian too.

And it was helping people weren’t laughing at him for the way that he danced or tried to and it was Brian too who was part of the group and that made it a lot easier. And after about three dances the only sort of shocking thing was getting asked to dance by other people mostly boys but some of the girls too.

Lindsey and Honey yes but some of the lesbian crowd wasn’t opposed to mixing things up at least dancing wise here. He laughed at some of their jokes and blushed at the compliments that he got from both groups and he had to agree with this sort of cute pixie hair cutted lesbian give called Pen that dancing on a lawn with bare feel was really cool.

He’d been chatting about that with some people and eating some chips when he saw Jessie show back up with Johnny and Donnie and the Mid-Eastern girl Yasmine.

He took several long drinks of his Pepsi and he swore Jessie moved like some sort of sexy image from the movies…and despite the breasts and long hair to him Jess moved with this…with that sexy outsider guy way of walking…he killed his Pepsi and walked over to Jessie.

It was surprising when Jess stopped and tip toed a bit and gave him a light kiss and slipped his arms around Kenyon’s back. “Thanks for that.”

“For what?’

“Coming over and looking happy to see me.”

“Well I am happy to see you.”

“Good, it’s been a long week.”

Kenyon bit his lip a little. “Too tired to dance?”

“Not as long as I can lean on you and let someone else be strong for a bit.”

Kenyon wrapped his arms around Jessie and hugged him. “Hey…? Seriously you okay?”

“Yep…this, this helps.”

“It does?”

“Yeah, I’m just human too you know. This is really nice.”

Oh…okay he could see that no ones strong twenty four seven and just to have someone to lean on would be nice. Hell it was really, really nice to have someone to hold too. God Jess smelled so good too.

“You, you uhm smell nice.”

“Thanks…I was going for not-stenchy.” Jess looked up at him with that very cute sort of half smile on their face. It made him look extremely kissable. The comment though made him chuckle a little.

“Definitely not-stenchy.”

“You smell good too actually.”

“Really? As nervous as I’ve been I thought I’d be all sweaty and stuff.”

“A bit but that’s not a bad thing either.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, North Americans put way too much stuff on. People are supposed to actually smell other people especially as they get closer.”

“Oh…well I suppose it’s be really bad if you hooked up with someone and they were stenchy the next day.”

Jessie laughed and it was a nice sound, soft and sort of throaty in a good way. Kenyon found himself wanting to kiss Jessie again because of that. Oh there were other things too hiding in the back parts of his head that were shifting around that he’d like to do besides kiss but they haven’t even gone out on their first date yet and he wasn’t going to be one of those gay guys that just hook up with a guy because he was attracted to them.

He really hated that stereotype.

Jessie leaned into him a lot more as the music sort of shifted from a light rock tune into something a little slower and more slow dance friendly. It felt very nice even though Jessie had his boobs pressing into his chest. He wasn’t sure if that was a bad thing or not but the light mellow relaxed sigh that Jessie let out was certainly a good thing.

He thought… Okay I’m gay but y’know I’d really like to be that guy that you can relax and sigh against. That’s just so much better than the whole gay sex-pot thing.

*Jessie…………

He had meant what he said when he told Kenyon that this was really nice. He also didn’t really think that it’s be that nice though either. He wasn’t tired or worn out from things that had been going on at school or even with his friends not like it might have sounded but it just felt really take a moment to breathe and enjoy life nice when he could slip his arms around Kenyon’s back and be close to someone and it was very, very nice to be able to lean on someone and just let stuff go.

He hadn’t though really given a whole lot of thought to how nice it was to be held though and to actually lean your weight on someone like you were almost doing the same thing inside of yourself with them.

Jess wasn’t even sure why he found that Kenyon smelled nice. He smelled like a guy and a sporty one with hints of sweat and deodorant and some cologne and it turns out that to him that wasn’t a bad smell.

Now if that had stuff to do with his gynocomastia he wasn’t sure his doctors said other than that he was pretty much close to being normal as being a guy went or if it was just a confirmation that he was bisexual or something like that.

It was still nice just to stop and do this for awhile and not think or really do anything other than this.

He made Kenyon laugh and that was nice, making people laugh was likely the thing he might just be worst at when it came to people.

And chest to chest and closer down below had him reminded that there was something going on here too…he was getting stiff down south because Kenyon was getting so himself and that was…it was sort of scary and yet it was enticing too. It was nice to feel like he was attractive to someone and stuff all sexuality set aside.

Jess had admittedly had a bit of that fear of no one liking him because of the way that he was just like everyone else.

Some people drifted over and asked to cut in with both of them being asked to dance and Jess smiled and leaned up and kissed Kenyon on his cheek. “More dancing later?”

Kenyon smiled and blushed a bit. “De..definitely.”

The girl that had asked him to dance smiled at him and pulled him to a clearer spot. “I’m Vicky, here take off your shoes it’s a lot better this way.”

Jessie smiled at her. “Good I’m kind of a barefoot person at home most of the time anyway.”

Vicky helped him steady himself while he did that and tossed his shoes over to the pile where the other ones were and he found himself smiling just at that feeling of dancing on bare grass with a bunch of other kids.

He even went with some of Vicky’s suggestions about the ways that girls dance and tried shaking it some.

Johnny gave him a thumbs up as she was dancing with Brian.

*Johnny…………

She was going to hang around to make sure that Yasmine was going to be alright but Donnie was sticking close to her and she was still sort of staring at the black skater-boy that really passed as a girl. He had a feminine face and a nice bone structure too and while he was totally flat and had young guy shoulders if you looked past the baggy skater pants he had non-guy hips and what looked like a curvy bottom.

That…

That had to be just as hard to grow up with in a more than macho household than being TG. When you’re transgendered sometimes there’s stuff that leads you there and has people say that you’re girly or boyish but for most, most cases you can’t really spot a TG person if their holed up and hiding in their closet.

But she’d put good money on Donnie maybe being Intersexed or PAIS or something like that. And growing up being so obviously different had to be harder she thought in some respects than what she had been going through before she came to grips or mostly to grips with it herself.

Donnie was hiding it at school but he couldn’t really do that home.

Though she couldn’t help but smile at the serious amount of eye contact between Donnie and Yasmine. Did that girl even realize how much she was staring at him? Then again faith aside people were attracted to who they were attracted to and the fact he was a really decent and stand up guy did mean a lot.

Girls these days can say whatever thet want but to Johnny there’s was nothing that made her heart turn over like a really nice guy that stood up for himself and for others.

And speaking of that she smiled when she saw Brian. Big and muscled and one of the jocks but at the same time he was kind enough that he just couldn’t take the fake anymore.

And he was nice.

He’d been dancing with a few of the lesbian or bisexual girls and he’d was actually dancing with this guy from the schools LGBTQ club and stuff who openly was blushing and having a good time even if he seemed shocked that the big strapping jock was actually dancing with him and it wasn’t some alpha squad dick-move.

She got a quick drink and took off her shoes and walked over to him once he was free and slid her hands into his. “You danced out yet?”

He smiled. “Nope, not at all just getting warmed up to start to dance with you actually.”

She smiled and tried not to bite her lips in that pleased yet nervous way because she didn’t want to mess with her lipstick…that was just reflex really though part of her wouldn’t mind at all if Brian messed up her lipstick though.

They went through some slow dances and she smiled at just being able to do that with a guy. It had been really nice when she had got to do it the other night with Danny but it really had he wanting more of that inside.

And part of her went a little bit squee inside and she did the mental happy arm flails too when some people asked to cut in and dance with them and Brian politely said. “Not right now thank you…I’m really good as is.”

That was really; really girly thrilling that he’d rather be with her just as things were. And it was like there was a bit more trust there too for her to hold onto and she leaned against him and she let out a soft sigh. “Thanks Brian, this is really nice.”

“Okay….but Uhm Johnny?”

“Yes?”

“Usually it’s the guy that does the thanking when he gets to dance with a pretty girl.”

Johnny blushed but looked up into his face to see if there was any of that hidden sneaky kind of gleam there. Sometimes when you knew that someone might mess with you, you got to build up a sort of sense for it. That nasty gleam wasn’t there though just a guy who looked a little nervous but happy at the same time.

It almost made her cry she did feel herself tearing up.

“Hey…..what’s going on did I do something wrong?”

“No, no you didn’t you’re just something I’m really not used to is all Brian.”

“Sorry…”

“No…I said it’s okay…these are happy sploshes.”

“Sploshes?”

She shrugged and turned red.

“Hey I’ll take them…” He pulled her closer into a big hug. “I’m sorry for not seeing you sooner Johnny, for not being fed up sooner.”

(Sniffle.) “It’s okay…The Sith are powerful and your mind was clouded by the Darkside of the force.”

He laughed and that felt amazing…tight up against him she could feel that happy energy shake through her as he did. There was such a difference between him and her that it just made all the girl parts of her wide awake…sexually and not…feeling small. Feeling like a girl as he held her close and his laughter rumbled through her and she swore tickled her heart.

It was so powerful.

She blinked hard to try not to cry and mess with her make up and she looked at him and he had this big happy smile there as he looked back at her.

“See…right there a cool joke and you’re not afraid to be yourself and be funny and cute and smart y’know?’

(Sniffle.) “Oh I’ve been plenty scared Brian, I’m still scared but I can’t stop…I can’t if I do they win, they killed me off after all of that.”

“Hey….don’t…don’t go there okay?”

“I’m not…I’m just…I have to be me Brian, trust me when it comes right down to it I have to. If I’m not me them I’m not alive just faking it.”

He hugged her a little tighter. “Okay…I’m just being scared and selfish.”

“Scared?”

“It took me sixteen years to meet a girl that I am seriously in like with. That I can be myself around okay?”

“In serious like with?”

“Yeah…I really didn’t like Britney.”

“Then why even date her?”

He shrugged. “Peer pressure? I don’t know it’s like once I got on the teams she was there with the others and we sort of just happened…I thought that she actually liked me at the first of it but honestly I don’t know.”

Johnny nodded and she stood tip toes and kissed his cheek. “Well for what it’s worth I like you too Brian.”

“Not serious like?”

“Are we serious? We haven’t gone out even…” She gave him that girl look where they know they got you trapped by woman logic. He blushed and shook his head.

“No…I guess not…Sorry there’s a lot of ego that still needs to wear off.”

Johnny rolled her eyes and she smiled at him and gave him a longer kiss on the cheek and backed away. “Uh-huh…I need to go powder my nose.” She slipped off and she joined some of the other girls en route to the bathroom.

*Lindsey…………

She took Brian over a pop and shook her head as he looked confused at the sudden shift in things. She popped the tab open and she passed him a cream soda and she sipped her cola.

“Uh-huh.” She actually leaned on one of the posts for the deck awning almost cowboy or cowgirl like.

“Huh?” He looked at her then took a drink of the pop and then blinked at the way she was looking at him.

“Brian…I’m horrible at this stuff, seriously…but dude even I can see an opening that big.”

“Opening?”

Lindsey leaned over and tapped him in the forehead making his eyes cross a little watching her finger.

“Ask her out.”

“What….oh….”

She couldn’t keep the smile off her face. “Yeah oh…”

“But…but why didn’t she say that?”

“She did.”

“No she didn’t.”

“Yeah, she did you have to read between things.”

“Oh no, that’s too much like Britney…why can’t she just say what she means?”

“Because in case you’re actually not interested or playing a game she has a way out…she’s not allowed to assume things not being who she is and especially given stuff she’s been through.”

“But…”

“No…Look Bry, take it from a girl even if a borderline one. We’re fucking insecure. And yeah I know guys are too but we get bombarded with shit all our lives every day all the time to make us feel like that. Ads and TV and media and movies and just everything tells us how to be and even if we know its bullshit we still fall for it…”

“Okay but…”

Lindsey held her finger up. “Okay now add in the fact that we’re that screwed up and that overly sensitive and scared of not fitting in someplace because we’ve been telling ourselves we’ll never be like “Those girls.” And then take that insecurity into not being a genetic girl…Johnny told you that she liked you.”

He was staring at where Johnny had gone to.

“Bry, just saying that she liked you too probably was her screwing up every bit of courage that she had and now she’s in the bathroom likely having a girly panic attack freak………out…..where?”

Brian had stopped listening and he was already walking toward the den/garage and the bathroom Johnny and the girls had gone into. She smiled and shook her head as she watched Brian open the door and step inside.

She took another drink of pop as there were shouts coming from within and they stopped…most of the girls here were lesbians or bi…and none of them had come running outside after Brian went in.

There was this dry chuckle and she looked over and saw this girl? Well really small breasts but they were also in a corset and fishnets and a leather mini-skirt and lots of goth make-up and j-pop styled hair. “He’s brave and unless he does some serious talking he might be finding out how men have tampons applied.”

Lindsey grinned. “Hopefully not I like Brian he’s actually nice for a jock.”

The girl shook her head in sort of rueful disbelief. “I don’t know once a douche always a douche. Leopards don’t change their spots for a reason y’know it helps them go for the kill.”

“Well we’re of the opinion that people can change and people deserve second chances.”

“Must be nice.”

“Why? What do y’mean?”

“Being able to trust people like that.”

Lindsey shrugged. “I don’t half the time actually but I actually want to work on that.”

“Why you might just get hurt again?”

“To quote a really cool guy…because I can.”

“Oh that sounds just hokey.”

“That’s because it is, also doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

The girl looked at her and offered a stud covered gloved hand. “I’m Dale.”

“Lindsey.”

“Dance?”

“I’m….” She though a second and looked around a bit at the other kids all sort of mixing it up and dancing too. She looked at Dale who was already sort of slipping into the denial hunch…and she smiled inside at what she had just said to Brian. “I’m a shitty dancer Dale but sure.”

Okay…that little bit of her eyes getting bigger and this little bit of yay squeezing passed the EMO make up made her want to smile. That, that felt good. She took her sneakers off and took Dale’s hand and led her out onto the grass dance area.

*Daniel…………

Okay the idea for the party had gone off really well. Way better than a lot of them had planned and that was good, heck it was great but honestly if you had showed him the party as it was going on now he was sure that no one would be wanting to really get into a game.

Okay well not so since some of the kids from his usual gaming group had come over but most of them were very, very typically geeks and nerds. That wasn’t a bad thing not at all but when it came to actual real parties they were so out of their element. They dove for the safety of gaming inside the kids den.

Truth be told he wasn’t in his element either. Sure he was friendly and he was out going in his own crowd but this was really still as new to him as it was to them. His saving grace was he was one of the so called ring leaders and that he was close friends with Jessie.

Well he and Jessie were close friends but they had still only sort of just met. Though that never stopped people from inferring the things that they wanted to think.

It was so weird to be semi popular.

Though this semi popularity helped him sort of run interference with the other guys and some times he found himself making introductions and stuff. There were some gamer girls there that weren’t part of the scene that he was used to because people tended to brand them with all sorts of stereotype stuff because some of them were lesbians. Okay the three girls that had ended up drifting over to listen to them trying to roll up their characters soon also started talking geek shop with them about the game and comics.

It was kind of funny how odd both groups of them were with the cute lesbian girls…and they were all really good looking but then most girls were really good looking to these guys…The girls were being awkward since they’ve never gamed with any guys before….as they said most guys weren’t into role playing just war gaming and they’re perv up the games and make them all about sex and stuff.

Oh he couldn’t help but smile at the hard core gamer geek outrage at their role-playing integrity being slighted.

The funniest thing though was Honey sitting down with him to join them and to get herself a character written up. Both bunches were very shocked and tongue tied. The cute lesbian gamer girls were still sort of very much the nerd girls. They gamed with each other because they fit with each other, liked the same books and music and stuff and it was safe for them. Just like the guys did in their own group. But Honey was a really nice sweet girl that had no real idea just how gorgeous she could be with that curvy body and those amazing boobs.

