"Ayo! Is this guy wearing makeup!?"

I looked around confused for where the loud exclamation came from. I had just reached the corner of my bus stop where the other students are lined up to get into the bus. Everyone stops piling in when they hear this and look toward the back of the line, where two people stand. Michael, one of the loudest, most obnoxious boys in my year, and Gabriel, who is hanging his head low, trying to ignore all of the unwanted attention he is getting.

As I walk my way to the back of the line, Michael continues shouting to his friends. "Yo, Omar! Darius! Look at this dude!" 

Darius steps out of line and surrounds Gabriel with Michael, wanting to get a better look, with Omar reluctantly following soon after.

"Ain't no way he's got makeup on." Says Darius, bending down and trying to get a look at his face. Gabriel jerks his head to the side, his long, black hair blocks most of his facial features from view. Darius is an annoying little goblin. Short and always sticking his little nose in everyone's business. And he loves to get uncomfortably close to people too. Compare that to Omar, who is a big, nervous teddy bear. He's so quiet and tries to stay out of the way, that I sometimes wonder why he hangs out with these guys.

"He does man! I saw it! He's got clown makeup on or somethin'. Hey Gabe, look up real quick." Michael steps closer and tries to move his hair out of the way.

Okay assholes! That's enough of that!

I briskly walk to the back of the line and when I get next to Gabriel, I give Michael a small slap on the hand. Just a tiny one.

"AYO WHAT THE HELL?!?" He pulls his hand back as he turns to glare daggers at the person that came out of nowhere. When he sees that it's me, his mood goes from angry to annoyed.

"Of course. It's fuckin' Maya. What do you want, killjoy?" He says, as Darius and Omar move to stand by his side. I cross my arms in front of me and throw on my most smug smile, letting them know the this isn't gonna intimidate me.

"Nothin' much. Just wanted to know why you're touching boys at the back of the line?"

Michael gets a little frustrated at my implication. "I'm not doin' anything like that! We just tryin' to see the goofy ass makeup he got on!"

"Yeah! Just raise your head up a lil' bit. If your not wearing anything, then it shouldn't be a big deal." Darius cranes his neck down and takes a step forward, trying to get another look at Gabriels face. I step in between them, cutting Darius off. "Why the fuck does it matter what's on his face? It ain't got nothing to do with you." 

"Bro, why are you always-"

HONK! HOOOONK!

The sound blaring from the bus cuts our conversation short. I look up after uncovering my ears and see our bus driver, Ms. Tammy, giving us the evil eye.

"GET! ON! THE! BUS! YA'LL ARE WASTING MY TIME!" She shouts, honking the horn between each word.

"Ladies first~" Michael does an exaggerated wave of his hand, waiting for me to get in line first.

Nuh uh. that's not how I do things.

"...Tch." After a few seconds of neither of us moving an inch, they understand that I'm not going anywhere and slowly march their way to the back of the line. When everyone else gets on the bus, I turn to Gabriel, who still has his head down.

"Okay! We're all good!" I say, making a show of dusting off my hands. "C'mon."

After that, I get on the bus, coming face to face with Ms. Tammy, who is still giving me the stink eye.

"Hey?" I greet her with a sheepish grin. Her 'ticked off' face quickly changes to a genuine smile.

"Why are you always gettin' mixed up in some drama every time I pull up to your stop?"

I shrug my shoulders like a don't know what she's talking about, but It's pretty well known around here that if someone is being unfairly picked on, Maya's gonna have something to say about it.

My first year of middle school was when I learned that bullying was turned up a notch. I had to endure my fair share of being singled out, so whenever it wasn't my turn to be mocked, I always kept to myself in hope that wouldn't mess with me. As long as it wasn't me, I would gladly ignore how everyone else was being treated. That is, until they decided to pick on a girl named Ashley.

