On the dawn of my first day back to school I was strongly contemplating faking being sick again to get out of it. All it took was a raised eyebrow from Mum at the sound of a single fake cough for my resolve to wither and die. Apparently she was supposed to take me to school to sign some paperwork, then I was supposed to explain everything in person. The worry about inevitable explanations and class reunions made my anxiety impossibly overwhelming.

I hadn’t even talked to Lexi since I woke, and Griff didn’t know I’d come out to myself. Both were going to be awkward topics of conversation I’d already come to dread. I had no fear that they wouldn’t accept me as I was, but the idea of explaining things was still hard to stomach. However, that worry didn’t even come close to how I felt at the thought of the rest of the school knowing. Sure bullying wasn’t remotely tolerated in school, but that didn’t mean other kids couldn’t ask some incredibly uncomfortable questions on accident.

Mum gave me a little extra time to get ready, and I was thankful for every second. I hesitated before putting on the uniform, my imagination running wild with the worst possible reactions from my classmates. I forced myself to get dressed in spite of my fears,  and once I’d finished I opened my bedroom door to see Veronica standing there, a sad smile on her face. She looked like she’d barely slept for the second day in a row, and her cheeks were puffy. Had she been crying? 

Before I could fully exit my room I felt her arms wrap around me, and heard her try stifling a sob. “I’m going back today. I realized I can’t live with not knowing if I’m still with her or not. I won’t be home when you get back from school.” I met her embrace and had to force myself not to cry. I was going to miss her so much, it was always harder at home without her around. Especially now, after the past few days I felt closer to her than I ever had in my life. 

I knew I couldn’t say much without bursting into tears, so I kept my response as short as I could. “Thank you, Roni. Come home soon, please. I’ll miss my sisters.” 

As we separated I saw a small smile form on her face. “Of course I’ll come back. But I know you’ve got this. You’re so, so much stronger than you give yourself credit for, and besides that Clarissa and Elana will be back home in only a week. Just take care of Andy for us for a little while, you know what a big softie he can be.” She winked like she was letting me on some big secret before going back into her room, presumably to pack. I couldn’t stop a few tears from falling down my face, but I was able to keep my composure from deteriorating further with enormous effort. 

That was before Lana and Rissa met me down the stairs. They both had their bags packed, and looked minutes away from leaving. Rissa made a noise people make when they see cute creatures as soon as she saw me, and Lana gave a bright smile. As soon as I caught their eyes my limited self control abandoned me. I pulled them both into me as the floodgates opened, but I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t.

“Hey, it’s okay. We’ll be back in just a week. Maybe two if the locals are cute enough.” Rissa softly scratched my head as she tried calming me down, her joke eliciting a short laugh to match my sobbing.

“Speak for yourself, Riss. Some of us have better things to do than find some stranger to keep company.” Lana chastised her sister while glancing at me, probably searching for a smile. I offered half of one as she continued. “Besides, I’m pretty sure you’ll be run too ragged to have any real fun. You know Master Rudly never trusts you to be alone with anyone who isn’t him, me, or Master Ceinwen. Not after Olympus.” 

“I swear, none of you will ever let me live that down. I missed one day of lessons.” Rissa sounded increasingly annoyed with the turn of conversation, but Lana’s tone said she was far more frustrated.

“You slept with the chancellor’s daughter!” 

My small laughter was morphing into a full fit, my tears forgotten as my sisters fell into their always beloved bickering. They always were good at cheering everybody up with their obvious jokes. I let them go, my tears once again held back. “I’ll miss you both.”

“It’s only a week, you’ll probably be so busy catching up with school that you won’t even notice our absence.” Rissa nodded along to what Lana said, and we said one last goodbye before I headed off to Mum. 

She was waiting by the door, dressed up in one of her old business suits. When she saw me her face was careful, emotions hidden behind it like usual. However, I saw something in her eyes for a moment, a smile that never made it to the rest of her face. “Well young lady, let’s go. We should still be on track to get your paperwork done before class starts.” My face brightened as euphoria hit me in response to being called ‘young lady’, and for a moment I wondered when that euphoria would go away. I kind of didn’t want that feeling to ever leave.

I laughed at myself as I suddenly realized why the term ‘young man’ made me so uncomfortable. I wasn’t one, no wonder it never felt like it fit. Goddess, there were so many things that made sense with the understanding that I wasn’t a boy, enough that it was incredibly shocking to think that none of my family save Veronica ever even tried approaching me about how I felt. But then I was a bit dense.