He wasn’t pig enough to perv on Honey over her looking that good but it was sort of fun to know her and be all cool and semi-immune to her hotness while both his gamer friends and the three gamer lesbian girls were all totally nerding out and stammering and stuff over being in a game with a pretty, pretty girl.

All in all it was kind of funny and kind of cool and with breaks in between things for them to grab a few bites and a drink and he even found himself at least three times out there dancing.

Okay Brian was one and Honey and Kenyon were the other two at least until Donnie and Johnny and Jessie showed back up.

They had got the characters all rolled up and Nick had joined them late with Sam once the karaoke machine had been set up and they set everything aside as Kenyon’s Mom and Dad came out with the big cake and candles and sparklers.

He shouted out as people made way for the cake.

“Happy gay day to you!”
“Happy gay day to you!”
“You’re Cuter than Ashton Kutcher!”
“And your butt’s real fine too!”

Kenyon turned as red as red could get in a human without having an aneurism or being force choked and he grabbed a handful of gay day cake and icing despite protests from his folks and ran after him.

“Danny!”

*Nick…………

It was funny, the gay day song just so Dan as he yelled it out and made the whole party laugh and grin even him and it was just that much more fun as Kenyon grabbed a handful of cake and icing and chased Danny around the back yard yelling and totally being embarrassed.

He was really glad that it hadn’t been him though, something like that would be too much. Even as things were with this being a good party…

Actually the first party he could remember being too since he was like really little…..it was still right there on the edge of terrifying and at the same time…he was feeling like he’d been facing so many demons tonight when it came with dealing with people.

Sam had hung around with him and they set up the karaoke machine and Sam was so easy going and easy to take with him being deaf and using ASL to talk with most of the time which took a lot of pressure off and it also seemed that some kids were sort of nervous about coming over to talk to two people talking in sign. Well Sam talked and Nick well he was still learning but he was getting pretty good at finger spelling.

Honey though had kept coming over and Lindsey too to see how things were going and to keep them supplied in snacks and soft drinks even though Sam only drank bottled water instead of the soda.

It was really nice of them to do that he thought. Honey was a shy sweet person he found easy to take and he was sort of thinking through at least part of the party that Lindsey was hiding out inside the kids-den instead of socializing.

The cake led to most people eating and Jessie having Kenyon looking absolutely enthralled as he sat with him and was using a spoon to eat the cake out of Kenyon’s hand. Apparently he hadn’t caught Danny and now he looked completely enthralled at watching Jessie eating cake like that and sucking it off the spoon.

Honestly…as close as he felt towards Jessie too he was sure that he’d be doing the exact same thing as Kenyon was doing right now.

Kids were going over to use the machine and people were sort of sitting in places all over and just enjoying the kids that did sing and some of them were pretty good and some of them were pretty horrible but the horrible ones were kind of fun to watch all the same.

He saw this girl come up in front of the machine and he heard some of the kids whispering Selena?

She was one of the old alpha’s that got outed for being a lesbian or something he thought and she looked about their age too only blonde and asian? Definitely a dye or a bleach job but it went really well with the simple cream tunic she had on and the light colored jeans.

She typed a song in and she smiled ay everyone and did this shy and sweet sort of finger wave to they crowd and she started to sing a song that he hadn’t heard before but it was all soft and bluesy and it totally just sort of fit the kids here.

He saw Jessie pull Kenyon up and started to dance with him before the song really even got into the words and a few people did the same…it looked easy to dance to.

Okay…she might be a lesbian but the song just left this lump in his throat as she sang it and just sounded so sexy and beautiful.

*Oooh Child* By The Five Stair Steps.

Ooh-oo child, things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child, things'll get brighter
Ooh-oo child, things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child, things'll be brighter

Some day, yeah
We'll put it together and we'll get it all done
Some day
When your head is much lighter
Some day, yeah
We'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Some day
When the world is much brighter

Ooh-oo child, things are gonna be easier
Ooh-oo child, things'll be brighter
Ooh-oo child, things are gonna be easier
Ooh-oo child, things'll be brighter

Some day, yeah
We'll put it together and we'll get it all done
Some day
When your head is much lighter
Some day, yeah
We'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Some day
When the world is much brighter

Some day, some day, some day
We'll get it together and we'll get it all done
Some day
When your head is much lighter
Some day, some day, some day
We'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Some day
When the world is much brighter

Ooh-oo child, things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child, things'll be brighter
Ooh-oo child, things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child, things'll be brighter

Right now
You just wait and see how things are gonna be
Right now...

By the time she was done singing the song everyone close by that had someone to dance to was up and dancing and softly and slowly and just holding each other close if they were seeing each other or not.

Jessie and Kenyon, Johnny and Brian, Danny and Lindsey, Donnie with Yasmine and Sam with some gothy EMO girl…

Honey slid her hand into his and she smiled shyly at him and he smiled back at her blushing and he saw Jessie looking over at him and at a few other people then asked.

“That was beautiful; can you sing that for us again please?”

She nodded and blushes but smiled and set the song up for everyone again and he bit his lip and tried to smile at Honey as they all got to dance again.

It was amazing and there were people here that were just as moved as he was and just….maybe…right now…tonight…for everyone here this might be true.

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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Squires 21

*Jessie…………

Eating cake off of someone’s hand was something that he’d never thought that he’d ever be doing. Okay not just any one but a boys hand. Kenyon’s actually and it was a decidedly…girl…gay…? No it was really just a thing and it really didn’t need to have a label did it?

Just because he had breasts growing in didn’t mean he was a girl, but liking another boy didn’t make him gay it just meant that he liked this boy. Jessie smiled around the plastic parfait spoon at that and at the look than Kenyon was giving him.

It felt good to have someone look at you though like you’re fascinating. Powerful too and sort of embarrassing but in a kind of exciting way too. Like an intimate scary fun roller coaster with just the two of you on it.

And there was something just so…tingly about having someone that into you that he’s got a fist full of cake with icing and he’s sitting beside you letting you eat it out of his hand.

Now normally you’d think of that having someone eating out of the palm of your hand thing but anyone watching would have definitely said the role was so reversed.

Jessie was pretty sure that they had enough cake and slid off of where they were sitting and took Kenyon by that hand and smiled.

“Come on let’s go and get that cleaned up.”

“Uhm I can wash it myself…”

“Well maybe I want some time alone with you?”

Kenyon blinked at Jessie. “Oh…”

“Hmm…oh.”

Jessie led the way to the bathroom and the one in the rec-room was very…full and there were people sort of hanging around and Jessie looked over at Lindsey who was drinking a can of soda with this sort of punker girl.

“What’s going on?”

“Brian finally clued into the fact that Johnny likes him.”

Jessie looked at Kenyon and Kenyon looked back at him then Jessie looked towards the bathroom door. “Uhn well that’s kind of not a secret.”

Kenyon nodded. “He’s definitely cute and a nice guy.”

Jessie wet a few paper towels in the melt water from the ice that the pop was being stored in. “But that’s a long cry from her taking that kind of step, her going with Brian would be kinda nice sure but really scary and also sure to bring the wrath of Twitney.”

There were a few chuckles and people repeating “Twitney.”

Lindsey grinned and nodded. “Well he had to be the typical guy and be like oblivious to the cues so we kind of had to explain things.”

Kenyon raised an eyebrow. “Oh well this has interesting written all over it.”

Jessie leaned on him. “You’re okay with that stereotype?”

“What stereotype?”

“Gay busy body.”

“Everyone’s in everyone’s business anyways being gay I can just be like ‘Oh my gawd!’ blatant about it.”

Jessie chuckled along with the rest and smiled as Kenyon’s arm slid around his waist and he looked up at Kenyon who was wearing this sort of questioning look like…is this okay? Jess nodded and leaned into his shoulder. “Yeah this works.”

*Johnny…………

She made her way to the bathroom and it was close to standing room only in there with as many girls as there were at the party here and she leaned on the wall hugging herself.

She didn’t know why she said that? Why even get to that point, they didn’t really know each other and what would a guy like Brian even see in someone like her?

Did she want him to ask her out?

………………actually…..yes.

But…but Brian was normal and handsome and popular…he could just walk back into his normal life whenever he wanted. Heck he was that guy that could have had or have any girl that he wanted…wants.

So why would he even want to be with someone like her…even if it was only a date? Why did she even think that could be an option really?

She tried to not freak out over just being like that with him and being so…just blatant about it when she really didn’t have the right too and that almost crying lump in her throat slid down into the pit of her stomach where it started mixing with that other stuff with who she wasn’t and how she felt so…so damned often.

It was so bad she stopped sort of feeling…

And was feeling even with all these LGBT girls and stuff…like some freak…like some freaky boy all screwed up in the head and thinking they could pass themselves off as a girl when it’d never really be true.

She was wiping at tears trying to spare her make-up and shove the hurt down…she really didn’t want to ruin the party.

A couple of the girls looked at her. “Johnny are you okay?”

(Sniffle.) “No…I just…I just fucked up out there.”

“How, What?”

“Brian… (Sniffle.)…Brian and I were dancing and we were talking and then…then we were sort of flirting but…but I…I went to far I think…I…”

A couple of the girls hugged her and she shook.

(Sniffle.) “Dammit why can’t it just stop!? I’m so tired of this…I just want to be me and just stop hurting all the damned time!”

She was led to the sink and they helped her wash off her face since at this point she had wrecked her make up and she used some wipes from her purse to get the rest of it off.

She stared at her plain faced self in the mirror. “I just want to be able to breathe…”

Several of the other girls there were nodding about it too and some weren’t but were quietly listening. There might have been some mutter in the back of things but she couldn’t make it out but she was feeling self conscious enough to hunch a little more.

She was really trying to catch her breath and her footing when there was a series of “Hey’s!” and “Eeps!” and “Brian what the fuck?!”

………….Brian?

Here?

Here!?

Johnny spun and hung onto the sink as Brian was there in the bathroom surrounded by at least nine lesbian girls and he was staring at her.

“Brian?”

“Why…?”

“Why?”

“Why did you not just say that it’d be nice if we went out on a date sometime?”

“I…I wanted you to ask…if you wanted to…”

“I told you that I liked you.”

“I know I just wanted you to ask….ask me…I wanted to be worth it…” Johnny hung her head looking at the floor.

“I…I…”

Brian waved his hands around in that guy frustrated way then he looked at her red faced and shouted.

“If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding, if you don't eat your meat!?”

Everyone stopped at looked at him in almost this universal WTF?

Including Johnny… “Huh?”

“Aaah! I can’t read your mind! I can’t read any girl’s mind I don’t get the whole passive aggressive ask me what or why and I’m not telling you thing! I can’t…” Still shouting.

(Sniffle-wail-sob.) “I’m sorry….” She hunched hurting and getting embarrassed.

“I forgive you!” Yes, yes he was still shouting.

“You…?” (Sniffle.)

“Yes I do now will you go out with me!” Still shouting.

(Sniffle-sob.) “No…you’re mad at me.”

Brian stared at her…his mouth worked silently several times and he had this look like everything he said and the way that he said it just caught up with his brain and he closed his eyes and turned away from her and the girls and on the back of the bathroom door he firmly head desked himself.

Yes there were a few giggles and a couple of snorts and snerks.

*Brian…………

He just…he hadn’t any idea where the Pink Floyd thing had come from but it did and the shouting at her and she was just so…

Johnny was just such a girl and he was so frustrated by not getting that whole girlese subtext thing that they all seemed to have.

Femilepathy…

And now the whole freaking her out and him acting like a total…goon in front of her and all these girls.

He sighed and he turned around to look at her and she…she was till dressed cute but after she had the make up off and her face washed she still looked.

She looked actually just real, way more real that Brit ever had or that he could remember. She was standing there leaning on the bathroom counter and the wall to sort of hold herself up and she had been crying and her face was splotchy and red and her eyes were red and she had both hands up over her nose and mouth and she was staring at him.

He could feel the heat rising to his face and he just kind of stood there running his hand through his hair and getting more and more self conscious or rather conscious of the audience that they had.

“I’m…”

“You’re…?” several of the girls said at him together.

“I’m sorry Johnny but I’m just a guy and I just want to go out with you…I had no idea…I didn’t get until Lindsey told me just how hard it is, how hard it was for you to get that far past all the stuff you’ve got to get passed just to say that to me…”

She was still just standing there like that staring at him her eyes kind of wide like she was still…

He took a few steps forward and he could swear he felt the girls closing ranks on him.

“Johnny…I mean it. I like you, I am in serious like with you and please will you give me another chance…don’t right me off because I’m scary…”

Then she snorted.

Snerked, snickered at him and she was nodding even while she was starting to giggle.

“Yes… (Giggle.)…Yes I’ll go out with you…”

“What’s so…?”

Johnny burst out giggling. “Pink Floyd! Oh My God…Pink Floyd…!”

He turned an even darker shade of red and looked down at the floor and then at her as she took his hand… “Johnny…?”

(Sniffle-laugh.) “Yes, we can go out, I’d love to go out okay…” her voice had slipped into the just talking for him soft and he smiled a bit shyly since he’d made a total ass out of himself in here.

“Good…when?”

“Ask me later, let’s go back out and dance some I still want to get some mileage out of this party.”

“Okay…god this will be all over Facebook won’t it?”

“Probably but who cares.”

He smiled a bit because he was holding hands with a girl that was like that. A girl that cared about stuff more important than the social climbing that brit was in love with.

Johnny wouldn’t care about who she was or appeared to be more than she did for others.

Yeah it was really nice to slip out to where the karaoke was being sung and while the singing was okay the dancing was good and when Selena surprised a lot of people and showed up here and she sand the song was just kind of perfect really.

Even the second time around.

*Yasmine…………

She hadn’t remotely planned on being here especially at an LGBT party but there was something that she couldn’t shake and that was this feeling outside the attitudes she’d been sort of shoved at in some of the places that she’d lived.

She could actually feel that these kids were going out of their way not to be racist or islamaphobic and that in her own way with just being who she was there was this sort of one of us , one of the misfits thing going on here.

And the fact that they stopped and waited for her to get done talking to her mom and going in with her so she hadn’t had to go into the party alone. She was pretty sure that they didn’t know how big a deal that was really.

New places, new people just in general…not the whole LGBT thing were scary for her. Public was different but gatherings and things she was so scared at these things she really felt like she wasn’t part of things most of the time and it had become something to dread happening.

This was scary but at the same time it wasn’t and Kenyon was there greeting people and so were his parents and she shyly asked them if they could call her mother.

They were actually very nice and did and welcomed her into their home.

She was actually a little shocked? Happy shocked that Sam the deaf boy and Nick? They boy that couldn’t talk all that well had looked up things online and set a line of tape on one of the snack tables with a sigh saying what was halal.

Kenyon actually grinned. “They tried, but it’s not actually until it gets blessed right.”

She nodded biting her lip that they even cared that much to learn and to do this.

“It’s…This is very thoughtful.”

“So do you think that you could say the blessing over it?”

“Me? But I’m no…” Yasmine actually stopped herself because they were actually asking and since there was no one here to do it then it was sort of her responsibility as a Muslima to share her faith a little.

She was nervous and said a blessing over the food hoping that she was getting it right enough.

But Kenyon’s parents had been thoughtful enough to have bought kosher which was permitted as well as had a table set up for the vegans and the vegetarian kids that were here too.

Inclusion was nice, it was unbelievable nice.

After getting grief over her faith in places and over her dad in others it was kind of nice to actually be able to feel safe?

It had been so long that she had felt safe she wasn’t quite sure that was it until Donnie asked her to dance and they left the rec- room and danced barefoot out on the lawn with the others.

It was so like this full heart sigh of releasing tension as she stepped through the soft grass and Donnie took both hands for awhile and he danced leading and slowly forgot a lot of the stuff that had been haunting her the past few months and she felt like she could breathe.

A lot of the music she knew and had heard but it wasn’t anything that she had ever danced to before though she could now imagine that and it sort of changed things. Songs actually seem to take on a different meaning once you dance to them.

She hadn’t expected people to cut in on them though.