She wasn't someone that I hung out with or even talked to. Ashley was just your typical nervous, quiet kid, never bothering anyone. And people usually didn't bother her. Until one day, someone happened to notice that she was wearing a pair of shoes that were made by an infamous knock-off brand. Now, before I got to middle school, I wouldn't give a damn about what anyone wore. But this is the time where people could find the teeniest, tiniest flaw in you and verbally tear you to shreds.

Needless to say, she was made the laughingstock to the class that day. People were shouting and teasing her all day and she could only look around confused, wondering why they were treating her like this. Only me and a couple of others ignored what was going on, not wanting to be dragged into all of the noise going on around us. Her whole body was shaking and she was in tears by the end of it all.

When I got home that day, I had this heavy feeling in my stomach. After having a talk with my mom, I realized it was guilt. Guilt for just sitting by and letting Ashley take that abuse like that. The guilt I felt in the pit of my stomach got heavier when she didn't show up to school the next day. It became incontrollable when she didn't show up for a week. I learned later on that her parents had transferred her to a different school.

While I was glad that she doesn't have to deal with this bullying shit anymore, I still felt bad for not doing anything for her. If anyone that day had stood up for her, she wouldn't have felt the need to move away. So I made it my mission that unless it's between friends, I would at least try and step in and help them out. Yeah, some people have a problem with me ruining their fun, but I say 'Fuck 'em!'  You shouldn't feel like you have to ruin someone else's day to entertain yourself!

After walking past Ms. Tammy, I make my way down the aisle to my favorite spot. I plop down at a seat close to the back of the bus and put my backpack next to me. people can be very childish and like to pull all kinds of shenanigans on the bus sometimes, so it's better to sit at the back where you can see everything going on.

"Hey, you getting on?"

I see Ms. Tammy looking through the open doors of the bus. When I look out the window, I see Gabriel standing at the steps.

I can understand not wanting to ride the bus with the people that have been tormenting you just a few moments ago. Welp... I tried to help him out.

Satisfied, I sit back in my seat and wait for the bus to pull off from the curb. But to my surprise, Gabriel slowly climbs the steps and turns to face the rest of us.

"Go on, find a seat. We're about to take off."

Ms. Tammy urges him to sit down somewhere so she can start driving. Gabriel tries to make his way down the aisle but freezes when he sees that some of the other students have taken their phones out and have them pointed towards him.

Looks like he needs a little help.

"Gabe!"

I stand up from my seat and call his name. I notice that he kinda winces when I do, snapping him out of his frozen state, then quickly walks down the aisle. I make a waving gesture next to me, ushering him in and allowing him to have the window seat. I look back to everyone that still have their phones out. Disappointed, they turn back around and sit in their seats. I do the same, sitting down and putting my backpack in my lap.

"So..." I begin to say. Gabriel slowly turns to face me and I finally get a glimpse of this 'Clown makeup' Michael was yelling about. His eyelashes are thick with mascara, and he has a light, reddish eye shadow around his hazel eyes. There's also some barely noticeable foundation and a light-red blush on his cheek. And his lips have a shiny gloss to them. I tilt my head, intrigued. When I start looking for anything else that Gabriel had put on, he turns away, focusing on the scenery passing by out the window.

Okay...

We spend the rest of the awkward bus ride in silence.

---

After stopping at three more bus stops and arriving at school, we finally reach the front of West Oakmount High School. Honestly, the school isn't anything to write home about. I only like it because there are some really cool teachers here and my friends. I let everyone else get off the bus first, then turn back to Gabriel.

"Hey... You gonna be okay now?"

He's quiet, watching everyone else get off the bus rush into the school. The bus is empty now, leaving just us and Ms. Tammy. She gives me a look that tells me 'I gotta go now'.

Well... Whatever he wants to do is up to him now.

"I'll be glad to sit with you again if you need too. Just get here before the seats start fill up, okay?"

