3
The Party

We walked up to the porch where there was Evan standing guard. He was one of the more popular guys at school and did his fair share of bullying. “Shane, you were invited?” Evan asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise as we met him at the door. I stood behind Shane, nervously tapping my foot. “You do know you need a date, right?”

“I was invited, and my date is right here,” Shane said, stepping to the side to introduce me.

I let out an awkward hello, worried that Evan would recognize me. He looked at me for a while, a confused expression slowly growing on his face. I shook a little, did he know who I was? Did we give up the game this early? Evan finally opened his mouth to talk as my heartbeat rose. “Shane, how the fuck did you bag a girl this cute?”

“Amanda, she’s cute right?” Shane said, seeming really proud of himself. My heartbeat stabilized again. He just thought I was cute, thank God.

“I don’t know if you rented her or what, but it seems like you have a cute date,” Evan said, shaking his head.

“You letting us in or what?” Shane asked.

“Well, it seems you are on the list somehow,” Evan said, looking at a document on his phone. “Plus, you have a date. So well, everything’s good. Go in.”

Evan opened the door for us, as the booming music grew even louder. We walked inside, and the door was closed behind us. We were standing in a hallway, and I could see people dancing in the room just to the right of us. All we had to do was turn the corner and we’d be in.

“What did I say, Adam?” Shane said, clapping his hands together. He let out a loud whoop of victory. “We’re fucking in.”

“Well, I guess step one of your crazy plan has succeeded,” I said, sighing. “Anyways, let’s go to the party.”

We rounded the corner where basically everyone who wasn’t a complete loser was partying. I saw Hailey walking around, greeting everyone. She spotted Shane and walked towards us.

“Hey, Shane is it?” she asked, tilting her head to the side. Looking up at her so close, I understood why Shane wanted her so badly. She was super cute, her golden locks framing her face perfectly. She was wearing a knee-length blue dress, and I could notice Shane staring at her boobs. A gentleman as always, Shane.

“Oh, yeah, it’s Shane yeah,” he said, giving her a sleazy smile.

“And who’s your date? I don’t think I’ve seen her around school,” Hailey said, turning to me.

“This is Amanda, she goes to another school in the area,” Shane said. “You wouldn’t know her.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Amanda,” Hailey said, shaking my hand. “I have to go around greeting everyone so I’ll see you two later.”

“Oh,” Shane said, seeming stupified that she just left after greeting us. “Well, I have to find a way to talk to her, so see you later.”

“Wait, you’re just leaving?” I asked, but Shane didn’t respond. He just walked off, disappearing into the distance. I was left alone in a massive crowd of teenagers and had no idea what to do.

***

“What’s a cute girl like you doing alone?” I heard a guy’s voice say. I was just leaning against the wall drinking some punch and looking at everyone dancing. Shane was nowhere to be seen, probably chasing Hailey around. I looked to see who just spoke to me and gulped. What the fuck, it was Carter.

“Umm,” I said, a bead of sweat rolling down my forehead. I should’ve expected Carter to be here, but I didn’t think I’d run into my bully. “I’m just… chilling.”

“Chilling, huh?” he asked, leaning next to me on the wall. He took a long sip of soda and wiped his mouth. “Who’s your date? I can’t believe he’d leave you alone.”

“Uhh, it was Shane,” I said.

“Shane?” Carter asked, a loud laugh escaping his lips. “Yeah, no wonder. He probably just enlisted you in this to get to Hailey, huh?”

“How’d you know?” I asked.

“I know Shane quite well, he and his dorky little friend always annoy me to death,” Carter said. He took another long sip of soda. “Speaking of, you kind of look like his dorky little friend. Do you know a guy named Adam?”

“Uhh, he’s my cousin,” I said, hoping the lie would be enough to fool Carter. His brain probably had half of it missing anyway, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.

“Heh, to think that he has a cousin this cute,” Carter said, turning to me. I blushed deeply, much to my chagrin. Was I seriously blushing at being complimented by a guy who tormented me? I mean, he was really tall and handsome if you looked at things objectively, but he was my bully. “What’s your name?”

“Amanda,” I replied curtly. I was still embarrassed that I was blushing at my bully, so I just responded quickly so he wouldn’t notice I was flustered.

“Amanda, that’s a nice name,” he said, putting the moves on me. He got closer to me, to the point where I could feel his hot breath on my face. “You know, maybe the two of us can ditch this party. Go somewhere else.”