Jessie was the first and he was nice enough to wait for the pause between songs and they talked a little in Arabic to each other.

“Having fun?”

She nodded…it was very odd dancing with him, he had breasts. “Y..yes, this is very nice and very thoughtful…all the kids here. I couldn’t have even dreamed up a night like this.”

“It was Johnny, she texted ahead and had the table set up for the halal thing but they had the other stuff set up too so fair is fair.”

“I’m not really used to that either.”

“That’s not right, but it’s also what we’re trying to do to.”

“Do?”

“The racists and the bullies and all the stuff that goes on without someone putting things into check…most of us here are just sick and tired of it and the games and people getting off on hurting other people it’s just enough really and it’s our rights to protest.”

“Some wouldn’t agree.”

“Lots don’t, I’ve no illusions that this will be easy.”

“No…but…” She bit her lip and looked at Jessie.

“But?”

“It has to stop somewhere, I was taught that everyone deserves a chance, a shot at being happy and free and safe.”

“You had a good imam.”

“Actually it’s stuff that my father said a lot.”

“He sounded like a good man.”

(Sniffle.) “He was…he was good enough that him…my mother they loved each other strong enough it went past race and religion.”

The song ended and she sniffled again and he looked at her and pulled her into a big tight hug.

And you know she really didn’t care if Jessie had breasts or that this was in public it was one of those tight its okay I got you hugs and it had been a long time.

She was still sniffling when he passed her off to Kenyon who danced with her as a good host but had started the dance with him continuing the hugs.

It hurt but in a good way because all the stuff she’d tied down and lashed down inside was coming loose and when all of the people that danced with her even some of the gay girls… started and ended each dance with a hug she was almost in tears.

Then Donnie was there again like he had been with the hoodie and he hugged her close and he danced them to a spot by the fence where they had a little more privacy since the lighting made it a little darker and he kissed her on the forehead.

“You okay?”

(Sniffle.) “Yes…no…both…”

“Too much?”

“No… (Sniffle.)…not enough before this…”

“Okay…need a shoulder?”

(Sniffle-sob.) “Pp..please?”

Donnie just adjusted the way he was holding Yasmine and he let her settle her head onto his shoulder and wrap her arms around him as tight as she needed too and he just slowly and gently danced with her as she was finally able to dump a lot of held back hurt and fear and pain.

As Queensryche played in the background *Silent Lucidity.*

She had heard the song before but it just seemed like it was a really good song to cry to. Yasmine smiled when she was done and the song was done and Donnie’s shirt was pretty soaked and it was just.

Was this was it should be like?

“I never thought I’d have a night like tonight Donnie.”

“Neither did I I’m not exactly some girl’s ideal.”

She grabbed a hold of something inside and she slipped her fingers into his and started walking them back to the main group of kids. Yasmine looked at him and she did mean it when she said after she stopped biting her lower lip nervously.

“Works for me.”

Praise be unto him she loved that way what she said made Donnie’s eyes widen in surprise and the little bit of light that kindled there.

She led him back to where they were doing karaoke and this very pretty if not surprising looking blonde asian girl started to do this amazing song and they and the others started dancing to it.

Twice.

*Lindsey…………

It was sort of funny to watch Brian go off and try to do whatever he was going to do to make things right with Johnny.

She really didn’t envy him.

She honestly wasn’t lying when she sort of said to the girls that she felt like a neuter. She was a girl and she was sort of “willowy” as her mom called it but she was skinny and that wasn’t a bad thing really but lacking serious curve she never felt girly.

Then again she was also pretty sure that she never felt like a guy either so…so apparently she was a Lindsey.

She had been sort of surprised at being asked to dance sort of by Dale the cute EMO chick. No not like sexy cute but like despite the whole one with the dead thingy they seemed to like she was actually..kind of cute.

Like a living little monster-high doll.

And she was kind of sort of girl enough that she alike d the dancing and she did like making Dale smile.

That felt better than the whole sexuality thing.

And it seemed to bring on the whole almost line up of girls wanting to dance with her?

Dammit did Johnny dress her up like some kind of lesbian thing? Was she like giving off some sort of signal that she wasn’t aware of?

The dancing was nice and it was fun and stuff but when she ended up dancing with Pen who she sort of knew and though was a pretty straight shooter if kind of one of the more raunchy and aggressive lesbian girls.

She looked Pen in the eyes as she felt Pen’s fingers find their way into her back pockets.

Pen just raised an inquiring eyebrow.

She did the same thing back. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Yes, I’m willing to sleep with you.”

Blink…blink…

“Okay…why?”

“Why what?”

“Why would you be willing to sleep with me? Why am I suddenly dancing with all these girls?”

Pen smiled but it was just a little smile. “One I’m joking hopefully I didn’t piss you off, that’s just me. I’m a flirt.”

“Okay, forgiven and thanks maybe I’ll learn something.”

“Thanks…okay and second you’re a girl…most of the girls here are lesbians and you and a few of the other girls here aren’t but it’s worth it to ask.”

“Why?”

“School and stuff there’s kind of a small dating pool and dancing with a cute girl even if it goes no where is still dancing with a cute girl.”

“I’m cute?’

“Oh hell yes, Lindsey you so have this thin guy girl thing that’s butch without even trying you just kind of have this…”

“This?”

“Hot guy if the hot guy was actually a girl?”

“Huh?”

“Uhm…girl in tidy whities and a jock strap with a sports bra thing.”

“Huh? Is that a good thing?’

“It is and it isn’t but it is with you because you are like that without even trying.”

“I…uhm…shit I have no idea what to say to something like that.”

Pen grinned at her and shrugged but actually moved her hands and rubbed Lindsey’s butt through her jeans. “Well how about you just enjoy it and worry about the rest later.”

“That’s easier said that done.”

“Well you could kiss me?”

“I could but I don’t actually know you enough Pen and while you are definitely in the list of people that I was going to date making out without knowing you better…not my deal.”

“So you’d date me?”

Lindsey pulled Pen’s fingers out of her back pockets and nodded stepping back. “Yes, I like that you’re honest…but you need to clean things up a lot more and ask me without your hands all over me.”

She kept walking backwards and it kind of gratifying to see Pen turning an embarrassed shade of red.

She sort of got a reprieve after that by dancing a few times with Kenyon and Jessie and then slipping over and pulling Danny to his feet as the karaoke started up.

*Danny...........

He just had to shout out the stuff when they had brought out the Big Gay Cake. White icing and rainbow chips in the cake and lots and lots of sprinkles and the colored candy sprinkles.

Kenyon was fast for a big guy it must be all that training for basketball. But Danny was a thirteenth level monk when it can to evading being chased by big guys.

Though he ran out of room when others in the crowd decided it’d look good if he ate cake by force.

So Kenyon caught him and showed cake in his face well his mouth and then some and sort of dipped him while doing it.

He grinned as the idea hit and he kissed Kenyon with an icingy kiss on the lips and grabbed an empty pop can and stomped it flat on the grass like a glass at a Jewish wedding.

“Moseltov!”

Kenyon blinked surprised and with icing on his face. “What!?”

“Its good practice for when you and your guy get married?”

“But that’s Jewish?”

Kenyon’s mother hollered out. “And he better be a doctor!”

“Mom!”

Jessie even jumped on the bandwagon too. “Oy vey the student loans I’ll have.”

“Jessie!”

It was fun, a lot of fun and there were a lot of laughs. Danny switched places with Jessie and had some cake while getting stared at by some of his usual role-playing gang.

It wasn’t stuff they’d really seen before and even the lesbian geek girls stared at him a little.

Geeks don’t do that stuff.

He smiled and shared his big slice of cake with Honey another out of genre thing. It was a really good night actually the best that he could remember and yeah….this year, this year things were going to be different.

The gaming was going really well and the players were actually starting to loosen up with each other and were having a good time and getting excited with making their characters and Honey was a lot of fun with that look that new players get when the are actually getting it.

Add in Nick and Sam and the group was actually getting pretty diverse just player wise and while it was going to be a lot bigger a group than what he was used to they had also come up with a really cool idea of how to do some of the role-playing aspects of things and that was making a Facebook page and that the players would post their backgrounds and stuff related to the GM posts or the Admin posts in between the times where they’d be able to actually get together and play.

It was actually Nick’s idea and he helped set it up but really it was cool as hell.

They all decided to take a break after that and get some food and dance. Well some of them were going to dance and some of them were going to most likely wallflower it.

Danny though, Danny was at least going to try to dance. The karaoke stuff started up and Lindsey surprisingly came right over and helped him up from where he was sitting.

“Dance with me Danny.”

He grinned. “Sure thing it’d be my honor.”

They slipped into hand and hand and danced as some people sang and some weren’t that bad. Lindsey looked at him. “Your honor huh?”

“Absoltively, I always enjoy dancing with a pretty girl.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not one of the pretty girls.”

He could tell she was a bit on edge with it or something was going on and he grinned up at her. “You’re prettier than my hand.”

“Eww…Danny TMI!” But she was laughing and that was the whole idea.

“So…what’s with the whole relieved look you had with dancing with me?”

“You’re not a girl.”

“Being a girl doesn’t seem that bad y’know.”

“No, it’s not that but it’s just I’m not used to doing any of this and it’s been kinda a Lindsey is the fresh meat flavor of the evening thing with some of the lesbian girls.”

“Oh so I’m safe?”

“No…I’d never be so insulting Danny. I was getting estrabombed and I needed a dose of testosterone and you are the manliest of guys here.”

“I’m not sure if I’m offended by that or not.”

“I didn’t mean it as an insult but why would you say that?”

“Because there’s times I’m not sure that I’m all that much of a guy other than biologically.”

“Oh…like Johnny?”

“No…maybe…I’ve always kinda wondered but it was kind of also stuffed back in the things I’m not sure that I want to dig up part of my brain.”

“Hey if it helps I have not idea how to sort of be a girl either.”

“Really?”

“Really, seriously there are things that my gender does and supports that just make my brain go huh?”

He laughed because with her huh she did it like Tim Allen and it was literally the first time in his life that he heard that kind of sound come out of a girl.

He looked at Lindsey. “We’re kind of a weird pair then.”

“Yeah actually but I’m good with it Danny I actually like you.”

“You like me?” He blinked at her a bit and he blushed. He had never had someone tell him that like that before.

“Yeah actually whoever you feel like or are under all our teenaged crap we’ve got you’re actually one of the good one’s.”

“Aaaww…Linds.” He blushed but smiled. “Shucks you’re going to give me a big head.”

She looked at him and he looked up at her and she had this different look there and she smiled. “Danny?”

“Yes maam?” He grinned.

“Go out with me?”

“Uhm…are you sure?”

“Yeah…actually we’re both sort of in neutral…right? Sort of caught in ourselves?”

Semi depression, insomnia, a brain that didn’t shut off and the fear that he might be bi-polar and having sort of gender expression thoughts…yeah caught in one’s self was a good way to put it.

He looked in her eyes and nodded. “Yeah, that’s kind of us.”

“Then we’re not going to freak each other out too bad with stuff and we can just…I don’t know just give it a shot and be ourselves?”

“Okay…yes, definitely yes.” He was smiling but actually shyly…under a lot of that humor and bravado there was a scared person just…yeah just caught in themself. He looked at her and she seemed kind of nervous showing some of herself there with him.

Him the die hard geek that he wore like a shield and her the wallflower that was afraid to step out of the girl zone of stuff that she didn’t get….it made sense really how can you just be like the other kids when you’re not like the other kids.

You fake it.

He was kind of tired of faking it no matter how good he was at it.

It just might be nice.

*Honey…………

She hadn’t had this much fun in her life and while she had been scared a little at first with Jessie and the friends she did have here it quickly got better and very, very outside of anything she’d known.

She hid, she had always hid who she was ever since she’d blossomed and tonight she looked good, she dressed with Johnny’s advice and it had been her mom’s help too and she felt safe…safe to be pretty without getting cut down for it by those bitchy girls.

She had danced for awhile and it was fun and she’d actually danced with everyone and anyone who had asked her to whether she was dancing with her friends or with guys or some of the gay guys or girls or some of the lesbian girls.

Okay some of the gay guys were funny and some of the lesbian girls were.

Okay she had no idea that lesbian girls came in shy.

She sort of knew but those kinds of girls weren’t the lesbian girls you ever saw in anything.

She actually sort of caught the eyes of a few she was pretty sure had been looking at her in that more than a girl checking out another girl way.

She had been there so many times herself and not even there since she’d pretty much had even stopped going to dances at her old school and biting her cheek for a bit of courage and a few nods from Jessie and her friends she actually walked up to some of these shy girls and asked them to dance.

There was this feeling that you can get sometimes when you completely surprise someone with something good….Yeah Honey had found that was the case with these girl too and gender and sexuality wasn’t such a big deal as was actually just being close and having some fun and just being human.

Though straight she still took the phone numbers that some had offered and gave out her numbers to some of the girls that had asked her. To her there wasn’t any harm in making new friends even if these girls liked girls.

She’d been without them for too long.

It was just so much fun and Danny with the birthday Gay-day song made people laugh which was one of the things that she was really starting to love about him and even the way he’d ditch Kenyon by pulling this dead stop or sudden change of direction and he even “Meeped.” Like the Road Runner.

It was almost as funny as what he did once he got caught and even Jessie chiming in with his dry sense of fun made the thing so special.

But after all the fun and the dancing getting into this make believe gaming stuff had been a nice break and she even got to meet a whole other bunch of the kids at her school. And she had to admit the thought of just playing a game where you could step out of yourself and be someone else definitely had its appeal.

And then the karaoke started up and she went back out to listen and to take a few turns herself.

And that girl, that Selena…okay with the asian girl with the platinum blonde died hair stood out a whole lot even with this crowd cook she ever just sing and that song…she’d never heard it before and she couldn’t help but to ask her to sing it again.

Someone else got up there and was singing *Midnight train to Georgia.* pretty well and she felt a touch to her arm and she looked over to see that girl smiling at her.

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

“I’m Selena.”

“Uhm…I’m Honey.”

“Thanks for asking me to repeat on the song it was a nice confidence boost.”

“Oh! No problem you are a really good singer.”

“Thank you, so would I be out of line if I asked you to dance?”

“No, I like to dance that’d be nice.”

Honey let Selena take her hands and they sipped into a nice slow dance as someone was singing *Listen to your heart.* By Roxette and she found herself sort of drifting closer and closer with this strangely exotic Asian girl.

Selena smelled like flowers that she didn’t know it was a perfume she never smelled before and her eyes were so very blue which she wasn’t sure was normal or not but…she wasn’t wearing a lot of make-up and she had this sweet shy sort of smile and then…

Oh…

Then they were dancing literally breast to breast and…and…oh what was going on?

*Jessie…………

The party had shifted over to karaoke and dancing after a lot of fun and the guys…Nick and Sam doing the DJ thing. He’d really had a good time so far and they had a lot of laughs too which was a nice change for Jess when it came to things with school was concerned.

He still knew things weren’t just going to be resolved easily because he was pretty sure that some of the parents of the ones that liked to bully others and throw their weight and status around learned it from somewhere and they would give everyone a whole lot of grief at the school board meeting.

He still had ideas for that too…

The dancing was still going on and there were actually a few decently talented kids there singing things and he smiled and went back to dancing with Kenyon.

“This actually turned out to be a pretty great night when you cut out all the drama and stuff from earlier.”

Kenyon nodded. “I’m very pleasantly surprised and I’m damned grateful because this could have been so much worse.”

“Yes but your folks are cool and they love you.”

“Yeah, I know it’s going to take some getting used to.”

“Hey, they’ll deal.”

“Actually I was talking about me.”

“Okay…”

“Jessie, I really like you and in a way that is pretty damned scary to me as much as it’s exciting.”

“I feel the same way you know.”

“You do? You just see so with it?”

“I like who I’ll like and I’m at the point where I just am not going to feel shamed by who I am…life’s too short.”