Mum gave me a look as if prepared to ask what was so funny, but was cut off by our arrival at our destination. The teleport station close to our home was normally much busier prior to school, but we seemed to be early enough to miss the largest rush. Our teleporter, the same old woman who had apparently been in charge of this station since before Veronica was born, went through the usual spiel before teleporting us right in front of my school.

In the blink of an eye I went from in the center of a cramped room with my mother to standing beside her in front of the school I’d spent the last seven years of my life attending. Aella Academy stood near the center of my home district, where all public servants and their families lived. It wasn’t the richest part of Atlantis, but it was well respected. We would have our pick of Upper schools to attend once we had finished attending Aella, but I knew most of my classmates would just go wherever their parents told them to go. I was lucky that my mothers wanted me to attend any Upper school that wasn’t space based, and even if I did want to focus my studies on space like my sisters they’d still be okay with that. 

Mum and I headed forward, entering the administration office right next to the front door. Inside sat a bored looking man filing some paperwork. I couldn’t remember his name, though I’d seen him probably a hundred times since I started attending this school. Maybe it was Mr. Petyrson? I was positive it was something like that. If only he had a name tag or something to make figuring his name out easier.

“Hello, Roan. Amy staying out of trouble?” My mum started small talk so casually that it took me a moment to recover. How well did she know him? Must have been a work thing.

“Oh, you know her. Still a troublemaker, though she prefers Amanda now. Sounds more grown-up, I suppose.” Roan had a sad smile on his face as he mentioned Amanda, who must have been his daughter or something. “She might be thinking of apprenticing in the magical investigations division, actually. Something about a crotchety old woman inspiring her.” 

“Crotchety old woman? The nerve on that girl. I don’t even have grey hair yet!” Mum pretended to be insulted before both of them started laughing. Whatever relationship they had must have gone far back. It was kind of cute.

They kept up the small talk for a minute while I occupied myself with some last minute homework adjustments. Well it was more like last minute homework checking. I didn’t have nearly enough time to finish any unfinished work, though I had so little of it that it was barely worth thinking about. I was thankful for my double checking, at any rate. One of my multiple choice questions on the biology of a pointboar was wrong, I must have circled the incorrect choice on accident. 

Thankfully that was the only mistake I found before Mum and Roan finished their small talk and moved on to me. I rushed over as soon as Roan asked who I was, not bothering to organize my homework as I shoved it haphazardly into my backpack. I could organize it later.

“So, she a niece you’re taking care of? Or is she..?” He seemed to examine me for a moment, causing me to have to push down my desire to hide behind something or someone. After a moment it looked like he realized something, and he snapped his fingers excitedly. “Oh my goodness! Is this your youngest? I should have recognized them sooner. They have Elyzabeth’s eyes, that alone should’ve been enough for me. Hello there. What’s your name? Or did you keep your old one?” It was slight, almost imperceptible to me, but I noticed a slight shift in his tone and posture as he was speaking to me, like he was talking down to a child. I pushed down the distaste I felt for that and forced myself to appreciate his refusal to use my deadname, even though it was obvious he knew it.

“It’s Samantha now.” I was a little too curt with my answer, but a part of me didn’t like being talked down to by adults. Neither of my parents ever did it, nor did my siblings. When others did it, which was rare, it felt incredibly weird and rude.

“Samantha, huh? Well let me get that into the system for you. Girl pronouns?” Goddess, could he sound less like he’s talking to a seven-year old?

“Yes sir.” Yes, Mum, I know I look and sound annoyed, stop looking at me like that. You were the one who raised me to not let people talk down to me, this is kind of your fault.

“Alrighty then! I’ll get some paperwork for your mom and you to work through, and then we’ll see about getting an announcement for this set up in the auditorium before school starts.” His tone was grating on me quickly enough that I didn’t know if I could pretend to only be a little annoyed for long. Once he handed Mum the paperwork I sat down at a small table beside her to fill things out where my input was needed. I didn’t even bother to look over to Roan, I was getting frustrated just thinking about him.

“I know you don’t like it when people talk to you like that, Samantha, but you need to be better at hiding it.” Mum quietly chastised me as she filled out a school name change form and sent it my way to sign. She was right, like usual, but I didn’t like to admit that so soon. 

“I just hate it when people see me and think I’m a child. I’m thirteen, mom, not six.” As I spoke I realized that I was sounding like a bit of a petulant child, but it felt nice to let these frustrations out. Plus Mum understood. She was strict, but always understanding.

