4

Acclimation

Mom yawned, walking into my room. “You know, you really should learn to do this yourself,” she said, wiping her eye with a fist. “I can’t do your makeup and choose your clothes for you every morning.”

“Mom, isn’t it a step too far to expect me to even learn how to apply makeup?” I asked, sighing. “Next thing you’re going to want me to become a girl.”

“Considering your attitude improved a lot since you’ve gotten in touch with your feminine side, I wouldn’t mind that at all,” she said, laughing gently. “Just joking, of course.”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Time for my manly makeup, Mom.”

“It takes a real man to be best girl,” she said, humming as she put makeup products on the table in front of me.

“Mom!” I said, turning around, shocked by what I just heard. “Where did you even hear that from?”

“I saw it on Twitter,” she said, laughing.

“Please never say that again,” I said, turning back around to face the mirror and sighing. Giving my mom access to the Internet had to be the worst decision made by humanity in years. I sat silently as my mom did my makeup, taking my time to actually focus a little on what she was doing rather than stare blankly into space. I did suppose I would have to learn how to do it at some point during my time at Rosewood.

“For clothes, let’s see here,” my mom said, digging through my closet. She pulled out a black skirt with a white blouse with a lot of frills around the sleeves. “This should be good.”

“Mom, is it like your mission to put me in the most feminine clothes possible?” I asked.

“Look, you need feminine clothes for an all girl’s school, what’s the issue here,” she said, putting a hand on her hip.

“Fine,” I said. “We’re going shopping soon though.”

“You want to go shopping?” she asked, looking surprised. “We do have to go shopping soon.”

“Just so I can choose what to wear,” I said. “I’ll definitely pick out some pants.”

“As long as they’re woman’s pants,” she said. “I suppose you can dress more androgynous. Your face looks feminine enough that it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Thanks for telling me that, Mom,” I said. “Way to reinforce my masculinity.”

“Look, I was just being honest,” she said. “Put your clothes on now, we don’t have time to argue, school’s starting soon.”

I sighed, picking up the clothes from her hands. How did my life come to this? Nonetheless, I put on the skirt and top, looking at the mirror afterward. I couldn’t help but stare for a little. It had been over a week since I first assumed this form, but I was surprised I could look this cute with the help of just a little makeup and a handy hair straightener. I shook my head, I seriously had to stop doing this, I really should be a lot more miserable about this.

***

I looked closely at my school schedule as I navigated the halls on my own. I made my way up to the third floor of the school for my Algebra 2 class. A line of students waited outside of the classroom, indicating that I came a little early. I looked around, hoping I’d find someone I know so it would be less awkward.

“Hey, Katie,” I heard a voice say behind me as a hand made its way onto my shoulder. I jumped the tiniest bit in surprise, not having expected that. “Oh my God, did I scare you that much? I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay, I just get surprised easily,” I said as I turned around to face Sam. “Guess you’re in my Algebra 2 class, huh?”

“Yeah, you were looking around all worriedly so I stepped in to make sure you were alright,” she said. “Seemed like I just ended up making things worse for you though.”

“It’s okay, I’m glad to see a familiar face,” I said. “It was a little awkward without anybody in my Computer Science class yesterday.”

“That’s exactly what we’re here for,” she said, giving me a thumbs-up. “To get you acclimated here.”

“Yeah, thanks I appreciate it,” I said, giving her a weak smile. We continued to talk until the teacher walked in and unlocked the class for us, holding a cup of coffee in her hand. The lesson passed by uneventfully, as I lazily took notes. I had to make sure not to rub my eyes whenever I was tired to not mess up my makeup. It was kind of annoying, how did girls deal with putting this on all the time? Eventually, the lecture ended and I packed up my things.

***

“Katie, hi,” I heard a familiar voice as someone hugged me from the side. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“Oh, hi Lauren,” I said, quickly glancing to the side to see her hugging me. “You’re in art class?”

“Yeah, of course,” she said, smiling. “As you can tell by my notes yesterday, I’m a pretty artistic person.”

“I could tell,” I said. “I guess I should have seen it coming.”

“Yeah, we share this class and another one on B days. The last class we share together is PE if I remember correctly. So I’ll see you at the end of the day.”

“That’s cool,” I said, as we walked into the classroom together.

“Here, sit next to me,” Lauren said. “I didn’t have anyone to sit with anyways.”