“Yeah…”

Kenyon sort of had this lazy kind of happy smile going on and Jessie smiled too and leaned into Kenyon’s chest and felt all that body heat from his big frame sinking into him and really making him aware of his breasts…he felt his nipples harden and Kenyon take a inhale at him feeling those against him through his shirt and there were other signs of how much this was “good.” for both of them.

They kept it tight and close through the dances with not a lot of kisses but a couple…Jessie was pretty sure though after the fifth that it wasn’t something that he minded and it was kind of enjoyable being the one being kissed.

Okay it was a little fast but so were the hormones racing through their systems.

Right now everyone was safe and happy and they had a good night.

This, everyone deserved to have this…this was one of those nights that was worth fighting for.

He settled in a little deeper and just watched everyone having fun while they danced.

It wasn’t fair that there were kids left out of this…alone, home scared and hurt no friends or in shitty home lives or just…too shy to brave the bullshit that’d get if they tried to step out from the crowd and not be one of the sheep.

Kenyon’s parent called out. “It’s getting late kids and we should get you home before midnight!”

Danny made some crack about Cinderfelly and pumpkins that had people laughing but the party was winding down and he had people to drive home.

He looked at Kenyon and smiled. “I have to drive people home, but I’ll be back to help clean up?”

Kenyon smiled and shook his head. “It’ll be late enough and you’ve got to help your folks with the yard work and the stuff for the BBQ tomorrow.”

“Okay…I’ll see you then?”

“Definitely, so what do you want to do on our date tomorrow night?”

“Surprise me.”

“Oh, well since I have so much experience with gay dating of course you’re leaving it to me.”

“Kenyon…it’s just dating I don’t think that sexual orientation changes it that much.”

“Okay…okay but why is it up to me?”

Jessie grinned and walked backwards and smiled in that sexy smoky guy way…Kenyon had no idea how you could sexy swagger in reverse but Jessie was doing it.

“Because I trust you.”

“Oh…”

He blushed as Jessie got his coat and him (Jessie) and Donnie and Johnny left with Yasmine to run her home first.

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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Squires 22

*Yasmine…………

She wasn’t as nervous now at the end of the night when Jessie went and got their car and drove her home. Donnie went with then and they…they actually sort of held hands. Daniel and the tall slender girl Lindsey took a ride with them but asked to be let out part way.

Jessie asked. “Are you sure guys it’s late.”

Daniel nodded. “I’ll give you a call if I need a ride but this is Lindsey’s street and we’re just going to walk and talk the rest of the way.”

He nodded and they let them out at the four way stop.

They drove the rest of the way to her home and Jessie got out with them and she blinked at both boys. Donnie smiled at her but he had that head sort of tilted down blushing thing too. “Jess thought it’d be good manners for us to introduce ourselves to your mother.”

“Oh…yes I think even with the hour that she’d like that. But I...I should go in first so she’s presentable…”

Jessie nodded. “Of course we’ll wait here by the car.”

She blushed and headed into the house and she saw her mother there looking out their kitchen window. “How was the party?”

“It…it was good, there were lots of kids there and they…Mom they had a table set up with stuff that I or any of the other Muslim kids could eat.”

“There were other muslin kids there?”

“Not that I could tell some looked mixed and there wasn’t anyone there dressed Muslim but they still tried.”

“That’s very nice of them I will have to thank them.”

“Uhm…Jessie and Donnie are here waiting.”

“Waiting for?”

“They wanted to be polite and introduce themselves to you.”

“And they are the one’s that defended you?”

“Yes…both of them.”

“Invite them in I will get dressed and we’ll have coffee if they drink it seeing how late it is.”

“Okay…living room?”

“That’s fine.”

Her mother got up to go and change but stopped in the kitchen doorway. “Yas.”

“Yes mom?”

“I’m really glad that you had a good time.”

“Me too mom I’m glad that I went, I was pretty scared moving here with what we heard and everything.”

“See it’s not that bad.”

“No…mom it is that bad but on the other hand its way better than I ever could’ve hoped for really.”

Her mother smiled and headed upstairs and she went out to where the guys were sitting on the front of Jessie’s car and just talking. She sort of liked how despite Jessie owning a sort of classic car that it was just something he owned and he treated it like that. She actually had seen people sit on their car hoods in TV and movies never actually in real life.

“My mother said that she’d like to meet you guys and told me to ask you to come in for coffee. She looked at them both, I mean if you drink coffee we have tea and cocoa as well I mean.”

Donnie smiled at her…maybe even for her a little. “Coffee’s fine…I don’t drink it too much but its cool.”

Jess nodded. “Coffee would be a good idea.”

They headed inside and Jessie and Donnie both stopped on the porch and too off their shoes. Donnie looked a little confused but she took their shoes and set them on the boot rest. Not all families did this but Jess must have seen that they did and it was nice that he did and that Donnie did too…she was kind of thinking that she…it would be a good thing for her mother to see how nice that both of them were.

She actually sort of smiled and bit her lower lip while putting their shoes up. I have nice friends.

Then of course…Wait…I…I actually have friends. Yasmine blushed even if at the moment that it was only herself there. It had been a long time since she had friends and even though she had just met these people there’s times where the lines are pretty well defined.

Actually she mused she hadn’t really had that either, honesty in friendships. Well the last time she’s really had honesty in her friendships she was a little kid.

She saw her mother come down in a skirt and a cardigan over her shirt she was wearing and her hijab on again and slippers to meet the men at the door.

Men…she really wasn’t sure suddenly how her mother would treat Jessie since Jessie’s top didn’t really hide his breasts but her mom never missed a beat except to smile when Jessie thanked her for her hospitality in Arabic and asked her where he and Donnie could wash up.

She went into the kitchen with her mother to help.

The coffee wasn’t anything special just Folgers since her mother liked that deep voiced country guy and it was on sale. A lot of non-middle easterners think that they drink tons of coffee in the Middle East when tea is by far the first choice of things brewed and served.

But a lot of house holds did pride themselves on their hospitality so her mother shooed her off to be there when the men were done cleaning up. She saw her mother take out some of the tins from the pantry closet and she took them from her to help and let her mother bring in the coffee.

She was still sort of nervous in setting the things out an her mother was actually being very nice to the men and pouring coffee while Yasmine set out squares of halva on a dishes with some apricot filled pastries and some pistachio creame iced shortbreads.

She had to admit even though they did eat sweets a lot her mother was a great baker.

Her mother looked at the boys once everything was settled and sat politely. “Is everything okay boys?”

“It’s very good Ma’am.” Donnie says but he’s on his second piece of halva. Then looking at it. “I don’t have a clue what this is but it’s really good.”

Jessie nods. “Really good, all of it ladies. I should take the moment to ask if you’d both be willing to come to my parent’s home for a barbeque and to take the time to discus the parent teachers meeting on Monday night.”

Yasmine’s mother sat up looking interested. “If this is to help protect Yasmine and the other children then I will be honored to go.” She smiled and poured more coffee for Jessie when she offered and herself after Donnie shook his head no.

“Good, we’ll be sure to have an inclusive amount of food too.”

“Yasmine mentioned the efforts at the party tonight. It’s very good of you but if you would not mind I could help.”

“Anything would be great.”

“Good, then Yasmine and I will come over early then?”

“I’ll have my parents call you in the morning with the details?”

“Yes, I would like very much to talk to your parents. I would like to invite you two gentlemen and your friend Daniel here and the others as a way of thanks.”

She looked at Donnie. “I will understand your father being absent. Your mother?”

“She’s not with us anymore Ma’am.”

“I’m sorry; can I assume you’ll be with Jessie’s household?”

He looked at Jessie who nodded. “If that’s okay?”

She nodded and looked at Yasmine. “Sometimes you have to choose your family.”

Yasmine looked at her, she had chosen her and here and taking this chance over all of their strict relatives and their ideas of what was right for them. She bit her lip and smiled a little and saw Donnie smiling at her a little too.

Jessie enjoyed another few bits of sweets before offering a slip of paper. “My information ma’am.”

“Oh?”

“I noticed you don’t have a car.”

“Ah no, I’m in process of getting my license.”

“Well until then please call if you need a drive and I can do my best to help out.”

“That’s a big offer Jessie but why? I mean no offense but you don’t know us.”

“Because I can ma’am.”

She smiled and nodded like she was doing one of those old styled nod bows of respect that Yasmine’s mother’s generation did once in awhile. Yasmine sort of smiled because as subtle as it was that was a big gesture.

It also meant that she approved of her friends.

They talked awhile longer mostly about the school and stuff of which Donnie being the local kid was filling them in on the things like the sort of hierarchy and the way that that things have been.

Until now.

*Donnie…………

He took a third piece of that really good fudge and took a sip of his cold half cup of coffee. Not that he couldn’t have more it’s just really he wasn’t a coffee drinker, not like Jessie.

They wanted him to explain things the way that they were at the school sort of…and since he was local and went to the junior high in the immediate area instead of getting shipped in the high school thing was sort of just and extension of what he had left back then.

“Okay…first thing is I’m not big on the whole stuff with the homecoming court except the new kids like Brian and Britney, they’re in our year. The ones ahead of us I only know about a few of them.”

“The homecoming court though they’re pretty much the leader of The Alpha’s.”

Yasmine’s mother asked. “Who are the Alphas?”

Jessie looked at her. “They’re the kids that have set the tone for the school; they’re the rich kids and the popular ones. And they want to stay on top and they use every rule and law and prejudice people have to keep things that way.”

Yasmine’s mother frowned but nodded and took another sip to listen.

“The Alpha’s are just the jocks but they are the rich kids or the well off ones that get away with stuff because their parents or their families even are tight with people connected to the school or school board and stuff and they donate a lot of money to the school.”

“Lee Davis is a great example, he’s right there in the middle with a year to go after this. It’s his dad that pushed to get the camera idea banned at schools in the district. Lee’s not just wealthy with his old man owning a bunch of car dealerships and carwashes and a bunch of other things but his dad pretty much foots the bills for the gear and uniforms for the cheer squads and the baseball and wrestling team. Lee’s on both those teams but he’s still a bully and an ass….sorry ladies. He’s rich and entitled and to make things worse he was junior prom king last year.”

Jessie nodded. “We haven’t had the pleasure yet have we?”

“Nope, he’s too busy so far kissing Brad Towers butt.”

Yasmine. “Who’s Brad Tower?”

“Last year’s Prom king and he’s the total jock package. Good looking and he knows it and he’s well off coming from like old money or something and They donate stuff to the school like money for prom and yearbook the student paper and just about everything. He’s on the student council and he plays sports like outside of the big ones at school and here he’s on the karate team.”

Jessie looked at him. “Karate’s popular here?”

“Nope, wasn’t until Bradley got into it and suddenly they were flush for funding and stuff.”

Jessie. “But none of the jock sports.”

“Nope, he’s friends with them all though and they kiss his ass for team money and stuff and their scared of him because he’s a black belt and stuff.”

Jessie. “And he’s another one we haven’t met yet.”

Donnie nodded. “Brad’s the black haired big guy that you see sitting at the far back of where The Alpha’s sit. They sort of put all their followers and butt-kissers out on the edges the closest that you are to the back wall where the pep rally banners go up the higher you are in the social rankings.”

Yasmine’s mother. “And the boys that took Yasmine’s Hijab?”

Jessie. “Pretty close to the front, but that was like they were showing off for the others.”

Donnie. “Definitely, they’re like a gang almost you show how much better you are than everyone else by the stuff you can do and get away with mixed with the people that think that what you did was cool…they keep track too.”

Yasmine ducked her head her cheeks still burning from what had happened earlier…it…it was just something in her world that you just didn’t do. (Sniffle.) “Still thank you both for standing up to them for me and… (Looks at Donnie.)…and for letting me use your hoodie.”

Donnie blushed. “Yasmine it…it was just the right thing to do. I mean I don’t know anything about the whole Muslim thing but I do know that it’s a smack against your religion. I mean you should thank Jessie because he was the first guy up and he washed it for you.”

Yasmine’s mother looked at Jessie. He shrugged. “Because we could ma’am.”

Donnie nodded. “Standing by and watching stuff’s almost as bad as doing it yourself.”

Yasmine’s mother smiled at both of them. “Here I send my daughter to a school full of boys and girls her age to learn and now she has introduced me to two fine young men.”

Donnie blushed some more he had been pretty odd sort of like Jessie in a different way but he’d been odd enough that getting treated like a good guy was…it was rare. Usually the most he could hope for was being ignored or just a sort of don’t care neutrality he got from his skate friends and some of the gamers like Dan and them.

Jessie was nodding. “I suppose we’ll see just who’s who and such when Monday night comes.”

It’s Yasmine’s mother that nodded this time. “Yes if these Alpha’s do not show in force then you will likely see their parents.”

Donnie added. “Or their lawyers or all of it.”

Jessie nodded. “We upset the apple cart and all the rotten ones are exposed now and they want to cover those up before people see how bad it is.”

Yasmine. “How bad is it?”

Jessie looked at her and her mother. “Honestly it’s almost as bad here as some of the worst schools around here with gang violence. People might not see it because they can’t but the bullying, the verbal and emotional terrorism it kills…and those it doesn’t kill it maims, scars people for life. And when you look at how many people come out of it with problems when this should be a place where they can learn and become who they should be…its bad Yasmine. I’m going to have a rough enough time just being me without all of them trying to make it worse…and I’m just me. There’s a lot more people out there that needs someone to do something and if no one else will do it…?”

Donnie nodded and bumped fists with Jessie. “Yeah, because we can.”

Jessie nodded. “Because we can.”

Yasmine bit her lip and she leaned in sort of scared but she did look the boys in the eyes. “Because we can.” And she bumped her fist in with theirs.

Yasmine’s mother smiled and after a drink of her coffee said. “So say we all.”

Yasmine looked at her. “Mom…?”

“What? It is a very good show.”

………………………………….Donnie liked the woman and she was as smart as her daughter he found and had a nice sense of humor and even better she had sent the boys off with the tins of the things that she had baked for Jessie’s house and even better still.

Yasmine had gave him a hug before they left…it was tentative and stuff but he could also tell that it was different than the hug that she had given Jessie.

Man he really wanted to kiss her.

They drove back to Kenyon’s place to see about drives and helping with the cleaning up and stuff.

*Kenyon…………

Even as some people were leaving and it being sort of late it was still blowing his mind what had happened.

He didn’t just finally realized that he was gay and instead of trying to hide it he just…well he met Jessie and there really wasn’t a whole lot of choice in staying in the closet after that. He just liked Jessie a whole lot more than being in the closet and being out…well it wasn’t nearly as bad as he thought it was.

Jessie and the rest of his friends though were highly responsible for this.

His phone kept blowing up (That’s ringing slang.) and he had to go and shut it off from all of the updates to his FB page and the personal messages that he was getting…and…wow…there were some messages that were pretty racy and some that were date offers.

Then there was this whole host thing that he had combined with hugs and shaking hands sometimes and giving away leftovers for people to take with them. There were a lot of people there that he had no clue who they were and some of them were so “alternative” they made the drama clubbers and the goth types look pretty normal

“How in heck can I be this popular as a gay guy versus a straight guy?”

Nick looked at him from where he was sitting behind his ever present laptop. “Y..you..you don’t ll..llook gay…you’re ra..ra..regular guy.”

“So breaking the stereotype?”

Nick nodded.

“But I’m kinda a jock.”

Nick did that so-so hand gesture.

Well he was right, he actually hadn’t made a team yet and while he had worked out really hard to look good it was still mostly for basketball more than that.

Nick did this all around them hand gesture then a thumbs up.

“It was a good party wasn’t it?”

Nick nodded had a look then he typed into his phone and it said. “Yes…and the first party of the year and the very first LGBT party in the history of the school.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really…Sam told me. Right now you’re like gay royalty.”

Kenyon laughed. “Great I’m a queen already.”