“Sorry, but I have to stay,” I said, not particularly wanting to go somewhere with my bully. I didn’t want him to find out who I was, that would be terrible.

“Seriously?” he asked, his face souring. “Just when I thought I met a cool girl.”

Carter walked off without even saying goodbye, offended that I didn’t take up his offer. I let out a sigh of relief, thank the heavens nothing bad happened. I looked around at everyone dancing and socializing and decided to join in. I might as well make the most of having gone to this party, right?

I wandered next to the table with all the drinks on it to maybe strike up a conversation with somebody there. I refilled my red plastic cup with some punch and drank it, awkwardly waiting for somebody to talk to me. Nobody talked to me. I sighed and looked next to me to see a girl I recognized from a few of my classes. I decided to talk to her.

“H-Hi,” I stuttered out, a little nervous. Okay, maybe I'm very nervous. “You’re Kayla, right?”

“Kayla, yeah,” she said, smiling at me. That smile quickly morphed into a frown as she looked at me closely. “Wait, how do you know my name? I don’t think I know you.”

“Uhh,” I said, realizing that I just messed up. I tried to walk away, but she grabbed onto my dress.

“No, seriously,” I heard her voice say from behind me. “How did you know my name?”

I turned around to look at her, my entire body shaking. I tried to think up a lie, but my mind wasn’t quite working. I just opened my mouth and closed it again. I really messed up. I had one job, to not expose myself, and I might’ve messed up already.

“Are you okay?” she asked, looking concerned. “You’re shaking a lot.”

“Sorry, I’ll just go,” I said, walking away. This time, she didn’t stop me, and I went back into the crowd.

***

The rest of the party was pretty awkward. I spotted Shane a few times trailing behind Hailey, but I didn’t approach him. I thought it would be best to leave him on his own. I was just leaning on the wall when another guy approached me.

“Hey,” he said, greeting me with a wave. “What’s up?”

“Hi,” I said. Luckily, it wasn’t Carter again. It was Owen, another guy in my grade. I didn’t know him too well though.

“My date kind of ditched me once we arrived here, and it looks like your date ditched you too,” he said, laughing.

“Yeah, I guess I did get ditched,” I replied.

“You looked a little lonely so I just decided to come over to chat,” he said, doing the same as Carter and leaning on the wall next to me. “I haven’t seen you at school.”

“I go to another school, yeah.”

“Huh, that’s interesting.”

We stayed in silence for a while until he spoke up.

“Do you want to dance?” he asked me, smiling. I felt a little bad to refuse, and it was just a dance anyway, right? Not like I was kissing him.

“Sure,” I replied, grabbing his hand. “Let’s go.”

I never danced before, so it was a little awkward, but Owen led the way. A slow song was on, and we swung to the beat together. It honestly felt a little magical, especially with how hot he was. Did I just call a guy hot?

“You okay?” Owen asked, noticing I was a little distressed as the song ended.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said. “Thanks for the dance.”

“Yeah no problem,” he said, smiling brightly. “See you again sometime?”

I wanted to say no since I would never see him again, but another word escaped my lips. “Definitely.”

***

The party had ended, and I walked outside as everyone began to leave. I looked around, where the hell was Shane? Was he making out with Hailey or something? Did this plan of his actually work? I walked around the porch and spotted him sitting on the floor.

“Shane, there you are,” I said, putting my hands on my hips. “Thanks for abandoning me at the party.”

“Look, the point of this was to get Hailey, okay,” he said, sounding annoyed. “Not that it worked.”

“It didn’t work?” I asked. I took a seat next to him and tilted my head to the side. “I thought the plan was foolproof, or something like that.”

“No, she barely even talked to me,” he said, letting out a deep sigh. “I followed her around the entire party but she just brushed me off every time I tried to approach her. Damn it.”

“Well, it was to be expected,” I said, shrugging.

“I really thought it was going to work out, fuck,” he said, stomping his foot. I was a little startled, surprised by how forcefully he did that.

“Well, now that the party’s over, let’s go back home,” I said. “Unless you want to stay sitting on this porch forever.”

“Yeah, sure, let’s go,” Shane said, standing up. “Fuck this.”

We began walking home. We were both pretty close to each other, only a block apart, so we went together. I shivered a little, it was really cold now that it was getting late. This dress was way too short.

“Are you cold?” Shane asked me, looking over in concern. He had a denim jacket on, so he was more than fine.

“No shit, it’s freezing,” I said.