“How come you always have an empty seat next to you?” I observed. “Thought you had to be popular to join student council.”

“Hey, are you calling me a loser?” she said jokingly bumping into me with her shoulder. “But no, I told you yesterday, drama split up my old friend group so it’s been awkward.”

“Fair enough,” I said. We both took our seats as the teacher, at least who I assumed was the teacher, walked in. She was adorned in a long dress covered in beads and paint.

“Welcome to Art class,” she said, clapping her hands together. “I’m excited to introduce a new student. Katie Lee, please come up to the class.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I muttered under my breath.

“Just go up and do it,” Lauren said, pushing me from the back slightly. “I know you hate it but it’s not too bad.”

I rushed back to my seat after introducing myself. I was so tired of doing it, I thought it was over after yesterday. But I suppose the pain wasn’t over yet.

“Today, we are going to combine what we’ve learned about human anatomy through the past few weeks and make a self-portrait. Now, we finished up learning about how to draw noses last class, so I hope you all incorporate what you learned into your drawing today.”

“Oh, Katie, take this drawing notebook since you don’t have one,” Lauren said, passing me a large black notebook. “I have a spare.”

“Oh, wow, thanks,” I said, taking it. I opened it up and took a pencil out of my backpack, preparing myself to draw. The teacher passed out some mirrors to the class for us to look at ourselves in. I looked closely at myself, admiring Mom’s handiwork. I did my best to draw myself, although my hand didn’t seem to make the motions I wanted them to. I envisioned drawing one thing, but my hand ended up drawing something completely. After a few minutes, I frowned and stepped back.

“Is this meant to be your self-portrait?” Lauren asked next to me, giggling.

“Okay, look,” I said, trying to justify the quality of my work. “I’ve never drawn anything before.”

“Still, wow,” she said, laughing. “I’m sorry for laughing, it’s just so funny.”

I looked at my own drawing. It did look pretty terrible to be fair, resembling a dog more than a human’s face. I laughed too, taking it in jest.

“Yeah, it is pretty funny now that I look at it,” I said. “But hey, that’s why I’m in art class, right?”

“Yeah, you’re here to get better,” she said, enthusiastically raising a fist in the air. “I can help you learn.”

“Yeah, and how good are you?” I asked, peeking over to see her work. I gasped audibly, her work was far better than everyone else’s in the class, and it wasn’t even close. Despite only being half-finished, the quality of her shading, anatomy, and everything else was perfect. “How are you this good at drawing?”

“I’ve been practicing ever since I was 5,” she said, nodding. “It’s my biggest hobby, I’m hoping to make it as an artist one day.”

“Isn’t it difficult to become one?” I asked.

“The art commission scene is a little difficult to break into, especially since I don’t want to do the weirder stuff.”

“So basically if you don’t want to make porn, it’s difficult,” I said, laughing.

“Oh my God, Katie, you can’t just say that,” she said, struggling to hold in a laugh. “But yes, you’ve hit it on the nose.”

“See, I knew it,” I said. “I would personally do those types of commissions to make money, but I get why you wouldn’t want to.”

“Yuk,” she said. “Money’s one thing but I don’t want to be drawing stuff like that. It’s just nasty. Anyways, I should get back to drawing.”

We continued to work in mostly silence. My hand was constantly on the eraser, trying to make sure things came out better. As time ran out, I looked at my completed product. It still looked terrible, but at least it was better than what I started with.

“Oh, good job, Katie,” the art teacher said as she came behind me, peeking over my shoulder. “This is your first time drawing, correct?”

“Yes,” I said. “I don’t think I did anything but draw stickmen before this.”

“I think you show great potential, good work,” she said, nodding approvingly.

I smiled a little, it felt nice to be complimented by someone.

***

“Another day at Rosewood, another day of terrible food,” Liz said, looking at her meal disappointedly.

“Yeah, I’ve only been here for two days and I’ve already come to expect nothing,” I said, taking a seat at the table.

“Good,” Liz said, taking a bite out of the disgustingly oily pasta. “The less you expect, the better.”

“Hey, the school’s not that bad,” Sam said. “I mean the food definitely is bad but I heard it’s much better compared to public schools.”

“Yeah, did I tell you guys?” Liz said. “I heard someone got expelled from Grandview High for having a panty raid.”

“A panty raid?” Lauren asked, raising her eyebrows. “That’s so crazy, I didn’t even know they did that anymore.”