Both snickered and instead of just the handshakes and hugs and stuff he was doing to the people leaving as host he introduced then to Nick and Sam. Sam was very good at being the cheerful deaf person and he even could talk pretty well as long as you didn’t judge and took the time to listen.

And he was funny too with lots of jokes and even some really filthy ones.

Nick was blushing a lot and actually would’ve been hunkered down behind his computer if Sam would have let him.

But his friends…they were all here helping to clean up except for Jessie who was running Yasmine home and Dan who’d left with Lindsey who had gotten tired of being fresh ground girl-burger for the hungry lesbians.

Brian and Johnny where going around with garbage bags doing the recycling and having a mini-date thing kinda sort of.

And his dad…his dad had been great and he even stayed out of the drinks. Not that he was a drunk but he went dry tonight so he could do what he was doing now and offering bunches of the kids that came here drives home from the party.

He could tell that having a parent that wasn’t all judgy and stuff was a kind of new thing to some of these kids.

He smiled and went over to cut some more cake and wrap them up in cling wrap and saw the blonde Asian girl there trying a piece.

“You’re Selina…right?”

*Selina…………

She had come back here almost two weeks ago and she had pretty much on purpose stayed away from her old life and her old haunts. Last year everything inside had come to a head and she couldn’t fake it anymore.

She’d been dating Paul Reed a handsome guy and the right winger for the hockey team. Decent looking and tall…really tall and a good player and pretty well off too with his dad a bank guy he was a package and with them going and taking State that year in varsity hockey for their schools ranking he was just about perfect.

Just about.

And her life was all about perfect.

Like a lot of Asian kids even the ones that were mixed race there was this whole thing of needing to be “perfect.” Her mother was Dominican and her dad was Korean and local Korean and they had a pretty good family history of success…but when her dad got her mom pregnant and then actually married her he’d disgraced them and him so it was sort of this huge pressure thing to get back into the family good graces. Heck she wasn’t even the first kid that they had there was five of them and she was the baby…and all of the Huang kids were good at something and she had sibs in both medical and law school.

So the pressure was on and she had to start in school…Cheer and yearbook, choir and track then the “good boyfriend” and then to become prom queen which she did and they both had won…but Paul was one of those guys and he wanted her all the time and she had evaded the whole thing about them having sex the whole year.

She had given him hand jobs and blow jobs that made her sick afterwards and…well honestly Johnny started it…

Johnny Douglas the first transgendered…strike that the first openly transgendered girl in their school and when Johnny had transferred in Selina had tried her damnedest to dislike her, to hate on her like the rest of the “In crowd” but it didn’t take her heart wasn’t into it.

Mostly because Johnny just existing sparked this to herself little bedroom fantasy than had he fingers busy and wandering down…and lots of times with her face in her pillow.

Not that she was brave enough to ever say a single word to Johnny though…she’d been so scared of what she was feeling…and then when her dreams went from Johnny to a fully functional girl…and after that Courtney Long one of her friends in the group she was completely horrified she was gay.

And shame kept her in the closet until prom night.

When Paul had taken her to the after party and she had been drunk and so had a lot of the other girls and she had been that drunk that she hit that wall of self reservation and stuff that usually keeps you from doing something dumb and she kissed Courtney…in the kitchen by the fridge and with people there doing the stuff with the kegs and watching…

It’d been a really good kiss though.

She supposed that at first Court was all lets do the “hot” thing in front of the guys and all of that and then when hands started to roam.

It was Heather Sweet the homecoming princess that said. “Holy fuck guys…Look…Sel’s a dyke.”

She’d been that hammered, just…so…she had her hand on Courtney’s crotch and after Heather said that there was this look in her eyes like…like she hated her and bit her just a little in the kiss before pulling away and yelling at her.

“Eeew Fuck! She had her hand on my cooch!”

It all just blew up after that and there was verbal stuff and shoves and Paul threw her out of his house physically and she fell in the pool and she had to swim to the other side while he screamed and berated her for leading him on and stuff.

She’d quit school after that just unable to face them and the rest and she had to give back the crown and they gave it to Heather.

And from what she heard heather landed Bradley Tower after that and Courtney became Princess and was dating Paul…

In less than a week.

By the end of that week she was rushed to the hospital after taking an overdose.

To be fair…though her family surprised her by not dumping her. Oh her grandparents her Korean ones were a bit surprised but they were okay with it or her grandmother was saying to her grandfather that “This is America. Our children should be free.”

Apparently she had a cousin that went through hell as a lesbian back then who just shut up and put up with being in an arranged marriage and popping out kids until she couldn’t take it any more and left in the middle of the night and just went to the train tracks and laid there until the train came.

It was a sad thing to here.

And it turned out that she wasn’t the first gay or lesbian grandchild in the family there were like three cousins that had come out too that she never heard about and that helped soften the blow.

And now she was back after being away for the summer.

She had gone to her cousin Peter’s place in Orlando and he was one of the gay kids older than her with his own place and she stayed down there getting some perspective…finding out just who Selina really was and even hooked up and had a girlfriend…well more of a first hook up and a steady for the last few weeks but it was her first embracing of herself.

And now she was back and getting moved back into her parents house but a new room in the back of the house that had been a boarding room of sorts from when the family that sold it to them lived there.

New hair, some piercings and she had even gotten some ink too while she was away. A peach orchid a medium sized one just under her navel to go along with her navel piercing.

She knew things were going to be totally different but she hadn’t expected this.

Misha Brooks or “Monk” one of her FB friends had sent her the addy for the party here and it was an LGBT party? She met up with her sort of punker friend and they came here and was a little stunned at the scene and at the fact she recognized at least some of the kids here.

Monk took off to hit on some really cute thin looking semi-butch girl and she wandered until she found the whole karaoke set up.

She still loved singing and choir was something she had been good at and she took her turn and then she met….

Honey…

She was pretty sure that the girl had never danced with another girl before but she had been here at this party and she seemed both shy and open and sweet but funny too all at the same time.

And she was really beautiful.

Which said a lot since being down in the LGBT scene in Florida she’d seen lots of great looking girls and she was one of them when she was in the “in” crowd her too back then but she’d never ran into a girl like Honey.

Selina moved to one of the tables where there was still some food and she got a piece of cake while she was still sort of flush from the happy yay sort of feeling she had from dancing with the girl.

The host was there talking to people and giving out stuff to the kids that were leaving and stuff.

“Great party, I hope you didn’t mind me crashing it.”

He looked at her. “Not at all, it was one of those things that just kind of snowballed so the more the merrier.”

“I get the snowball thing, glad it didn’t go the wrong direction.”

“Me too. I’m Kenyon.”

She took his hand when he offered it and they shook. He didn’t fit the gay boy trope. Cute looking but not overly handsome, not all femmy or even all metrosexualized. There was a lot of that in the gay community guys that were way too much into the whole cosmetics and getting plucked and pampered and sort of came across after awhile like they were something…well queer kind of fit really well.

He looked pretty Joe average cute.

“I’m Selina.”

“Oh I know people have been talking about you since you showed up.”

“Sorry.” She took a mouthful of cake but sort of mournfully.

He turned to sort of lean on the table but beside her. “Hey not a big deal, not like some of them are making it out to be.”

“I wasn’t a nice person Kenyon I was a cunt to a lot of people back then.”

“Yep, I heard that too but I only know the girl here eating cake and watching one of my friends helping to clean up.”

“Honey’s really nice.”

“She’s been through some stuff; she’s been on the receiving end of some of the whole Alpha bullshit.”

“Alpha’s?”

“It’s our word for the whole popular crowd you used to run with.”

“Oh…I kind of get that too, with them thinking that they’re better than everyone else.”

“Yeah…they like to think that but too bad reality doesn’t agree with them.”

“Really?”

“Yep, there’s a lot of people tired of taking their shit so we’re not.”

“You know they won’t stand for that right?”

“Oh I know and it’s not going to matter Selina.”

“Why not?”

“See they’re bullies, and just like bullies everywhere they don’t do so well when people won’t take it and even less when there’s witnesses. They’re really brave when no one can prove that they’re really the assholes they really are.”

“You guys are with that website thing I heard about?”

“Not really but I use it. If I see someone being a douche then I’ll get it on phone of I’m not there in the middle of it.”

“In the middle of it?”

“Yeah, they’re not as scary as they think they are.”

“And what if they outnumber you guys?”

“Well we try and not let that happen, the buddy system helps a lot but it also helps that we’re smarter than them.”

“Smarter?”

“Smarter.” That came from someone walking up.

She saw this cute girl? Come over and get a pop and smile at him and they hugged in a way that…she did a double take and those boobs looked as real as hers and while the guy was sort of baby faced her was definitely still a guy…there was no tucking there.

“Hi…I’m Selina.” She stuck her fork in her cake and offered her hand. They took it and shook her hand and smiled. It was sort of a sexy kind of smile…that little bit quirky and sideways kind. “Jessie Stone.”

“Nice to meet you but smarter?”

“Numbers but we’re going to go with some other stuff too besides the camera phone thing.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve been thinking about strategy.”

“Strategy?”

“Bullying is a lot like any other assault, one I think that we should get whistles like rape whistles when something fishy starts going on we don’t wait…blow it and get the attention of people and the security guys will come running.”

“They could buy them too.”

“True but it’ll still work and the super macho assholes won’t use them.”

“Okay, I’ll give you that there’s no way some of those guys will do anything to injure their he-man status.”

“Exactly it’s a weapon most of them won’t use.”

“So what else?”

“Parents.”

“Parents won’t do much most don’t care or they’re on the side of the Alpha’s.”

“Well that’s kind of true there are good parents out there too but a lot of kids don’t say stuff to them. I’m of the opinion that we make it the business of the parents whether they like it or not.”

“Huh?” That was from her and Kenyon.

“I have the school mailing and contact lists.”

She looked at Jessie. “You’ll be in trouble if you’re caught with that.”

“I know but it’s worth it.”

“So what will you do with that?”

“Send them e-mails and letters. When stuff is going on that’s really douchey and looks like it’s going to get avoided or swept under we use a computer somewhere else and we send letters and stuff to them about it. Sooner or later it’ll be that parents are going to get pissed off that this is happening and even the ones that are too self involved to do stuff for their kids will get involved because we’re sticking the bullshit in their faces.”

Selina laughed. “So they’ll get pissed and involved just to get us off their backs in a way.”

“Exactly and then you have the parents that went through the same shit when they were in school getting reminded and then there’s the good parents getting even more pissed and you’ll get some involved simply because of peer pressure from the other parents.”

She looked at him. “You’re waging a war?”

He looked at her so intensely he gave her chills. “We’re the ones that have been taking the casualties Selena.”

He was right…

She was on the other side of this and he was right.

She set her cake aside and offered her hand again. “Can I help?”

He shook her hand again and looked her in the eyes. “Welcome to the rebel forces.”

She looked back at him and smiled. “It’s going to be a memorable year.”

*Honey…………

She couldn’t help but to listen to Kenyon talking to Selina and then Jessie and she smiled and at the same time just hearing about that stuff had her pulse beating.

Casualties.

When he said that she got the Jessie chills.

Like how he’d been when he carried her from the parking lot.

It wasn’t anywhere near a sexual thing either it was just Jessie just came out with stuff and said things as they were or at least as he saw them and a lot of the time he was right.

She was one of those casualties. She had the scars and hurts inside to prove it too and so did a lot of people too and she had almost been one of the more permanent victims too…if Jessie hadn’t been such a good driver she might have…

And then there was being here at this party they had set up and the look on some of the people here at just this party even happening.

She knew there were places the kids went to sometimes and that there were some of those places that were pretty bad news too with booze and drugs and stuff too. Having a normal and safe place to dance and have a party had been pretty big and combine that with Kenyon’s coming out and his folks being publically good with all of this and the kids seeing it.

She got why her mom was a nurse now. It was so not the money thing but getting involved and helping people.

Having actually been part of something.

She looked over at Selina.

She was very surprised at the way that she made her feel. Honestly she would have said even with all the touching and the hugs and the dancing with other girls she’d done tonight if she was going to feel something she would have.

And she wasn’t freaked out too much from the female attention either from some of the more forward girls.

But when she saw Selina there and the way she looked was pretty exotic and stuff she had to admit that she was very attractive.

And when she sang though…

Soft and sweet and powerful all at the same time and it made her feel flushed just watching her.

She just had to ask her to sing it again.

And then…after when Selina asked her to dance.

She didn’t get the lesbian thing or she didn’t think that she did. But she felt very pretty and very girl while they were dancing…like when she was dancing with Brian and she felt that zip of dancing with a hot buff straight guy…yes she could definitely like him but Johnny had dibbed his heart she was pretty sure but….

To have another girl give her that zip feeling.

And the way she was with Jessie, she was…

“You like?”

She jumped and eeped and turned and it was Johnny.

“Uhm…”

“You’ve been seriously staring at her.”

“I know…god. Johnny I think I’m gay for her.”

“Gay for her?”

“Well I still like guys…I mean Brian’s…” She just gestured where he was tying off bags of the recycling.

Johnny looked over and had this look on her face and this silly and very girly smile. “Yeah…he is…”

“Johnny she’s the same way.”

“Same way?”

“Uh-huh…there’s just this zip there.”

“Oh…well zip’s important.”

Honey nodded and snuck another look at her and bit her lower lip. “Johnny I don’t know what to do?”

“How much zip?”

“How much?”

“Yeah from like a scale of one to ten.”

She looked at Johnny. “I was actually thinking she’s kind of like Sailor Venus.”

“Oh…that’s kind of…are you dressing her up in that costume?!”

Honey blushed really badly. “Maybe.”

*Johnny…………

It had really been one of the best nights in her life.

Definitely her life.

God when Brian danced with her and then when he flirted and then all the drama in the bathroom.

She was never so sure about her feelings and her choice.

Yes she was making a choice and it kind of got her miffed at the people that think that people with GID just make the decision out of the blue or something equally stupid. Truth was there were days that she didn’t feel all that girly.

She usually hated those days since they seriously messed with her head unless it was one of those get away days. When John would make the rare appearance and she would just be sort of not really recognizable by the kids around and she could just be unnoticed and not be Johnny the tranny.

Brian tonight though and no offence to Dan who she to be honest still liked too but tonight Brian being so much a real stand up guy and handsome and caring and tolerant.

He made her feel her baby parts.

And yes girls like her felt stuff like that every bit as much as regular girls did.

Even just helping to clean up after the party was awesome. Just sort of wandering around and she took the blue bag and he had the green one since it could be yicky and they just talked.

“Brian thanks.”

“Okay, for?”

“Going in there to the bathroom and coming after me.”

“I thought I was supposed to.”

“Well yeah I’m a girl…we all want the guy to come after us.”

He rolled his eyes. “Well at least you admit it.”

She smiled and hip bumped him casually making him miss a reach for a paper plate with stuff on it. “Well you’re supposed to know this stuff.”

He laughed. “Hmmm yeah so says the media and pop culture but y’know we’re not telepaths.”

“Brian how many romantic comedies have you seen.”

“Too many.”

“And you haven’t clued in that you always go after the girl.”

“No because they’re movies and not real life Johnny.”

“They’re dreams Bri, just like the old fairy tale stories and the damsel in distress stuff it’s part of girl culture just like a lot of other things and I don’t care if some girls won’t admit to it we all sort of want that.”

“But it’s sooo commercial!” He sort of whined it out but in a funny way.

“So? There’s a lot of stuff like that you men have it too.”

“I know and it’s just as dumb to me?’

She grinned. “That’s one of the things I like about you Brian.”

He smiled and blushed a little but looked her in the eyes still. “Well it’s one of the things that I like about you too Johnny.”

Little chill bumps of yayness went up and down her spine. She knew her name and the fact that she wasn’t going by a femme name any more was freaking a lot of people out but this…this was one of the reasons why.

Just the way his voice lightly rested on the syllables of her name and said it like she was a girl.

Sound strange maybe but try just saying it like that. Saying Johnny like you’d softly say Cassandra…and it makes you feel like a girl when he says it.