Without waiting for a response, I walk down the aisle. I say goodbye to Ms. Tammy and step off the bus. After entering the school, I head straight for my locker. Me and my friends always meet there in the morning. As I'm making my way over to them, I see Chyou standing by my locker along with another guy I don't know too well. Chyou isn't a talker, so whatever is going on over there can't be good.

"So... you speak Chinese, right?" He asks.

Chyou doesn't respond. She's almost always seen covering her mouth with the long sleeve of her shirt, the only emotion you could get from her is through her black eyes. She just stands there staring up at him.

"Uh... Okay. That's pretty cool. Can you say something in Chinese?"

Oh my god.

The secondhand embarrassment almost had me folding in on myself. When I had first me Chyou in our freshmen year, I had said something similar to her. I realized how weird it was for me to say that. Shaking the memory from my mind, I march up to my locker and put myself directly between the two.

"Hey! This is my locker right here, sooo..."

The guy is obviously annoyed that I interrupted his little one-sided conversation with Chyou. I turned to face my locker and quickly put in the combination. As I swung the locker open, blocking his view of us, I glance to Chyou and whispered, "Hey. Is this guy bothering you?"

Her eyes went wide as she nodded her head frantically, shaking her shoulder-length black hair all over the place. I give her a quick thumbs up, swapped out a couple of textbooks, and closed the locker. I whipped out my phone and sent Tanisha a message that we would meet next to our morning classroom. At this point, the guy was getting a little impatient. So I gave him a little smile.

"Sorry, we got places to be. Besides, she's not interested." I held out my hand to Chyou. She doesn't like physical contact, so we try to avoid touching her. But she still placed her hand in mine. Hey, we are basically best friends! I'm the exception.

"Bye!" I gave the guy a half-assed wave and we sped off to our first class. We made our way over to the staircase, weaving between other students lazily standing around blocking the hallway in their various friend groups. We hike our way up to second floor. After wasting a chunk of time walking behind a group taking their sweet time moving down the hall, we see Tanisha texting on her phone by the door to our English class.

I crouch down slightly with Chyou in hand, slowing our walking speed. When I get closer to Tanisha, I reach up with my left hand to give her big, poofy afro a playful little boop.

"Don't even think about it, Maya!"

Hunh? How did she know?!

She begins turning around, saying, "I could see you two stalking up to me, did you really think I-".

She stops when she sees Me and Chyou, then breaks out into the cheesiest grin I'd ever seen from her.

"Did you finally tell her?" She says excitedly.

Tell who? Me?

I turn around. I look to Chyou first and see that she's avoiding my gaze, staring off to the side. Immediately behind her I see...

"Gabe?!"

What the hell?!

"Are... you following us?" I ask him. His eyes dart between me, Tanisha and Chyou, who is now looking up at him.

"Th-this is my class too."

Oh.

Now that he mentioned it, we do share some of the same classes. I think it's just that he didn't stand out too much. He also didn't come to school for a few days until now. While I'm lost in my thoughts, Tanisha sidles up next to me and leans forward.

"You wearing makeup?" She says with an accusatory sounding tone. Gabriel freezes up again. Surprised, Chyou looks back at him. After examining his face, she turns back to Tanisha, Scowling.

"Eh." Tanisha shrugs and turns around to face the classroom door.

"C'mon, I'm tryin' to get in before our seats get taken."

She walks into class, leaving us behind. I started following after her, when Chyou grabs the sleeve of my shirt.

"I need to talk to-" She stops suddenly, glancing back to Gabe, "-them. Can you save us some seats?"

Hmmmm?!

Something was definitely up. Chyou barely even talks with us, so for her to want to talk with someone that, as far as I know, she has never had a conversation with, was shocking. I was hesitant to leave her alone, but the look she is giving is telling me that this is really important to her.

"Uh, okay. I'll see you inside..."

She nods. Then turns to Gabriel and starts talking to him in a hushed tone. With one last look, I step inside Mr. Roberts' class. He's sitting at his desk with his feet up, sipping from a thermos most likely filled with coffee.