“Here, take this,” he said, taking off his jacket and wrapping it around my shoulders. “Shouldn’t be so cold anymore, right?”

“Wow,” I said, that came out of left field. I blinked in surprise. “That’s nice of you.”

“Yeah, no problem,” he grunted.

We continued walking in silence, and I felt a lot better with the warm jacket around me. Shane usually wasn’t the type of guy to do this, so I was surprised he was so kind. Maybe getting rejected by Hailey so harshly gave him a moment of revelation.

“I guess I should stop chasing Hailey around, huh?” Shane said, shaking his head. “I should give up.”

“You, give up?” I asked, giggling. I haven’t seen Shane ever give up before unless it was about school.

“Yeah, I think I’m done with Hailey,” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. “She clearly doesn’t like me, there’s no point in chasing her around anymore.”

“I think it’s really nice that you recognized that,” I replied. “Maybe go for someone a little more in your league.”

“Hey, what is that meant to mean?” he asked, chuckling. “Are you calling me ugly or what?”

“Well, you’re not the most attractive guy in the world,” I said, shrugging.

“Ha, coming from you,” he said, gently nudging me.

“At least I make for a cute girl,” I said.

“At least you do,” he replied.

***

“Here’s your jacket,” I said, handing back Shane’s denim jacket. He nodded in appreciation. We stood outside of Shane’s house, where everything started just a few hours ago.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” he said, digging through his pockets. He handed me a hundred-dollar bill that looked like it survived an earthquake. “Here, a hundred dollars.”

“Thanks, even though the plan failed, I hope it wasn’t too bad of an experience,” I said.

“Well, I did learn that I need to stop chasing after Hailey, so there’s that,” he said, sighing. “Anyways, I’m going home now, see you, Adam.”

“See you,” I replied. I watched him go back into his house safely before I began to make my way home as well. I made my way to the front door, unlocking the door using a key hidden under the carpet. I walked inside and spotted myself in the mirror. Oh shit, I’d forgotten to change clothes and wipe off this makeup. I should’ve stopped at Shane’s house and gotten Claire to wipe everything off before I came home. Luckily, the house was empty, so I had enough time to change.

I got myself a cup of water and went up to my room. I looked in the full-length mirror I had leaning on a wall, I didn’t mean to toot my own horn, but wow I was cute as a girl. I struck some cute poses in the mirror, and it was actually pretty fun. I should’ve done this before. But the fun of it wore out and it was time for me to change back into regular old Adam. Just as I was about to take off the dress, I heard the front door swing open. Sounds of my mom and dad entering the house floated up the stairs. Shit.

***

“Adam, are you there?” I heard my mom say. She knocked on my room door. I was desperately looking around for something to wipe off my makeup with. Were there no wet wipes or anything? “I hear you rustling around in there.”

“Umm, I’ll be right out,” I yelled.

“Why do you sound so strange?” she asked. I guess I’d been subconsciously raising my voice a little. I lowered it down again.

“No reason, just give me a second,” I said, tearing up my closet to try and find something to get rid of makeup with.

“I’m opening the door now,” my mom warned. I heard the door creak behind me and jumped into bed. I pulled the blankets over my head as it opened. “Where are you?”

I stayed silent. Maybe if I stayed incredibly still, she would think I disappeared.

“Adam, I see you under your blankets,” she said, sighing. “What’s wrong with you today?”

“Uhh, I’m just a bit sick,” I said, faking some coughs.

“Yeah, no you’re not mister,” she said, grabbing my blankets and yanking them off. I pathetically tried to hide my face with my hands, but I knew the jig was up. “Oh my.”

“I swear I have a reasonable explanation,” I said, getting up. “Shane and I, you see-”

“You’re transgender,” Mom said.

“What?”

“I-I should’ve known earlier,” she said, tearing up. “I can’t believe it took me until this to figure out. It’s all my fault.”

“I think you have the wrong idea.”

“No, no, it’s okay,” she said, wiping some tears from her eyes and sighing. “I understand.”

“But Mom,” I whined. “Please just give me a chance to explain.”

“What’s your new name?” she asked, completely ignoring what I said and holding my hand.

“Umm, Amanda?” I said. “But I swear, it’s just-”

“That’s a nice name,” she said, sniffling a little. “I’ll talk to your dad about this, okay Amanda? I’m sorry I didn’t notice earlier.”

My mom let go of my hands and left the room, leaving me extremely, extremely confused. What the fuck just happened?