Even before coming out, Lara had never liked the uniform that she had to wear at Reeve-West Academy. It was drab, uncomfortable and annoying to put on. The teachers all claimed it promoted a strong sense of unity and equality among the students, which almost every single student collectively agreed to be complete baloney.

 

However, now that Lara knew who she really was, she found herself hating her uniform even more! The grey pants and shoes, along with a white button-up shirt, red tie and blue blazer were not only dull, they were way too masculine for Lara’s taste. As she looked in the mirror on Monday morning, and took in her reflection, she felt unimaginably underwhelmed.

 

On the plus side, at least her hair wasn’t terrible. Granted, it was still fairly short by most girl’s standards, but it made it easier for Lara to still see herself as a girl, albeit one in an incredibly boring and ugly outfit.

 

Lara took a deep breath as she went over the plan in her head. She knew that she was going to have to hear her deadname a lot, as well as be frequently misgendered. But she also knew that it would only be temporary. 

 

She thought about taking Victoria’s advice, and asking for people to use a nickname. She hadn’t minded being known as “J” when she’d first come out. Maybe she could text Damian, and ask him to call her that? He was probably the richest kid at school, so he’d definitely have some sway among the students.

 

Then Lara remembered one of the key factors in her plan; the debut of the new Supergirl. The appearance of a new superhero would always be the talk of the entire school, but this would be a special one. Not only was she related to the world’s most famous hero, but her publicly coming out as trans, would have attracted even more attention. Superheroes and trans rights would be the main topic of every conversation and rumour floating around the school, and only Lara and Damian knew that the girl who was on everyone’s minds, would be at school with them, incognito.

 

Lara then thought about her two school friends; Isabelle and Laurence. Should she tell them? It would probably be unsafe to reveal her secret identity, but maybe she could at least tell them about her being trans?

 

There was a knock at the door, and Lara heard her mother’s voice. “Lara? Are you nearly ready? The coach is gonna be here soon!” Yeah, by any other name it was still a school bus, but it was a luxury private school bus. Coach just felt like the more fitting word.

 

“Yeah, mom.” Lara replied. “Just a second!” She hastily checked her backpack, and grabbed her glasses from the top of the dresser. She didn’t really need the glasses, but her dad had always insisted she wear them ever since she had first shown signs of powers. Much like the ones worn by Clark, they provided a surprisingly effective disguise when she was living as an ordinary civilian.

 

Now that she was a fully-fledged superhero, Lara understood the need for the glasses more than ever. The whole world had seen her on TV, and many people knew her face. Plus, ‘Jon Kent’ had always worn glasses, so it made sense for Lara to do the same.

 

The irony of the situation was not lost on Lara. While she despised having to pretend she was a boy, she had to admit, it was a pretty effective addition to her disguise. She smiled, getting the thought that once her hair had grown out, she could wear it in different styles as Lara and Supergirl. It’d be an extra layer of disguise and be a chance to try lots of different looks! 

 

“Soon Lara.” She said softly to herself as a gentle reminder that what she faced today would not be her reality for very long. She would get through this. With one final breath and a check around the room she had everything she needed, she left her room to face the day.

________________________________________________________________

 

Lara just managed to get to the school coach on time. It didn’t stop too far from the apartment, but both Lois and Clark had stopped to hug her, and wish her luck before she left. As a result, she had to run to the coach stop, which made her thankful for her Kryptonian endurance.

 

Once she was on the coach, she made her way to the back, where she found her two school friends, Isabelle Issacs and Laurence Stamp, who both smiled when they saw her.

 

Isabelle, or Izzy to her friends, was a short black girl, with long, curly hair tied back in a bun, with a pink ribbon. It was known among the friends that she disliked wearing her hair this way, but her wealthy parents were very persistent. She wore a plain black skirt and tights as part of her uniform, which made Lara feel envious, but she did her best not to show it.

 

Sitting next to Izzy, was Laurence. He looked more like a typical prep school student; a tall, white kid, with neatly combed black hair, and a perpetually blasé expression. Despite his appearance, Laurence had always been friendly towards Lara and Izzy, presumably because they were so different from the other kids.

 

“Hey guys.” Lara called, taking the bus seat they had saved between them. “Did I miss anything while I was out sick?”

 

“Was that all it was?” Laurence asked with a raised eyebrow. “You’re never sick.”

 

Lara shrugged a little, “Yeah, it doesn’t happen much, so mom just kept me home till she was sure I was better. I probably ate something funny over the weekend.”

 

“Bleh… I’ve had food poisoning before. Not fun.” Izzy playfully punched Lara’s shoulder. “Glad you’re feeling better now, Jon.”

 

Lara tried her best not to flinch hearing her old name for the first time in almost a week. “Yeah… hey, do guys mind calling me J? I hung out with Damian last week, and he started calling me that. I think I prefer it.”

 

Laurence seemed a bit hesitant about the idea. He had mixed feelings about nicknames, in fact one of the few times his friends had seen him angry was when someone had called him Larry. 

 

Both Laurence and Izzy also had mixed feelings towards Damian Wayne. They knew that “J” sometimes hung out with the boy outside of school (their dads were friends, or something…), but the Wayne kid never seemed to interact with them much at the academy. 

 

Izzy on the other hand smiled and nodded “No problem, J. You started calling me ‘Izzy’ when I asked. Least I can do.” 

 

Laurence shrugged. “Yeah, I guess I can do that.”

 

“Thanks guys.” Lara smiled, glad one tough job was at least started. She wanted to ask if they’d seen the news about Supergirl, but it felt very tacky to name drop herself. Better to wait and see if anything was said… “So… you guys do anything over the weekend?”