Definitely a sign.

“There’s definitely a lot of stuff that I’m liking about you too Bri.”

“Good…so tell me some.”

She burst out laughing because she was caught off guard by that. He laughed too and wrapped his hands around her waist and spun her around lifting her right off the ground making her laugh all the more. “Gotcha! You really don’t know that much about me do you!?”

(Laugh-squeal.) “Okay no but I want to!”

He stopped and looked at her and he kissed her.

One of those definitely a guy stepping up and kissing you hard and make your brain go all foggy on you kisses. He broke the kiss and she swore she felt her heart go flutter from that and the way his eyes were fixed on her…it was like they were alone.

“You’re the only girl that’s ever actually said that y’know.”

“Well I’m not Britney.”

“Definitely not.” He got closer.

“So what am I too you?”

He got closer. “Honest.”

“Worth getting to know better?”

“Definitely.” He kissed her again this time slower and really…really good.

“Thank you.” She said after they broke the kiss.

“For?”

“Being so amazing.”

“I’m not that amazing Johnny…not really.” He was blushing again.

She reached up and she kissed him lightly and sweetly but this time it was definitely her kissing him.

“You’re a nice guy Brian and you’re not afraid to be one. You’re kind and you’re honest and you’re tolerant and open to people and at the same time you stand for stuff too.”

“Johnny…” Oh he said it like that again…like she was taking His breath away.

“Bri…I don’t know if she ever told you stuff like that but it’s true.”

He shook his head no and swallowed and even tried to look away because there was the hint of tears there.

She hung onto him and just sort of leaned on him and didn’t push.

Even just settled in and rested her head on his shoulder.

She couldn’t help think.

God Britney you’re…you’re an idiot.

*Brian…………

Johnny…wow what a girl.

It had felt like it had been forever that he was talking to a girl that liked him for him and not because he was popular or good at sports or anything like that but just actually liked him.

Challenged him just by being herself into being a better person.

He liked feeling like he was a better person than he was even just a while ago.

Sweet and caring and honest and frustrating but in this really good way.

Her biology?

Honestly he didn’t care, not anymore it just really mattered to him like it was the least important thing about her.

She gave him such a hard on too.

Yeah…

And it was all her, not her looks which were actually pretty but it was the way she looked at him and talked to him and just.

And sitting there her holding him and leaning on him and after the way they had just…talked…talked who would believe that talking was that…amazing.

Yeah…getting that touched and moved and stuff he couldn’t help from getting…and she smelled good too.

Then…

“Oh…”

“Oh?” He asked and tried to keep his voice from being all hoarse from the whole thing where she nearly made him tear up.

“Is that for me?”

Johnny sort of pressed her hip into his boner. “Oh god…I’m sorry…”

“Hey, it’s okay.”

“It’s not like that.”

“It’s not?”

She was looking at him and he was blushing so hard he could feel the heat in his cheeks.

“N..no…it’s not a I want to have sex with you boner.”

She snerked. “You said boner.” And tickled him.

That made him smile since no girl that he’d ever know would’ve been like that about that or been like this about it.

“Yes dammit I said boner… (Blush.)…look it’s not I want to do you boner it’s an I really like you boner.”

“So it’s an emotional boner then?”

(Blush.) “Yes dammit.”

She giggled and smiled at him and it was just one of those wow moments.

“Johnny it’s not funny to laugh at a guy’s boner.”

She giggled again. “Boner.”

He rolled his eyes. “Jezzus…will you behave?”

“Nope.” She smiled and kissed him. “But I’m going to go have a chat with my girlfriend over there and give you a chance to calm down.”

“Johnny…”

She gave him another light kiss. “You give my heart a boner too.”

“Johnny…”

She started to pull away and he pulled her back and stared at her a second before kissing her.

God he liked kissing her.

Maybe because she was so real, that it felt like he was actually kissing someone for a change?

He let her go and she started walking backwards from him.

“Hey Johnny?”

“Mmmmm?”

“You ever play Mario?”

“Yeah….?” She gave him this odd look.

“Yeah well you’re the invincible star.”

She blinked the blushed and then smiled and turned and skipped off to Honey who was doing some of the other clean up.

Hell yeah she was…she made him feel like that…Like he shot up and grabbed that star.

*Lindsey…………

She was glad to get out of there and leave the party and she didn’t mind the idea that Dan had of them getting out close to her place but long enough for a decent walk home too. She thanked Jess for the lift and just sort of waved to Yasmine who shyly waved back and Donnie too and got out with Danny.

She stretched and sighed. “This was a good idea, the party was fun but I was starting to feel sort of really odd there.”

“Good, I kinda noticed. I guess after being sort of visible being suddenly visible to a bunch of people was a bit freaky.” He did that sort of non-chalant slide his hands into his from pockets.

She started walking and looked at him as they did. “I just don’t get it?”

“What?”

“Being someone that people see as attractive?”

He was looking at her. “Honestly Lindsey you are attractive.”

“Well I don’t feel like it.”

“I can get that, honestly it’s pretty rare that I meet someone that gets passed enough of me to really end up liking me and everytime there’s this little voice in my head going me? Really?”

She nodded and she looked him over this time. “Short has to suck sometimes.”

“It kind of does and it kind of doesn’t I’m used to that besides there’s lots of girls shorter than me so it’s not a really big deal.”

“Most guys wouldn’t say that.”

“Oh well I’m definitely not most guys.”

“That’s true. You’re kinda better.”

“Better?”

“Yeah, honestly I have a hard time relating to guys.”

“Uhm…Linds…you’re a girl.”

“Not usually, I told you I don’t really feel like a girl either. Female yeah I mean I can’t really help that but as far as actually being a girl and getting my heard around that stuff nope and it’s kinda gross.”

“Gross? I actually find it kind of neat.”

“Gross like a huge amount of the guys I’ve seen or TV or have met seen to giant assholes.”

“Uhm…hey…speaking from the male side of things there’s a very large over supply of assholes here.”

She nodded. “You said that sometimes you don’t get it either.”

He shrugged. “It’s not so much that but honestly I’d be likely just as good being born a girl.”

“Really?”

“Really, there’s nothing I’m really into that a girl couldn’t be into either. Dani Reilly would be just as much a geekette as I would be.”

“I just want something to change Danny, y’know something to happen that I get it or something that I feel comfortable in my own skin instead of feeling like I’m just sort of observing people all of the time.”

“Peeper.” He snerked.

She punched him in the shoulder. “Ow…spousal abuse!” he shouted out loud to anyone that would be able to hear.

“Danny!” She swatted at him again and he snickered and let her hit him.

“Thug.” He smirked at her.

“Jerk.” He gave her a thumbs up.

She stepped forward and hugged him.

“Nope…no problem with being short.” He said face buried into her cleavage…it wasn’t ample but it was still there.

She laughed. “Thanks Danny.”

“Mmmm…boobies.”

“Danny…”

“No problem, seriously Linds. You’re not crazy.”

“I’m not?”

“Nope, you just need to try stuff until something clicks or a lot of things click.”

“Oh great like how many things?”

They got to her place and sort of stood on the stoop of the building.

“Hey…chill so you got to look, so do a lot of us and the thing I believe is that we’re all meant to Linds. Some of the Alpha’s they don’t they’re into that whole cookie cutter life and stuff, they don’t want to know that stuff.”

“Well I’m already sick of not fitting in.” she started to open the door.

“Hey…” He said as he was walking down the steps.

“Yeah?”

“What if instead of trying so hard to fit in Lindsey that you let stuff in?”

“Huh?”

“What if instead of you struggling to fit into life maybe it’s life that should fit in you.”

She looked at him…. Then she rolled her eyes. “Jesus Danny you sound like a fortune cookie.”

“So if you ate me you’d want more twenty minutes later?”

“Night Danny!”

“Night! And think about what I said!”

“Yeah, yeah!............................love you goofball!”

“Love you too!”

*Danny…………

He liked talking to Lindsey…she was nice and she was sort of coming out of her shell but with her it was like watching something coming out of it’s cocoon. He wasn’t sure where she’d be going when she did but it was fun to watch and she made him think about himself.

And less about himself too.

That was always a good thing. Sometimes he’d go places that were well…

Not advisable unmedicated.

But just the way that she was with him made him smile pretty big. Lindsey was likely his first actual girl that was his friend. Oh he liked Johnny and she was all kinds of awesome and stuff but Lindsey and him sort of had this balance where you could just feel that they could be caring and loving and tease and insult each other all at the same time.

And she made him think.

A girl that didn’t mind her biology it was just the rest of the stuff.

Now it sort of sounded like she was some sort of FTM or a sort of gender queer version of it as much as he hated to put labels on it but…turning it over in his head he sort of mused if she might be the opposite of him.

Yeah he wasn’t pretending when he said that he’d be okay with being okay if he’d been born a girl and stuff. He liked girls, he found some guys sort of interesting too but he like girls also in that way he found their lives interesting, what they did and how they lived interesting and a lot of typical guy behavior never really clicked with him.

So sort of he was kind of a male that didn’t mind the male thing so bad but wasn’t really a guy in his heart either or at least sometimes he wasn’t.

He…they we’re Danny or even Danni sometimes.

He sighed.

Yes it felt very confusing and schizophrenic sometimes. No wonder he got headaches sometimes

“Now if I was only as good at taking my advice as giving it.”

He heard a car engine rev and he looked up to see an older red Mustang drive past slowly and he recognized the car.

Keith and his two buddies.

They saw him too and they screeched to a halt and the car sped in reverse squealing the tires. He could hear them with the windows down. “It’s that tranny asshole’s little boyfriend!”

“Let’s get him!”

“We’re so going to fuck him up!”

He turned and he ran and they spun the car around and drove after him giving chase and he went across a few yard spots and curbs they were still in hot pursuit and he ran down an alley and sprinted dodging the stuff there and he came out in the middle of the next street over and slammed into the side of a car.

It was a sky blue older painted Camero.

Only he recognized this car too.

Fuck….

Andy Parsons…. Andy had been that kid in the ninth grade that had been that much of a misanthrope that they held him back a few grades and he had a car in the ninth grade.

He had also been the school…not the class but the school’s professional bully and had made Dan’s life a living hell along with several of the other kids that they had gone to school with.

Andy had actually left school after wrecking the very car he was driving while he was impaired it’d been a year and a half since he’d seen him and now it was kind of like seeing the jaws shark again after being attacked by it already.

The car window powered down and Dan tensed.

Double Fuck…

It was him.

“Hey Danny?”

Keith’s Mustang rounded the curb.

“Oh I really don’t need this…” He was trying to catch his breath but he was not the most athletic guy around and it had been a lot of running.

The Mustang pulled up and Keith and his two buddies got out of the car.

Dan backed away looking for a weapon.

Andy got out of the car.

Shit…he was even bigger…like he really needed to be bigger.

He took out his phone and dialed Jess on speed dial.

It was till running when Keith and them charge him.

Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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Squires-23

*Danny………..

He pulled his phone and stepped back into the alley and pointed it at Keith and the two assholes with him.

Dammit he thought there had to be something here to fight with.

Then he saw Andy side step in front and he had his arms and his shoulders up like a boxer and then he stepped into their rush and started firing off punches.

Dan couldn’t help but to winch as Andy mushed Keith’s nose so hard he could hear it from where he was standing and Keith feet actually flew up off the ground as he hit the sidewalk.

Then he smashed the next guy three times in a row and the third had a shaft of what looked like it used to be a hockey stick and swung hard catching Andy in the side of his face and head.

It was another one of those loud hits you could hear really clearly.

“Oh Jeebus….What am I doing?”

Part of him contemplated taking off and leaving both sets of bullies.

Andy had been a major asshole, and one of those people than made school suck a whole lot when they had been in middle school together.

But it’d be three on one.

And he stepped in between Keith coming to kick his ass with his two buddies Jeffery and Mark.

And Jeffery had a weapon.

Sometimes you had to stand for what you believed in even if you knew it was coming with painful consequences.

Dan stowed the phone and he watched closely as he closed in on Jeffrey…he’s the guy with the cut off hockey stick and before he could take another swing on Andy he stepped in and kicked him hard behind the knee.

Jeffery dropped and cursed and Danny did what the called a curb stomp to the hand with the hockey stick and then dropped on top of him and started punching. It hurt, he’d never been really in a fight not like this and while he might have thrown a punch or two he’d never swung as many times in his life.

He certainly never connected this much before.

And it really turned out not to be a really sound plan since Jeffery had a good forty to fifty pounds on him which was soaking up the damage as much as his really hard head was.

Then Jeffrey hit him back.

He’d been hit a few times and actually most of those were from Andy but there was a lot of difference between getting hit by a bully that wants to hurt you in that bully way and being in a fight.

He felt Jeffrey grab his left arm in a really painfully bruising grip and he used that to hang onto Danny and drive his fist into Dan’s right side.

One, two, three…he hit something soft that made Dan cry out and gasp for air as the pain drove the wind from his lungs. He reeled back and saw Jeffrey reaching for the hockey stick again and swung.

Dan winced and closed his eyes waiting for the hit but it never landed.

There was a loud whack sound of wood hitting flesh again and Dan saw Andy’s hand a few inches from his face gripping the hockey stick and Andy was bleeding from a cut to the forehead and looked pretty bad but at the same time…scary…and pissed off.

“That’s cheating dillhole.”

Dan sort of fell off of Jeffrey as Jeff tried to run and he let go of the hockey stick and yelled in pain as Andy used it like a fly swatter to smack him hard in the thigh like a Charlie horse and he ran-limped to Keith’s car trying to catch up to Keith and Mark who were also in retreat.

Keith was yelling sort of too as he was in full on retreat. “I’ll get you for this you blue haired little faggot! I’ll get you and your gay assed tranny freak friends too!”

Dan yelled back from where he was sitting on the pavement. “And our little dog too? Who’s the tranny now Keith!?”

It was right sort of then that Keith sort of looked pretty closely to a real life version of Biff from the Back To The Future movies.

Keith squealed the tires on his ‘Stang as him and the other two took off and Danny watched them go grinning. “All that’s missing is the manure.”

Andy looked down at him and spit of some pretty red looking stuff and said. “You’re weird you know that right?”

“Yeah…trust me I know…being weird’s hazardous to your health.”

He just layed back on the pavement and looked up at Andy. Andy knelt in a sort of crouch beside him and used the cut off hockey stick to lean on. “Uh-huh that’s exactly one of the things that used to drive me nuts with you.”

“Oh that I’m weird?”

“Yeah, and you said stuff like that stuff just now and I never really get it usually so I felt stupid and I’d get pissed.”

Danny sat up and looked at him. Was he…?

“Are you actually admitting to being a dick because you felt stupid?”

“Looks like…” He shrugged.

“So you’re apologizing?”

“Fuck no.” Andy suddenly stood back up. “Reilly you and your little geek buddies were complete assholes, you sow what you reap.”

He started walking away and Danny got up and looked at him and well….he just looked since what Andy had said was…well it was pretty messed up considering how much Andy used to pound him.

Was he missing something?

He was definitely missing something.

“I’m sorry…”

Andy stopped and looked at him over his shoulder. “Everyone said it Danny, everyone…you the preps…the teachers…I even got it at home…Stupid…Dumbass…you’re a thug….”

“We…we were just saying what you were acting like.”

(Guy-sniffle.) “Yeah…ever since any one laid eyes on me when I got to our school Danny…I never touched anyone until you all started up with that stuff.”

It took Dan a few seconds to think back to the start of middle school…he actually couldn’t remember when Andy had turned into the thug. It was like something that just everyone knew?

Oh…dammit he could actually remember a couple of times that he said stuff about him being a bully and a thug to people. People that he still didn’t know…

“I didn’t know…I should’ve Andy jeeze…I mean it was just shit that was spread around and then you were beating people up….”

“Yeah whatever…”

“Andy…I mean it. I’m sorry.”