“Yeah, that’s wild,” I said, awkwardly chuckling.

“For real,” Sam said. “I’m glad we don’t have to deal with guys here, they can honestly be disgusting.”

“Ugh, but how are we meant to date here,” Lauren said, deflating. “I’m glad I don’t have to deal with guys sometimes, but also I really want to deal with them sometimes. If you know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I understand,” I said, choosing my words carefully to try and fit in with the girls. “But guys can be the worst sometimes.”

“For real,” Liz said, pointing two finger guns at me. “I don’t mind not dealing with guys personally.”

We continued to talk, I was satisfied as the topic of conversation slowly steered away from what Jack and I did a week ago. Despite it only being a week, it felt like forever already. My life had completely changed that week when I lost everything including my gender. Lunch ended, and I made my way up to study hall with Sam. My brain went on autopilot, as it often did once I got past the middle of the school day. After study hall ended, I walked up to the sixth floor with her before we stepped in front of the locker room. “Come on, you can change in here,” Sam said as she went inside. “I’ll see you once we’re out.”

Who’s idea was this again? I was surprised they let me into the girl’s locker room considering I was still a guy under all this makeup. I decided to stick around to look at some of the girls naked before going to change. If Jack was to ever hear about this, at least I had something to prove my masculinity. I stuck around awkwardly fiddling with my backpack to not arouse suspicion as to why I wasn’t changing.

The girls slowly began to take their clothes off, stripping down to their undergarments. I stared interestedly but nothing really happened. Sure, they were boobs but I didn’t really feel anything from them. They were just body parts. Like I wouldn’t feel anything from seeing an arm either. I shook my head, what was wrong with me? Every other guy would be leaping for the opportunity to see girls in this scenario. I walked to the stalls to change, confused as ever.

***

“Hi, Katie!” Lauren said, furiously waving to me. I saw her standing together with Liz and Sam in front of some bleachers. “Come over here.”

“Hi,” I said, getting together with them. I smiled, despite the mess this school journey was, this group felt more genuine than anything I had before. My old friends would ditch me in an instant, but I felt like these girls would stick around with me.

“I’m not looking forwards to exercising,” Sam said, sighing.

“Hey, it’ll be fun,” Lauren said, putting a hand on Sam’s back and patting it. “It’s not too bad.”

“You say that because you’re good at everything,” Liz said, laughing.

Our conversation was suddenly interrupted by a loud, shrill noise.

“Okay class, today we’re continuing with our basketball unit,” Ms. Walker said after blowing her whistle to quiet us down. “We’re going to do a few dribbling and shooting drills before moving onto a scrimmage game.”

I sighed, despite being a guy I wasn’t the best at sports. I hoped that the hormones in my body would give me an edge here, as otherwise, I wouldn’t get a good grade. I felt that my talents lay more in the digital realm. I awkwardly dribbled the basketball around the cones before shooting it, something that proved to be more difficult than it looked at first glance.

We eventually moved on to the scrimmage game, where I did pretty terribly. I turned the ball over several times and didn’t make a single shot. Meanwhile, Liz and Lauren were locked in a battle against each other as they drained shot after shot. Eventually, the short game ended with a scoreline of 55-53, a victory. Not due to any contribution of my own, but a victory nevertheless.

“I’m so tired,” I said as I panted, wiping some sweat off my brow. “Why am I so bad at this.”

“It’s okay,” Lauren said, taking a sip of water. “It is pretty difficult to be fair.”

“Yeah, it is,” I said. “I thought it would be easier.”

“You’ll get better,” Lauren said, patting me on the back.

After another game played between the other half of the class, school ended. I quickly changed, having no desire to confuse myself any further by looking at the girls in the locker room again. I went all the way down to the first floor again to hop onto my bus. I frowned, confusing thoughts coming back into my head now that I was alone again. I turned off my phone and stared out the bus window. I really was meant to feel something when I saw a girl, right?

***

Getting off the school bus exhausted, I walked up my home’s driveway to the entrance. The day was good but I had a little more social interaction than I could handle. I took out my keys, ready to unlock the door. I suddenly stopped as I heard someone take a step behind me.

“Umm, sorry,” I heard a voice say from behind me. “Do you live here? I’m looking for Tyler.”

Shit. I could feel my heart freeze in fear. What the hell was Matthew doing at my house?