21
A School Day

“Welcome,” the principal said, getting off his computer and giving us his full attention as my mom and I entered the room. “What did you two want to discuss today?”

“Umm,” I said nervously as I took a seat, “Mom, do you want to say what we came here for?”

“Shouldn’t you be the one to say it?” Mom asked, gently chuckling. “You are why we came here after all.”

“Fine,” I said, taking a deep breath as I turned to the principal. “I’m, well, I’m transgender, and I wanted to discuss coming out here.”

“You’re transgender,” he said, taking a second to process what I said. “Well, that shouldn’t be a problem. The school is fully accepting of LGBT people and we don’t tolerate any sort of harassment towards LGBT students.”

“That’s a relief,” I said, wiping a bead of sweat from my forehead. “I was a little worried.”

“It's normal to be worried or anxious about coming out, it isn't easy,” he said, trying to reassure me. “We do need some time to tell your teachers and change your name in the system. We would also need to deal with your school email and ID card. When would you like to come out?”

“I want to come out next week, probably on Monday,” I replied.

“Are you just going to show up in feminine clothing and makeup without warning?” he asked. “Or would you like your teachers to introduce your change?”

“I think it would be nice if the teachers let people know about me now,” I said, nodding. “It would be scary coming out on my own.”

“Got it,” he said, typing something on his computer. “It’s all settled then, we’ll need a new photo of you for your school ID card but that’s about it. We’ll get everything else changed in the system on our own by next week.”

“Thank you,” I said, smiling. “I appreciate it a lot.”

“No problem,” the principal responded. “My job is to help the students here after all.”

***

“Julie, how’d the meeting go?” Ryan asked over the phone.

“It went well!” I replied, happily bouncing around in my seat. “The principal said that the school is fully supportive and that they’d change my school ID card and email.”

“Oh, that’s great!” he exclaimed, genuinely sounding very excited for me. “Seems like everything is falling into place.”

“It is!” I said excitedly. “Everything’s going so well, I’m so happy.”

“I’m happy for you too,” he said. I could just imagine him smiling on the other end. “Love you, Julie.”

“Love you too,” I said.

***

“Welcome to another GSA meeting,” Ryan said, clapping his hands together. “First let's celebrate how well the event went.”

Some cheers erupted as we clapped.

“Yup, I’m glad it went well,” Ryan exclaimed. “We got some new members too, they’ll be joining us next week. So our little family will be getting a little bigger.”

“That’s really nice,” Thomas said. “Maybe we’ll get another egg. Hopefully they’ll be less dense than Julie was.”

“I wasn’t that dense,” I said.

“You were pretty dense,” Ryan said, laughing. “You dressed up as a girl for ages and didn’t figure out it meant more.”

“Hey, I just thought it was a hobby,” I said, crossing my arms.

“Yeah, a very cisgender hobby,” Jasmine said, rolling her eyes.

“I mean, there are some cisgender people who like dressing up,” Alex said. “But in the case of our Julie, it was pretty obvious she was trans.”

“How would I have known?” I asked. “I barely knew about transgender people, I thought it wasn’t too unusual for a guy to enjoy dressing up as a girl.”

“Yeah there’s enjoying dressing up as a girl and then feeling complete and like you’re you when you’re dressed up as a girl,” Ryan said, chuckling. “Big difference there, and you were the latter.”

“Oh, there’s some news about me,” I said, trying to steer the conversation into a nicer one. “I’m coming out soon at school! Next week on Monday.”

“Ooh,” Jasmine said, grinning. “I hope that goes well.”

“I do too, I’m a little scared though,” I said, twiddling my fingers. “There’s bound to be at least some unsupportive people.”

“Hey,” Zoe said, crossing her arms. “Screw them, we’re all here for you.”

“Thanks,” I said, smiling. “One last week as Jacob and then I'll never have to be him again, I can be Julie full-time.”

“Hell yeah,” Alex said, pumping their arm. “Look, it’ll be alright and totally worth it, okay? You can finally be yourself everywhere!”

“I know, it’s a week away but I feel like it’ll come in the blink of an eye,” I said. “I hope it goes well.”

***

In a blink of an eye, it was Monday.

“You’re really nervous, aren’t you?” Mom asked, looking at me as I stared at myself in the mirror. I was worried about if my makeup was not on well enough or if my eyeliner was a little crooked.

“I am,” I whined, scared out of my mind of what the school day would entail.

“Look, it’ll be all okay,” she said.

“What should I wear?” I asked, looking inside of my closet. It felt nice to have my feminine clothes out in the open now, instead of being hidden in the back. I pulled out the blue dress that Ryan bought me way back when. “I think this is a good one.”

“When did you get that?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.

“My boyfriend bought it for me,” I said. “Before we were dating though, he just bought it for me as an apology for blackmailing me to join the GSA.”

“Heh, that’s interesting,” she said, chuckling. “Anyways, once you’re done looking at your makeup in the mirror, get in the car. I’ll drive you to school today.”

***

“Ah, no bus today,” Daniel said in the car seat next to me. We were both in the back, as Daniel decided to tag along with Mom and me. “Today’s the day for you, isn’t it Julie?”

“It is,” I said, a nervous smile creeping onto my face. “I hope it goes well.”

“Look, if anyone talks shit, you have Ryan and I ready to protect you.”

“Language,” Mom said from the front seat.

“Sorry,” Daniel replied, chuckling. “Anyways, you’ll be alright. We’re all here for you.”

“Thanks,” I said. “Everyone keeps on telling me that, and it makes me happy. It’s like I finally have people who care about me.”