Andy turned and stared at him. It was a long hard stare too like he was weighing things in his head and things weren’t looking good with the frown that was there.

Dan tried a smile. “C’mon…..I’ll buy some ice cream to take the swelling down.”

Andy laughed a little and put his hand to his face. “Ow…okay…okay…”

“Okay? So we’re good?”

“No…but this, this is okay.”

Danny nodded and that made his side twitch in pain but he thought…good enough…good enough it’s a start.

He bit his lip sort of in that semi nervous I’m not sure what to talk about now thing and he walked to the car a bit awkwardly.

“Dan, I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I know…it’s just weird.”

“Weird?”

“I know that…okay looking back I was kind of a dick to you and stuff so all that self righteous stuff I had sort of had in my head all stored up about you over the years Andy is just…” He blew a razzberry sort of. “kaputz…I really don’t know what the heck to say to you?”

“Okay, I have a big mouth I can talk.”

Andy got in and popped the lock on the passenger side and pushed the door open. Danny got in and he sort of marveled at the car. There were guys that he knew all over school these days that were the Fast & The Useless types that kind of sort of souped up their cars but it was more like all cheap decorative running lights and mufflers to make a car sound like it had a big engine in it but Andy’s Camero was a work of art.

The console was tricked out a little bit but just a little bit not enough to mess with the classic interior and it smelled clean like good new car sort of clean but not at the same time. The scent’s of Armor All and leather sort of hung lightly in the air and blended oddly with the scent of Andy’s cologne?

“Are you wearing cologne?”

“Aftershave.”

“Oh.”

“That was a weird thing to ask me.”

“It was?”

“Uhm…yes.”

“Oh.”

Andy started up the car and started to drive and they headed to a more main strip part of the neighborhood where they pulled in eventually to a 24 hour convenience place and it was still sort of an awkward silence as they drove.

Danny wished he could’ve turned on something for music but it wasn’t his car and he was kind of relieved when they stopped and parked.

“This good?’

“Sure I’ll buy.”

“Okay…”

“Okay?”

“Not used to having someone buy for me.” Andy shrugged.

“Well you did show up and saved me y’know.”

“Yeah well it was just…” He shrugged his massive shoulders.

“It was something Andy. It means a lot.”

“So did you backing me up Danny, honestly surprised me.”

“Yeah well I guess I’m not the same kid from middle school either.”

“You kinda look the same…well except for the blue hair.”

“Yeah that’s new I kind of like it.”

“Yeah? Well if sort of suits you. Kinda girly though.”

“I thought it was kind of Max Sterling.”

“Who?”

“Veritech pilot.”

“A what?”

“He’s from a cartoon.”

“Oh…see another thing I don’t get.”

“Hey, don’t feel bad I’m a grandmaster level geek and it’s an old anime.”

“Ani-what?”

“Asian cartoon.”

“Oh…I just know stuff from Nickelodeon and Disney.”

“Me too there’s some cool stuff in all of that too.”

Andy smiled. “Actually yeah.”

“Really…see there’s something new about you that I didn’t know.”

Andy stopped and looked at him. “You make it sound like we’re on a date.”

Danny grinned. “I suppose that’d freak you out?”

“No….uhm…?”

“Uhm?”

“Danny? I…are you gay?”

Dan looked at him and he seriously thought about the answer and whether or not answering him honestly would get him in some kind of fight with Andy over it. The store was right there and if things went south he could just stay in there and call Jessie.

“Honestly?”

“I’d appreciate the honesty.”

“I don’t know. Andy I kind of don’t know just who I am sometimes or what I am even.”

Andy nodded and opened the door for him and held it open for him. Danny looked at him. “And you?”

“Honestly?”

“I’d appreciate the honesty Andy.” He smiled at him a little returning the comment.

“I’m into girls mostly but there’s been a few times and a few boys that I had a thing for.”

“Ouch, that’d mess with your head.”

“It did. My dad and my family are a proud upstanding branch of The Mullet Clan.”

“Was that a joke?”

Andy stopped and looked at him and he laughed or chuckled but he did it exactly like Patrick from Sponge-Bob Squarepants.

It made Danny snicker then groan and hold his side.

“You okay?’

“No…I really hurt.”

“Okay you just stay here and I’ll get the stuff.”

“No…I’m bruised not broken and I said that I’ll pay.”

“Danny…”

“Uh-uh you big lug just let me and you be the girl.”

“……………..Reilly!”

Dan gave him that Danny grin before heading inside the store and went looking for some ice cream bars but also some baby wipes and a bottle of water and one of peroxide and some generic brand band aids and paid for the stuff at the counter with Andy sort of there watching him at the front of the store still looking like after that last exchange he had this which way did he go George? on his face.

He walked up to him and then passed him a fudgecicle. “Here try this.”

“Oh I haven’t had one of these in a long time.”

He started to unwrap it and eat it. Danny walked backwards to the car. “It’s supposed to go on your face first y’know to take the swelling down?”

“It tastes too good, I’ll be fine.”

“Well I’ll be the judge of that okay come over here under the light okay?”

Dan had walked over to the urban strip of grass that was there to sort of separate the side walk from the parking lot and there were a couple of cheap old wooden picnic tables there and he had pulled it over to be under the closest streetlight.

“I’ll be okay, how about your side.”

“My side hurts like a bastard I’ll have bruises for a week.”

“Let me see.”

“You first.”

“Danny…”

Danny looked him in the eyes and then kind of did that purse his lips look thing that the girls did when they were outwaiting a guy for being stupid. He didn’t cross his arms like they did but her did shove his thumbs into his from pockets and stared at him.

Andy looked away a second this way and that and then at Dan. “Okay fine.”

Holy shit it worked? Dan thought.

He set the bag of stuff onto the table and he pulled some baby wipes and the peroxide and started to clean off Andy’s face and the blood from the cut there on his forehead. Andy didn’t wince or anything just sat there looking at Danny with these sort of questing grey eyes…yeah grey they were almost too light a shade of blue really.

It’s funny how he didn’t notice them like this before.

And he felt like…

Blink… “Andy…your fudgecicle’s melting.”

“That’s okay…here, have some.”

Andy offered it to him holding it and the innuendo was there and at the same time it wasn’t…it was almost like this offer?

He could…

Really could he?

He reached out and took it from Andy’s hand instead of the way, way too obvious thing. He’d actually had done it in school to get a rise out of people but here with just the two of them it was something entirely different.

How’d it even get here so fast and from the fight and Andy having been one of his childhood terrors and now…this?

Adrenaline it had to be adrenaline.

And Andy was staring at him as he was letting the rest of the fudgecicle melt away in his mouth and then Andy reached out and he lifted Dan’s shirt. There was this feeling like…he couldn’t explain it at all other than scary and sort of thrilling too.

He got the shivers as Andy’s hands touch his side. He winched a little too as fingers tightened and probed on his side. Andy moved his hands away and started rubbing them fast on his jeans and looked at Danny. “There’s nothing broken here and they just bruised your ribs a little.”

“It doesn’t feel like a little. What are you doing?’

“It’s a trick I learned.”

“A trick?”

“Yeah it’ll help.”

Andy stopped rubbing his palms on his jeans and instead he slapped his hands together three times and then he put his hands on the bruises.

Oh he could feel the heat from the friction and there was this almost sort of pulsing in Andy’s hands from him hitting them together so hard which felt really, really good and that warmth and him stoking over those bruises soothingly.

Oh this was so…and Andy’s hands had raw knuckles from the fighting earlier almost highlighting between the hard of him and this softness he had that was so surprising and so…sexy…?

Yes definitely sexy because as soon as Danny sorted the feeling out he realized his body had done the same thing a little bit ahead of him and he was hard.

And standing there while Andy was sitting…

“That’s…that so…it feels good…where did you learn that?”

“Boxing gym, one of the old dudes there showed me it it’s like a hot compress when you don’t have one.”

“Oh it’s definitely hot.”

“I noticed.”

“Sorry…” Danny looked at him and he blushed really deeply.

“I…I did that for you?”

“Yeah…don’t kick my ass.”

“Kicking it doesn’t come to mind Danny.”

“Uhm…what?”

Andy looked at him. “I don’t know…”

“Oh…”

Then Andy stood up some off the bench seat for the picnic table and suddenly kissed him.

Dan’s eyes went wide and he inhaled really fast and deep which almost set his asthma off and he tried to breathe and fought off coughing and it seemed like some of those forever-seconds and then he kissed him back.

Then Andy was sort of looming or towering over him and he felt kind of small but not in the way that he was used to as they broke the kiss for some air and kissed again.

Then there was people looking since the store was actually fairly busy and some just stared a few called them fags and fudgepackers and stuff but didn’t come close to them when they took a second look ay Andy.

Protected like that certainly had its attractions.

“We should get out of here before some one gets all bravely bent out of shape.”

“Danny…shit…I’m sorry…I just…we wwere and you’re so…”

Dan stopped. “I’m so what?”

“Cute….?” He had almost winced at that like he’d have said it would’ve been a bad thing.

“I’ll take cute….so how about a drive home?’

“Sure…okay…”

Andy was the nervous one this time as they got into the car and Danny just…he slipped into the front seat and he…he didn’t know exactly what was going on….

Actually he knew exactly what was going on he just was having trouble believing in it at the moment contrary to the way that his body felt and almost seemed to hum.

Like whatever this was, was making his heart sort of vibrate and him feel vulnerable in the worst way too really.

It was a fast drive out of there and after about five minutes he knew they were driving so that Andy could think.

And oddly as much as time dragged before it just seemed to go by far too fast now and before long they were pulling into his yard.

Andy knew where he lived.

Chilling or it would’ve been.

But now?

And Lindsey…

And what him and she had been talking about…

And Lindsey because he was actually attracted to het and liked her…

But Andy…The touch and the kissing and that touch and kissing him again…he leaned forward into it letting the minute or so just replay in his head and when he looked over to Andy he saw Andy looked frightened and kind of guilty.

“Danny look I’m sorry I didn’t mean to force that kiss on you it’s just you and…and you’ve always sort of made me feel…”

He put two fingers over Andy’s mouth.

“It’s okay….Andy I told you I’m so all over the place inside and everything but it wasn’t a bad thing. I have to think all of it over and stuff but I really want to think it over….not blow it off but think it over…”

Then he removed his fingers.

“Really…fuck Danny I’m kind of scared.”

“Sacred?”

“Yeah…”

“Of…?”

“I like you…a lot…and it’s not something that I thought that’d be…me…”

“Yeah I know…me too.”

“But…”

“But?”

“No one I’ve ever really liked has stuck around Danny…it’s like I’m…defective.”

Danny looked at him and there was this something broken in there. And it just sort of looked like there was something that there in him like a puppy with a broken paw. Life…life hadn’t been that good to Andy.

“Andy…I…I don’t know what the heck this is or how to deal with the stuff that you’re making me feel and it’s all mixed up with all these other feelings I’ve got but…but I want to see you again.”

“Again…like…?”

Danny bit his lip and looked at him.

“A date.”

“A date!?”

“Yes, a date okay…I’m not sure we’ll be in the whole just friends hanging out kind of thing do you?”

“I…I guess not.”

“What are you doing tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow? Nothing really…”

“There’s a BBQ I have to go to with friends you should come along two of my friends are going out afterwards maybe we can double or something.”

“It won’t freak them out?”

“Not likely they’re two guys.”

“Oh…are we..?”

“Oh Hell Andy I have no idea either I’m just winging it.”

“Okay…I’ll be there…where is it?”

“Here…”

Danny grabbed some paper from his bags and he jotted down the address and some other stuff.

“This is where the BBQ is going to be at okay, this is my phone number and my e-mail too okay?”

“Uhm…sure I don’t have a computer though.”

“You have a phone though right?”

“Yes…”

“Okay…I’ll see you tomorrow then okay?”

“Okay…”

Danny got his bags and got out of the car and he started towards the house and Andy called out.

“Danny?”

He turned around backwards and Andy looked a bit nervous still. “Yes?”

“You said that you weren’t sure who…or what you were right…?”

“Uhm…yeah…”

“Uhm…uh…if you want to…I mean if you want to…you…could.”

“I could?”

“You could wear a dress on our date if you wanted.”

“I…uhm…I…can I think about it?”

“Okay…”

Danny just waited until the quiet got a little strange and the Andy drove off slowly and waved as he left and Danny waved back then he headed inside.

His dad was up sort of in that watching golf on the TV having fallen asleep watching something else on the sports channel.

He gave him a shake and his dad opened his eyes a little.

“You’re home.”

“Yeah go to bed dad before you mess your back up for tomorrow.”

“Ughynn…yup..” he got up and he shambled in that tired forty something way up the stairs.

Danny took a few minutes and sighed and went and made a coffee, the hot tap water kind he did it all the time some Tasters choice and hot tap water and in the nuke for forty seconds. There was no way he was sleeping tonight…The night, the party so many kids actually there at least trying to be who they were inside or trying to find it.

He found the Advil and took three for his side and went and too a half dozen plastic grocery bags and used the ice maker in the fridge to fill and make a large ice pack.

He took his ice and his coffee and bags to his room and closed the door and shoved a towel at the base of it. You fill that gap and sound travels a lot less he found and as a long time night own he had a bunch of tricks like that.

He fired up his computer and put some music on then sat on his bed.

There was so much going through his head right now.

He looked at the clock.

She might be up.

He texted Jessie. [Got home safe, sore, I ran into Keith.]

[You okay?]

[Sore but messed up in the head, big stuff happened. Going to call Linds, I’ll fill you in tomorrow.]

[KK, if you need me I’m here.]

[Thanks. I will.]

He hung up and dialed Lindsey. It picked up on the first ring.

“Hey you got back alright?”

“Shit, were you waiting for me to call you?”

“Uhm…yes?”

He laughed then groaned.

“Danny, what happened!?”

*Lindsey…………

She had the oddest night really in her life she was pretty sure. She hadn’t really gotten the thought of boys liking her in her head in the same way a lot of other girls did. She’d been “dishwater” for so long it wasn’t something that was likely ever to happen.

And she might have gone with some of that teasing just so she wouldn’t have to get into the whole boy-girl thing. The trying to figure out how to be a girl was hard enough as it was. Female…not a problem but girl stuff…that was like her trying to figure out how to read something like Cantonese.

And guys…as a girl no chance.

But tonight it was like…all these girls, all these lesbian girls actually were all over her and dancing with her and it was actually just as bad as if they’d been guys.

Actually a little harder. She sort of socially knew how to say no to a guy. It took a lot of guts to say what she said to Penn.

She had the apartment pretty much to herself with everyone asleep and stuff and she went to her room and undressed taking time each time to look at herself in the mirror behind her door.

She didn’t get it.

She was skinny, okay her legs were long but they didn’t exactly do that tapering thing like a lot of the other girls did. She was pretty straight legged and actually if you asked her she’d have said that she was likely too lanky.

Long arms and long bodied and even her neck seemed too long and she had not a lot of bust to speak of.

Okay the lack of bust she didn’t mind. To Lindsey her breasts well…were just sort of there and not this whole erotic and erogenous thing that other girls seemed to find them to be.

So she was kind of glad that they weren’t bigger and thereby in her way all the time.

And other girls breasts…well they were just kind of..meh.

They were there.

Mind you given the night she had and the exposure to them and a bunch of other lesbian plays like getting brushed up against and bumped and grinded she was pretty sure that she didn’t really have an eww reflex reaction to the whole gay thing or the girl on girl thing.

She looked and looked and she still just couldn’t see it.

Though she was definitely enough of a girl that she still very much enjoyed that time when the bra came off and she rubbed a little freedom into the girls. Another bonus of being small busted was she slept in the nude. She’d heard that busty girls even had issues sleeping on their fronts which Lindsey would’ve hated since it was her best fall asleep position actually.

She went to the bathroom and took some time and she washed off the little make up she had on and then had to do some of it again since apparently just cool water made a mess. She used some cold cream the next time and a fresh wash cloth and some hot water before she was satisfied.

