'I hate my life! I hate how I look! I hate that I have feminine bits! YAY!!!' These are the thoughts that run through my head as I wake up for school. At least I'm able to tuck my hair in a hat, but there's not much I can do for the feminine bits until I get a binder or some binding tape. Sadly I'm too much of a coward to come out to my mom and pop much less ask them for a binder. I hate that I think they'll disown me even though pop is also non-binary and mom is also bisexual. I know dad would disown me so no coming out to him! "Hurry up, Chloe! You're going to be late!" dad calls up to me. Great, that name again. I'd rather use Parker, but I'm to scared to even come out to my VERY queer friends. Well, I'd better hurry to get dressed, I've stolen a lot of clothes from my big brother, who is really cool. I pull on one of his old t-shirts, one of his old hoodies, a pair of his old jeans that surprisingly fit very well, and some of my own socks. Then I put some deodorant on and put my bracelets on and grab a beanie to tuck my hair into later. Today I will come out to my friends, and my parents(mom and pop, not dad), as both non-binary trans-masc and bisexual. Anyway, I tuck my beanie in my pocket and run down the stairs and duck into the bathroom to brush my teeth and hair. After that I grab my backpack. "Hi dad, love you, got to go." I say as I hug dad. "Love you too!" he yells back as I bolt out the door. What hour do I have first again? Theater, I love theater class, Mx. Phillips is so nice (and attractive, but you didn't hear that from me) and I have a lot of friends in that class. I settle into a quick pace to the soundtrack of some movie I can't remember the name of, but I know it is going to be stuck in my head all day (unless some other more catchy song shows up. After a bit of walking I finally get to school and walk inside the doors after almost getting hit by a car while crossing the street (a common occurrence). Once I get in I walk to my locker and just grab my bag and then stop in the bathroom to tuck my hair into my beanie and wash my hands. As I walk out of the classroom a girl walks in and does a double take when she sees me, which gives me a strange sense of euphoria. As I walk to class I contemplate if I really should come out to my friends today. Before I can fully decide I'm already in my classroom and being bombarded by my friends who always see me like this so it's no surprise to them. "Hi Chloe! Hi Chloe!" my hyperactive friend Leo shouts at me. "Hi Leo, how are you today?" I ask him. "I'm good! How about you?" He yells back. "I'm alright, thanks!" I yell back as I walk to my seat to set my stuff down. "Okay! What do you want to do this morning?" Leo yells even though he's standing right next to me. "Whatever is fine!" I tell him. Then the rest of our friends in this class walk over. "HIiiiiiii." Eli says in the gayest voice you can imagine as he walks over. Eli walks over and hugs Leo because they are a sickeningly sweet couple. "Hi Chloe, anyone you like right now?" Avery says with an evil grin. Shoot, I do like someone right now, but in more of a straight way than gay way even though it is a girl, but I can't say that. "Not really no." I tell her casually. "Are you-" She gets cut off (thankfully) by our friend (who's really strong and big) running over and giving us both a hug at the same time. (He looks intimidating but is just a big softy. I turn and hug him and say, "Hi Isaac," as best I can because I am giving him a hug. "How are you Chloe?" Isaac asks. I try to hide my wince, but fail. "What's wrong?" he asks, concerned. "Nothing, just a bit sore from a workout yesterday." I reassure him even though that's a lie. "Okay." He says relieved he didn't do anything wrong. "Are we starting our Shakespeare unit?" I ask my friend group. "YEAH!" all my friends shout at me. "Yesssss!" I say, "Wait, what time is it?" "7:45" Eli says in his normal not gay voice, "Five minutes to the bell." "Dang, we can't go anywhere." "Yeah..." Leo says slightly deflated, "But at least we'll get to start Shakespeare!" "Yeah!" we all shout. "Do you guys realize we are the biggest nerds ever?" I ask. They answer with a chorus of yeahs and yeses, then the bell rings, loudly. A bunch of boos rang out. At least until Mx. Phillips shouted, "Who's excited for Shakespeare?" in a sports announcer voice. "WE ARE!!!" everyone shouts. "That's good because we are starting with 'Romeo and Juliet'!" they shout. "YAY!!!" We all shout. "Take a bit to talk to the people at your group!" Mx. Phillips. "Okay!" We all shout back.
I turn back to my table and table mates, Alex, Scarlett, and Benji. "So, are you guys excited for the Romeo and Juliet unit?" I ask them. "Yesssss." Benji says (but not in a gay way) "Of course!" Scarlett says. "Why wouldn't I be?" Alex says dramatically. "Yesssssss!" I say slightly gay. Alex raises an eyebrow at me. Oops. Now Alex knows I must be slightly (very very) gay. To respond I just raise an eyebrow back. "Alright class, I'm going to hand out the scripts so we can start reading today. These scripts are yours to keep so you can take notes and write on them as much as you need." Mx. Phillips tells us. "Wait, Chloe, I forgot a pencil, do you have one I could borrow?" Benji asks. I don't wince this time and grab my pencil case. "Yeah, lemme look." I tell him. Once I pull one out I hand it to him. "Thanks!" "Yeah, no problem." Eventually Mx. Phillips gets to our table with our scripts and asks us, "You guys ready? It's going to be a wild ride!" We just respond with a chorus of "Yeah!"s and "Thank you!"s because she handed us our scripts. I obviously immediately flip it open and look at the first few lines, but then close it so I can put my name on the front. "So, Chloe, are you gay?" Alex asks. "That's for me to know and you to wonder." I respond smoothly (I hope). "Yes, but I REALLY want to know." she tells me. "Well you'll just have to wait. Why did you ask in the first place?" "Just a hunch." "Alright class, we won't be doing any reading today." Cue the groans, "But we are going to meet the characters." Mx. Phillips tells us. The rest of the hour seems to pass too quickly to be real, but just like that I'm headed to second hour science class. When I get there I say hi to Mr. Lawrence and silently salute the pride flag he has in there without anyone noticing. Then I head to my seat. I try to listen to what we're learning, but I looked over the slides yesterday just in case. I zone out though, and daydream the rest of class.