“Finally?” Daniel asked, raising his eyebrows. “I always cared about you, it’s just you were reclusive and made it difficult for us to bond.”

“I guess that’s true,” I said, frowning at the way I acted before. “I guess not knowing I was transgender made things hard for me.”

“It really did,” Daniel said. “Since you came out to me, things have been so much better between us. I feel like I’m finally getting to know my little sister.”

“I’m glad to be getting to know my big brother a little better too,” I replied.

***

I stared at the school, far away enough that nobody would notice me. I was too nervous to walk in, wondering what people would say about me.

“Julie,” I heard a voice say, surprising me. I jumped a little as I turned around just to see my boyfriend. “Sorry if I surprised you.”

“You did,” I whined. “How did you even find me?”

“I knew you’d be nervous so I looked around the edges of the school until I found you,” Ryan said, a lopsided grin appearing on his face. He held out his hand in my direction. “Come on, let’s go in.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, a little concerned. “If we walked in like that everyone would know we’re dating.”

“Okay,” he said after a few seconds. “And why would that be an issue again?”

“Aren’t you a little ashamed?” I asked, looking down at the floor. “Like you’re the star football player and could probably have any girl in school, yet you’re with me.”

“Look, Julie,” he said, his hand still outstretched. “I don’t want to be with any other girl in the school, I want to be with you and I am happy with you..”

“I guess, I just don’t want to ruin your reputation or anything by having people know you’re dating me.”

“The last thing in the world I care about in the world is my reputation,” he said, chuckling slightly. “I’d much rather have you by my side.”

“Okay then,” I said, finally grabbing onto his hand. I immediately felt much more reassured now that Ryan was with me. We walked hand in hand to the school entrance and then stepped in.

“Not so scary, is it?” Ryan asked as we walked in.

“No, it is scary,” I replied, gripping tighter onto his hand. Despite that, I tried to put a brave face on as we walked to the office to get my new ID card. We were walking for a while until we were interrupted.

“Jacob?” a voice asked me. I froze, looking in front of me to see Sarah, a girl from some of my classes, staring at me. “What are you wearing?”

“Umm,” I said, my heart beating. I knew this would happen, but actually being confronted with someone asking me about it was terrifying. I noticed some people crowding around, clearly curious as to what was going on with me. I bit my lip before answering her. “I’m transgender, and I’m coming out at school today.”

“You’re transgender?” she asked, clearly confused. “I guess that explains it.”

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Ew,” I heard a voice say. Another girl who was in a few of my classes looked a little disgusted as she looked up and down at me. “We seriously have a transgender here?”

I was immediately struck with sadness. I knew not everyone would be supportive, but it still stung being confronted with hate.. I was about to speak up when Ryan spoke for me.

“Look, if you have any problem with my girlfriend and who she is, come to me about it,” he said, staring at her with a look strong enough to kill.

“Your girlfriend?” she asked, looking at Ryan with a confused face. “You’re dating Jacob?”

“Her name is Julie, and yes I am,” he said, quickly gripping my hand to let everyone know he was with me. “You have a problem with that?”

“No,” she said, slinking away now that she was being confronted.

“Good,” Ryan said. Even I was a little scared by how serious he was. He glanced over at me before asking a question. “Are you okay, babe?”

“Yeah,” I replied, shaking a little after the confrontation. “A little scared after all that, but I’m fine.”

“That’s a relief,” he said, giving me a quick kiss on the forehead. “Don’t mind her, there’s always going to be some transphobic people but the people who support you far outweigh them.”

“Yeah, I mean, I’m at least happy for you,” Sarah mumbled out. “It can’t be easy coming out at school. Congratulations.”

A few other people murmured in agreement, voicing their support. I couldn’t help but smile weakly, overwhelmed by how supportive everyone was. “Thank you,” I said, my voice still shaking.

***

“Hi, I’m here to pick up my new ID card,” I said to the secretary.

“Oh, are you the transgender student?” she asked, looking around a drawer.

“Yes, that’s me,” I said, watching as she went through drawer after drawer, clearly having no clue where my ID card was.

“Oh, here it is,” she said, fishing out a thin card from a drawer. “Freshly minted, congratulations, by the way.”

“Thank you,” I responded, taking my card from her hand. I looked at it to see my own smiling face on the left and the name Julie Parker written on the right. I smiled a little as I saw my real name there.

“Ryan, look,” I said, excitedly showing him the ID card. “It has my name on it.”

“It does,” he said. “You look super cute in that photo too.”

“No I don’t,” I said, frowning as I saw the photo. It looked a little weird to me, although I suppose that was to be expected from an ID card. Driver's license and passport photos never looked good, and this was the same.

“Any photo of you is cute to me,” he said, giving me a lopsided grin.

“Stop,” I said, blushing.

“Never,” he said, laughing. “Come on, let’s get to class now. We don’t want you to be late.”

***

Ryan finished walking me to my first class of the day without any further issues. Some people did take an extra long look at me in the hallway, but that was about it. I walked into class and sat down at my usual seat. This time, I saw a lot of people looking at me as they walked in and murmuring amongst themselves. I awkwardly shifted in my seat, waiting for class to start.

“Hello everyone,” my math teacher said as he entered the classroom. “Now, before we get started on our lessons, there’s some news that has to be addressed. I’m sure there’s already been some gossip, but we have a transgender student. Please be respectful, no harassment will be tolerated.”

The entire room took glances at me and whispered, something I tried to ignore.

“Anyways, we’re moving on to attendance, hopefully, none of you are absent,” he said. He looked down at his attendance sheet and began calling out names. After a while, it landed on me. “Julie Parker?”

“Here!” I said excitedly.