Her one sort of girl thing was she took some face lotion and wet her hands to dilute it and gave her face a very light lotioning. If she didn’t and just used soap or even the liquid stuff with the moisturizers she found that her face got tight and dried out really badly.

She had tossed her things into the wash and headed for bed when her phone started to vibrate on the bed.

She saw the name on the number and smiled, well she actually figured that she might hear from him a lot Danny had self confessed that he wasn’t a good sleeper.

But it was actually a little awesome that she had someone calling her late at night.

“Hey you got back alright?”

“Shit, were you waiting for me to call you?” He said like he was a bit oh no’s over the fact that he forgot.

“Uhm…yes?” Oh..was she…? Of course she was just it never really entered her head to be worried that he’d get home or not.

He laughed then he groaned.

“Danny, what happened!?”

“I…I was stupid and I ran into Keith and Heckle and Jeckle on the way home.”

“Are you okay you sound like you’re hurt?”

“I’m okay just bruises and a lot of them but I’m really not okay.”

There was an odd sound in his voice.

“Danny?”

“I…something really messed up happened Linds.”

She sat on the bed and pulled her knees up. “Okay…its okay just tell me what happened, what’d they do.”

“Nothing…well they were assholes it wasn’t that it was Andy.”

“Andy? Who the heck is Andy?”

“He’s this guy that used to bully a bunch of us back in middle school and got yanked out like halfway through.”

“Oh shit four on one?”

“No he stepped in to help.”

“Oh…so what’s the deal.”

And that’s kind of how it started with him telling her what had happened during the entire encounter and the things that had been said and what he had done to Andy when they were younger just because of rumors and stuff.

And then there was…

“Linds he did this thing where he heated up his hands and he touched me, set them on the bruises like he was like some kind of like cleric or paladin from the game and it felt good…it felt really good and…and intimate and then…”

“Then?”

“I was standing right there and he was sitting and it just happened…I popped bone.”

“Huh?....oh….oh…shit, like really?”

“Yeah…”

“Over a guy.”

“Yeah…”

“But you still like girls.”

“Yeah definitely…and me and Johnny was a guy and girl date.”

“Yeah I know, but that’s kind of fucked up right?”

“Really?”

“Yeah I mean like with what we were talking about and now you and this Andy guy have this whole moment?”

“More than that.”

“More!? Did you and he have sex!?”

“No! Shit Lindsey I’m not that kind of girl.”

“But you are a kind of girl…” She said sort of seriously into the phone.

“I don’t know? Do I give off that vibe?”

“No not really but sort of with the blue hair now.”

“Really?”

“Kinda gives you this really butchy geeky flat Sailor Mercury thing going on.”

“It does?”

“Yeah like if she was a skinny gamer geek.”

“Well shit…maybe that’s why he told me if I wanted to I could wear a dress on our date.”

“What!?”

“Yeah…I…I kind of made a date with him tomorrow night.”

“A date with a guy.”

“With Andy.”

“With Andy then…”

“Linds? Are you mad?”

“Why would I be mad?”

“I just thought…”

Oh shit what did he think? There was sort of this kind of vibe that they shared and it would’ve been nice if…

“Linds…?”

“I can loan you a dress, I have a lot of old clothes.”

“Okay….”

“Beside Danny who knows I might just like you in a dress.”

“Lindsey!..............................uhm…really?”

She though about it and she sort of had this odd little vision come up out of her imagination.

“I’m sort of picturing you in this sort of pin up looking outfit right now.”

“Really?”

“Like what?”

“Oh…you’ll see tomorrow night if you want to wear a dress on your date.”

“Oh…I…can I think about it?”

“Sure…Danny?”

“Yeah?”

“Nighters.”

“Okay nighters.”

Lindsey hung up but she sat there on her bed and she was still sort of in thought. She wasn’t good at the whole outfit girl thing but she had some definite ideas for what might work for Danny…Dani?

There was something about that that had her wide awake now.

*Jessie…………

He was stopped at the lights and the car idled as he looked at the text’s he just had with Danny on his phone. He chewed on his lip angry and then some about what had happened.

Donnie looked over at him. “Trouble?”

“Maybe, Danny ran into Keith.”

“Shit we should’ve stayed close. I knew those assholes would be looking for blood.”

“I know and I should’ve known it too.”

“Jess it happened though and he’s okay, he checked in.”

“I know, trouble came and he tilted.” Even as mad as he was there was a little smile there.

“Tilted?”

“Yeah, it’s an old thing…like knights, like Don Quixote.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s and old story but basically it’s this story about no matter what happens or the odds you don’t give up and you pick up your lance and charge into life’s bullshit no matter how hard.”

“Tilting…like in the Heath Ledger movie?”

“Yes, tilt when everyone else won’t.”

“Like those guys that gave up against the noble guy from England.”

“Exactly.”

“You think Dan’s alright?”

“I hope so his text was still odd, like Keith wasn’t the thing that was bugging him.”

“You want to stop over?”

“No, way too late plus we’ve got things to do.”

“Like?”

“Getting back to the others and letting them know what happened and help get people home safe and sound.”

“You think he’s not done?’

“If Keith was beaten then he might go looking for others and it wouldn’t be past him and his to shore up their getting a beating by finding even easier prey.”

“Yeah good point, worse if they get their hands on some booze or worse.”

Jessie nodded and pulled away from the lights and drove back to Kenyon’s neighborhood and made a once around a few blocks looking for the red mustang before pulling back into Kenyon’s place and both him and Donnie went inside.

There were still some people there and most of the gang was there still cleaning up and Jessie smiled at seeing everyone safe and sound and went over to Kenyon and slid close and wrapped a friendly arm around his waist.

“Hey you’d get the girls dropped off?”

“We dropped Yasmine off but Danny and Lindsey wanted out so they could walk.”

“You sure that was a good idea?”

“It wasn’t Keith and company ran into Dan.”

“He alright?”

“As far as he’d say but he definitely has something going on with him.”

“Should we try and find out?”

“No, he might need some breathing room. He said he’d talk to us tomorrow.”

“You sure?”

Jess leaned into Kenyon a little more. “No, I’m not and it sucks.”

“Okay then.” He took out his phone and dialed.

“Kenyon…”

“I’m allowed to.”

“Says who?”

“The guy without the boobs.” He grinned at Jessie.

“Asshole.” Jessie huffed and punched him in the side.

“Ooff…tight one too.” He grinned a bit at Jessie who didn’t expect him to go there and his eye’s widened a little.

Kenyon grinned and snuck in a lean over peck. “You’re cute when I surprise you.”

“Uhm….”

Kenyon backed off. “Danny hey it’s Kenyon I’m with Jessie and he was worried about you and was being too macho to ask you again if you’re alright. You are, good then maybe he’ll relax a bit before he messes up his bra.”

Jessie blinked and blushed and moved his hands.

Kenyon grinned and went on. “Yeah I said his bra he reaches up and fiddles with the strap when he’s nervous. I know it’s just cute as heck. You going to be alright? Okay good we’ll see you at the barbeque tomorrow. Oh and do the heat and cold but if you got Epsom slats that really helps with the sore and the bruises in a bath okay?

Kenyon got another look on his face. “Yes I am mothering you I’m allowed as I’m not trans like Johnny so I’m by default the reigning queen of our little group so take my advise and do what your fairy gayfather says okay? Love you too sweetie Bub-bye.”

Jessie chewed on his lower lip a little and fought the now obvious habit of playing with his bra-strap and looked at Kenyon.

Then he stepped up and hugged him. “Thanks…I guess I was being too macho or something…I should’ve called.”

“Yes you should’ve and you know Jess that you don’t have to take on so much, remember earlier.”

“Yeah, that was nice and so is this.”

“Good.” Jessie just leaned into Kenyon and relaxed a few minutes. He sighed and pulled back.

“This though isn’t getting things done.”

“Okay then we all do them then.”

It didn’t take too long while cleaning and gathering things to spread the word about what had happened to Danny from what they new and Nick bouncing it out there on his laptop and Johnny was reading stuff coming in getting shared on Facebook and stuff from other people.

She looked at Jessie. “You’re not saying it’s Keith?”

“No proof, and as far as I know it’s be just Danny saying it was them. But we can say that there is an older model red mustang with three large teens last seen wearing East Chicago high varsity jackets cruising around looking for trouble having already assaulted a junior from the same school tonight.”

She looked at him and then her phone. “Isn’t that saying just about the same thing?”

“Not in the eyes of the law it isn’t.”

“But shouldn’t we have proof?”

“Danny didn’t lie about it, he wouldn’t and they’re slippery enough to get away without getting the law on them with how things went down so they get to get tried where they live in their popularity.”

She nodded and so did a couple of other kids. They finished everything off for cleaning things up and Jessie and Brian and Kenyon and Kenyon’s dad all used their cars to drive the rest of the people home there at the party.

*Donnie…………

It was a long, long night…with everything that had happen like getting into it with his dad and leaving the house or kicked out more than likely after his dad edited the story…to a really good party and right back to the tense stuff when they had found out that Keith and his two asshole friends had tried to do a number on Danny.

That kind of really pissed him off too since Danny was a good guy and him and the gamer kids were a really decent bunch.

He kind of hated Keith pretty easy anyway. Varsity baseball he was one of those jock assholes that was right out of the armpit of town. Not really the slums but one of several you better be fairly pale and love America mobile home communities.

Keith was that guy in school that was good at sports and sort of kissed some teachers asses and when he wasn’t being watched he’d be shoving people around showing off just how tough he was.

Also he was pretty fond of the whole racial slurs too.

Very much the asshole.

The first day he’d met Keith he gotten called a Skater-Coon and asked where he stole the skateboard.

That had been in the last year of middle school when Keith had transferred in and Donnie hadn’t really been that thrilled to see him in the same highschool as he was in.

He shook off the memories of that stuff Keith had done and helped with getting everyone loaded into the cars and they headed out in a sort of convoy with all the leftover and hanger on kids from the party armed with their phones ready to make sure that anyone that messed with them got recorded.

It was kind of surreal actually like they were doing a protective detail and stuff and by the time they had gotten it all done and everyone home or at least in their car and him and Jessie pulled into The Stone house it was late at about a quarter past two.

He was a little nervous that Jessie’s parents were still up.

They went in and saw his folks sitting down in the living room watch TV on the couch together and they both waved sleepily or lazily from where they were at.

Jessie’s father looked over to them. “How’d the party go?”

Jessie said. “Good, we had a bit of a close call maybe with that guy I tussled with prowling around but we got everyone safely home.”

“He going to be a problem at school?”

Donnie took his sneakers off but said. “Oh yeah, Keith’s one of those guys that’s an entitled jock. He thinks that because he can play a sport that he’s special and the rest of us that aren’t in his little group of people aren’t as good as him. He’s going to be trouble simply because he can’t fight someone verbally and the last few times he threw his weight around to get (he does air-quote fingers) “respect” he had someone show him up and reminded him that real life isn’t on the playing field.”

He looked at Jessie who smirked and shrugged.

Jessie’s mom got up and grabbed the empty pizza box and a few glasses from the coffee table. “So he’ll get even more violent?”

Donnie. “Maybe, he’s one of the really overt thugs of the school really so it’s his first thought.”

Jessie nodded. “If he was older he’d go for a second amendment solution.”

She looked alarmed. “He’d do that?”

Donnie shrugged. “He might honestly he went to middle school with me and Danny for the last year we were in there and I’ve seen him in action. He’d definitely consider it if he could get away with it.”

Jessie’s mom. “Should we get a protection order or something? Call the school this kid sounds unhinged.”

Jessie. “No, and paper won’t work. No Keith needs to be shown no matter what he does he’s not going to scare some people and some of those people will get between him and the new victims that he’ll be cruising for.”

She looked at him. “Jessie, he sounds dangerous.”

Jessie looked at her and took the dishes and trash from her. “He is, especially unchecked but these guys need to be checked by our system.”

She followed him to the kitchen. “Your system?”

“You get the law directly involved it’s just papers and stuff from adults blathering at them and they’re sure that they can get away with it. He’s young and he’s an athlete, he’s a good boy that has no formal complaints against him and all of that despite him being a budding sociopath…we try him in the court of public opinion, we get in his way enough and show him and them that no…we don’t need the stuff he’d dodge any ways and whatever he does we’ll stop…he’ll have to find other feeding grounds for his ego or actually learn that he’ll have to change.”

“So the barbecue’s for?” She asked raising her eyebrows.

“We’ll all be a lot safer if you can get the cameras back in the halls and the school grounds.” Donnie said. “It’ll give them a whole lot of pause before doing something.”

She nodded. “And the barbecue will let us get organized too.”

Jessie grinned. “Exactly because we know they’re doing the same because they shifted to meeting already hoping that people wouldn’t show after the first weekend after the start of school and it being a Monday night.”

She frowned. “That, that was a dirty trick and school boards and school faculty should be better than that.”

Donnie shook his head. “It’s the money ma’am. Too many of these asses that are doing this are like team and school boosters. I’m not one of those people that says look at the good old days cause they weren’t but this…today’s that generation where the parents scream at the teachers for their brats having bad grades instead of yelling at their little darlings…and heaven forbid that those kids of theirs reflect badly on them.”

Jessie nodded. “And some of them definitely encourage this behavior.”

Donnie nodded and grinned. “Yup, like when Keith assaulted Nick and it got dragged into the office. Keith’s old man showed up screaming and shouting and causing all kinds of drama over Keith getting singled out and assaulted.”

Jessie washed out the glasses and dried them off. “Yes, like Nick being in front of him was doing him a lot of damage. More like he didn’t get out of the lord and master of baseball’s way.”

Donnie frowned. “Well that and Nick stutters so badly he makes a great target in a crowd. Rule by fear, respect me, fear me or I’ll do it to you.”

Jessie mother got a deeper scowl on her face. “I’m really; really glad I’m not in school anymore.”

She hugged them both which surprised Donnie. It had also been a long time since he had a mom kind of hug. “We’re off to bed its late and we’ve had a long night. Jessie we’ve set Donnie up in your dad’s office so you can show him where that is?’

“Sure.”

The parents went upstairs talking and sort of doing that touch thing two people that are still really close thing and Donnie had to admit that it was nice to see after being without it in his own life for so long.

They cleaned a few things up and locked up the house and killed the lights. It was also strange that Jessie hadn’t been called out on being out this late. And locking up too wasn’t a teen thing as far as he ever knew it.

Jessie led him to the hallway and down to the very end of it and there was a door to the right. “This is it. I didn’t see your bed in the garage so maybe they’d….”

The office door was repainted, spray paint and a stencil by the look of it and it was done like urban cammo. There was right there on the door in those adhesive letters you get from the hardware store… Donnie’s room.

He blinked. “Uhm Jess?”

Jessie shrugged. “I guess they did have a long night?” he moved though as if to let Donnie inside first.

Donnie opined the door and…

It was nice…wood paneling for the walls and stuff and some built in wall shelves but whatever had been there was now filled with some of his stuff. Even some of his posters and stuff were up on the walls and the bed had been put together and made and there were what looked like those stacked plastic shelving units in one corner with his clothes set out on then washed and folded and two baskets shoved in the bottom shelves for socks and underwear.

There was a large bag of things for the bathroom on his bed from Walgreens like shampoo to razors and all the basics.

It…it was all done…

“Jess…” Ow…there was this lump in his throat. “Jess…why…?”

Jessie leaned on the door frame careful to not get paint on himself. “Because they could Donnie, you needed a place and we had a place.”

“But all of this?”

Jessie shrugged then went over and hugged him. “Welcome home I guess then…night okay?”

He hugged Jessie back and nodded but still stayed kind of stunned and shocked in the middle of the room just looking at everything. They had even left the desk and the desktop computer there for him.

He hugged himself and sat on his bed and the smell caught him. New sheets, new mattress too.

Why?

Why would they even care about some strange black kid they barely know?