 

Laurence sighed and held up his backpack. “Oh the usual, studying extra hard so I can help you two hopeless cases on the next test.”

 

“Hey! That’s not fair!” Izzy glared at the taller boy.

 

“Yeah! I’m the only hopeless one! Izzy does great!” Lara called in, making Izzy laugh and Laurence smile.

 

“So do either of you know who the 30th president was?” Laurence asked as a test. 

 

“Calvin… Andhobs?” Izzy asked, knowing she was close but not quite there.

 

“There were 30 presidents?” Lara asked in legitimate confusion.

 

“Like you said J, you are hopeless, Izzy might get partial credit.” Laurence gave a little laugh and pulled out his Superman-themed spiral notebook and handed it to his friends. “Look through these, you two. I think with the homework we got Friday, we might get stuck with a history quiz today.”

 

“Thanks, Laurence.” Lara knew to accept the chance to read her friend’s near perfect notes without question. Sometimes they were better organized than the teacher’s own lessons.

 

While awaiting her turn to see the book, Izzy stared at the Superman logo. “You guys see the news from Saturday? New hero in town.”

 

Lara resisted the urge to spring into an immediate conversation about herself. “Hmm?” She said, trying to sound casual. “Oh yeah, my mom wrote some stuff about her. She seems nice.”

 

“All the forums were talking about her.” said Laurence, who was something of a Superman geek. “But they had been expecting a new Superboy! I tell you, some of the theories that were going around were pretty stupid!” He gave a small chuckle, and began listing off his favourites.

 

“There were some people saying that she was a clone of Wonder Woman that Superman had adopted. Another said that she’s from an alternate universe where all the genders are flipped. Although my favourite one was that she was actually meant to be Superboy, but had accidentally been transformed by Pink Kryptonite!” 

 

“That is pretty silly!” Lara gave a little laugh, though secretly she did wonder if Pink Kryptonite might actually help her with the process. She had never been sure if it was even real. She had only heard it mentioned by Kara as an inside joke to her father before.

 

“I know right?” Laurence nodded, “So many people are just unable to accept the simplest explanation as the truth.”

 

“So… How exactly does it work?” Izzy asked, a little confused, but also curious. “She was born Superboy but decided she’d like being Supergirl more? Why would anyone choose to be a girl? It stinks!” She huffed a little, straightening her skirt. 

 

“Well…” Lara tried to think how best to keep the secret, and explain. “From what I could gather when I asked my mom... Trans people are sometimes uncomfortable with their body that they were born in. Or they just find that they prefer being another gender, and in the end, it’s how they feel inside that counts. They might choose to make changes in how they look, how they dress, and what people call them to help feel more comfortable.”

 

Izzy was quiet for a few seconds, her eyes shifting, as if trying to process this information. “But… isn’t everyone a little uncomfortable with their bodies?” She asked, slowly. “I hate my hair, how I have to dress, my mom just said this is all part of being a woman.”

 

Laurence shrugged. “I can’t speak for everyone, but I’ve always been pretty happy as a boy. Not much I’d change except maybe to be taller, and that’ll come if I wait.”

 

Lara smiled at Laurence’s comment, but she couldn’t help focusing on what Izzy had just said. Despite the efforts of Mr & Mrs Issacs, their daughter had always made it clear that she was not a fan of all the pretty pink bows, ribbons, skirts and dresses they bought for her. But this was new. It was almost enough to make Lara think… No... Izzy wasn’t trans too, was she?

 

Izzy sighed, “Well if the way I feel isn’t the normal that my mom was telling me, good for Supergirl. Don’t let the world say what she can or can’t do.”

 

“Right!” Lara said a little louder than she meant to before blushing. “Sorry,” She said at a more reasonable volume. “I’ve just been hearing and reading a lot about Supergirl the last few days. I gotta say, I’m excited about it.”

 

Laurence gestured around the bus, “You and everyone else. I’m pretty sure everyone on here is talking about what happened in the park yesterday...”

 

The three friends continued to chat about Supergirl, all the way to school. As they got off the bus, they continued talking all the way into the hallways, but had to go their separate ways after that, as the three of them had different classes to attend.

 

“Hey, guys?” said Lara, as Izzy and Laurence turned to leave. “Do either of you wanna hang out after school? I have… some stuff… that I want to talk to you about.” She grinned nervously, as her two friends exchanged puzzled looks.

 

“Sure…?” said Izzy, slowly. “My parents will be home late tonight, so we could hang out for a little while.

 

“Sounds good.” Laurence added. “My folks should be okay with it. What did you have in mind, J?”

 

Lara smiled at not having to hear her deadname. “Oh, just wondering if you two wanted to come over my place? Just so we can catch up?”

 

“Great!” smiled Izzy. “We can talk more about Supergirl. You said your mom had written about her.”

 

“Uh, yeah. That’s right.” Lara felt butterflies in her stomach. She waved goodbye to her schoolmates, promising to see them again at recess.

________________________________________________________________

 

Lara Ella Kent was a strange girl for numerous reasons. For one thing, she was Supergirl, a hero of Metropolis. For another, she had to pretend to be a boy while attending school, for the time being. Her strange life had only gotten stranger recently, but it had also become even more wonderful and happy than she had ever imagined.

 

The young lady knew who she was, and come that evening, her friends would know too. Her adventures as Supergirl were only just beginning, and she was glad to be facing them as her true self…

 

Lara Kent - The Girl of Steel!

Lara Kent will return