“I know, but you’ve got a lot working against you. You’re a late bloomer like your sisters, and not just because of your transition. That alone makes you seem younger than you are. Give it a year, maybe two, and you’ll be missing it when people wrote you off as a kid.” She was definitely wrong, but I wasn’t going to argue that point further. 

In silence we filled out the rest of the paperwork, and had it all done with almost half an hour before the first class of the day was scheduled to begin. I gave Mum a hug goodbye as I was escorted by Roan to the auditorium, my anxiety steadily rising with each passing step. I knew the school was good, and it wasn’t like transgender people were ever mistreated anymore, but I still felt incredibly nervous about standing in front of the entire school and announcing who I was.

The anxiety was quelled for a moment as I saw Lexi and Griff standing just outside of the entrance to the auditorium stage, not looking in my direction. Griff must have figured out what the announcement was for, and pulled Lexi along to wait with them. Their face lit up as soon as they saw me, and they let out the cutest noise to get Lexi’s attention. 

As soon as Lexi’s eyes found mine her face lit up with the most excited and adorable look I’d ever seen her make. It was only a little ruined by what she nearly shouted at me as she ran in my direction. “Maaaaaaaax!” Her voice echoed across the hall over the sound of her sneakers as her run became a full sprint. I stopped and prepared myself for her to tackle me, more than confident I could stand up to her hitting me at a sprint.

I blinked, and was under her on the floor, enveloped in an almost painfully tight hug. “Oh Goddess, I missed you so so much. Also, was that a skirt?” She sucked in a breath as if surprised. “Wait, are you a girl? Holy shit Max, that’s awesome! Oh, sorry for cursing, Mr. Petyrson. Is it still Max, or did you pick a cuter name? Not that Max isn’t a cute name, if it’s yours.” Lexi, as always, never gave herself time to breathe when she was excited. Mr. Petyrson (I was right!!!) didn’t even have time to chastise her before she apologized, and I didn’t have a second to answer any of her questions. Also, did she just imply that I was cute?

While I stuttered, unable to even form a proper response, Griff jogged up behind us and worked to pull her off of me. “Come’on, get off. She has to breathe. She can’t answer you if you choke her half to death.” 

Lexi let go of me slowly, a pout on her face. “Fine...” I let out a deep breath as soon as I was free of her grasp.

“It’s Sam, please. And yes. Girl now. Please.” I spoke between breaths as I recovered from Lexi’s incredibly strong grasp. I missed her, but her hugs were always a little much.

Roan, or Mr. Petyrson as I was probably meant to think of him, cleared his breath before any of us could socialize more. “Look, kiddos, I get that you haven’t seen one another but we’re on a timer. Gotta get Samantha here up on stage so we can explain everything. We don’t want her to have to explain things one class at a time, do we?” His tone was grating on me even more without Mum there to remind me to be good, but he was right. “You two, get to your seats, I’ll take Sam through the back way and you will get to see her there.”

I waved goodbye to them as Roan ushered me into the stage entrance, anxiety once again picking up. After my interactions with Lexi and Griff, however, I felt something else rising. A confidence stirring and growing, a knowledge that I could be who I was in front of everyone no matter what. 

I stood behind the final curtain separating me from everyone else, the voices of my fellow students filling the air. Roan, I assumed he would be clearing things for me, stepped passed the curtain and began speaking. I wasn’t listening to his words, too busy being lost in my own thoughts.

The last time I stepped on the auditorium stage there were snickers, everyone wondering how I would be publicly humiliated by a supposed doctor with a short temper. Instead of any of that he was arrested and I was knocked into a coma until I figured myself out. Hopefully this time as I walked the stage I’d be met with something more positive.

But did that matter? I had Griff and Lexi here. I had a wonderful family who loved me as I was. I had a school that historically was always good to trans people. Even if the other students didn’t accept me, what did that mean? All I really had to do was last until the summer at worst, then I could go to any school I wanted. The worst case scenario wasn’t even all that bad, all things considered.

Yes, I could do this. And even if the worst case happened and I was ostracized by all the other students here, that meant only a short time to suffer. And even if I did, I wouldn’t do it alone. I could do this.

As Roan motioned for me to move, I stepped forward and in front of the school. 

I was ready.

Lotus17

So this is the end of this part of Three Laws. I've loved these characters way too much, and none of them are over, but future series are not going to be as positive or happy. I appreciate the constant feedback from all of you, and hope to see you reading future stories.

Thank you all for everything. Y'all are the reason I managed to finish this.