He tips his thermos towards me. "Ms. Edwards. Good morning."

"Morning, Mr. Robert."

I look to the very back of the class where Tanisha is sitting. She has taken the seat next to the window where I usually sit.

"Sooo... She still hasn't said anything to you, huh?"

"Okay, what are you talking about? Ya'll have been going on about this all weekend. Just tell me already!"

I get weird looks from the other students in class as Tanisha shows me the same cheesy grin from earlier. "It's not my place to say. Either you figure it out or wait for Chu to tell you."

"You know what, I'll wait. She seems extra talkative today."

I take the seat in front of Tanisha, since Chu always sits next to me. On the whiteboard, Mr. Robert has the usual warm-up writing exercise. While I'm taking out my writing journal, Chu enters the class with Gabriel.

"Ms. Lu. Mr. Barrera. Good m-" His greeting falls short when he lays eyes on Gabe. For just a moment, he stares at him, then gives him a knowing nod.

"Good morning." He finishes his greeting. Chu waves in response. Gabe says nothing and follows her to where we are sitting. There's a couple of whispers from the other students as they make their way down the aisle. 

"If you have time to gossip, you have time to finish the warm-up on the white board!" Mr. Roberts instantly quiets the class. Chu walks over and stands in front of my desk.

"Hey, can we get these seats."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Now I'm concerned. We always sat next to each other in this class.

Damn. She must really like this guy.

"Uhh... Yeah, I got you."

Mystified, I picked up my stuff and moved everything to the seat beside Tanisha. We shared the same confusion between each other as I sat down. Chu moves to the seat I was in. Gabriel had an apologetic look on his face, sitting in the seat next to her. After that, class carried on like it normally would. Except Chu and Gabe kept whispering between each other the entire time, which was weird, since Mr. Robert didn't like talking during his lesson. It was so bizarre. Some guy comes around and Chu becomes a total chatterbox. The end of class bell chimes from the overhead speaker.

"Alright! Next time I'll have you guys split into groups and act out a part of the script. Class dismissed! Mr. Barrera and Ms. Lu, can I speak with you two after class?

The other students start speculating loudly about what Mr. Robert could possibly want with them as they pack up their things. Gabe doesn't move from his seat. While everyone makes their way out of class and on to the next, Chu stops us before we get any further.

"Can you guys wait for me outside?"

Tanisha leans over my shoulder and whispers, "Yo, Chu, what did you do? Mr. Robert is pretty chill, so you must have done something big."

I notice that Chu is shaking a little bit. She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "Uhh... I didn't do anything yet."

Yet?

"It depends on how you guys take it." She says, turning away from us.

This... just got reallllly weird.

"Chu, you okay?"

She doesn't respond. I want to give her a hug right now. I can tell she is really stressing right now for some reason. Tanisha taps my arm and motions to the door.

"Let's wait outside. Maybe she'll be ready after... Whatever  this is."

We both go outside as Chu makes her way over to Mr. Robert. Five minutes pass very slowly as we wait, watching other students walk to class. A security guard spots us standing in place and tries to shoo us to our next class, when the door to the classroom opens.

"Oh, sorry about that! I asked them to stay behind for me." Mr. Robert vouches for me and Tanisha. The security guard complains that we had better have a hall pass if we aren't in our proper class. He leads us back into the class, where Gabriel and Chu are standing at the front of the class.

"I don't have a class right now, but that doesn't mean I can keep you here all day. You guys are here because these two trust you. So, why don't you introduce yourselves? Whoever wants to go first."

Introduce? But we already know each other?

I Look to Tanisha for an answer, but she's also confused? What is happening right now?

Chu and Gabe have a quiet debate between each other. After the two stop whispering to each other, Gabriel steps forward. He looks to me first, clears his throat, and sticks out his hand.

"Hi, my name is Julia. I go by She/Her."