Boy in a Girl's Body

Chapter 15

I tapped my pen against my notebook, trying to figure out just how to word the thoughts I had bouncing around in my brainbox. This was insane, I never had issues get my thoughts down, but I guess, when you're sitting in a school with people that would rather see you as shit stuck to a locker, thinking gets a bit hard. 

My first day back wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, granted that I now had a faculty member escorting me to each class and keeping an I on me from afar at lunch. As luck would have it, I was stuck with Mr. Eims, the biology teacher with terrible BO and who never speaks. His bushy eyebrows take over his face, and he smells like his entire how is filled with rotten turnips. But, despite the bushy hair, and the stench, Wendy was waiting at my locker with a hug that was heard round the world. I forgot just how good she felt pressed against my body.

I held her to me as long as I could without looking...er...well creepy. But Wendy didn't seem to want to let me go - I didn't mind. That hug, seeing her, smelling her, it made this terrifying ordeal worth putting up with.

She stepped back from me, handing me a stuffed Unicorn, because, according to Wendy, we were both magical creatures that should be respected and adored. I wasn't one for stuffed toys, but I'd keep this close to my heart always. I'd put it in my locker, and show itt o every passing student if that's what she wanted.

I gave my Uni a kiss on his muzzle, and looked into her deep brown eyes, staring into them like I had on the trip to the hospital. Oddly, I didn't feel that heaviness in my chest, or panic that I thought I would feel. I just felt..content. Good, happy. Magical.

 "Your face, Eli! Does it hurt?", she lightly pressed her hands against the yellowing bruises, some parts of it were still blue, and I still had my stitches in, but it was tons better than it used to be. I flashed Wendy my best smile - it didn't even hurt anymore - and told her that it wasn't nearly as bad as it was. That the bruises just made it worse, that it didn't hurt. Lalalalalaa.

 She smiled at me, regailed me without how I was such a tough guy, total badass. It wasn't true, but when she said it I felt like maybe, one day I could be. I found myself wondering then, if I would ever be man enough for her. 

The first bell rang, sending us different ways, but I promised to turn up at lunch, she had things she wanted to tell me, and she wanted to know what I had been up to. I wished that I had something interesting to share with her; that I'd slain a dragon, or discovered a new world, something, anything that didn't make it seem like I'd been hiding out in my room.

 If I had gotten teased, or name-called, I didn't hear it. I just had my hands wrapped around the stuffed Uni that I kept in my messenger bag. Her smell - Wendy, not Uni - was still wrapped around me like a warm shawl. Protective armour, keeping me safe from any mean spirited teens with nothing better to do. It was better than a bullet-proof vest, I swear to god.

 Most of my teachers were very sympathetic with me, taking my assignments with big, toothy smiles. 'Glad to have me back's, 'Missed you's. All that jazz. Unlike those after-school specials, no one came up to me and said how messed up it was that someone rammed my head into a locker. No one came up to me with balloons or flowers; which was fine, it probably would just have brought some unwanted attention from my...bullies.

They felt like more than bullies now. Shadows in the dark that I never saw coming, a flash of teeth and claws...then I was bleeding, bruised and scared out of my fucking wits. But, my coming back felt like a personal victory, and, honestly, part of me was happy to be back at school. I was getting cabin fever, and Ma watching me constantly was starting to rub me the wrong way.

 With the Turnip Man at my side, I headed down the hall to meet Wendy at lunch, ready to sit in the sun and just laugh with her in our own private bubble. The sun was hidden behind overcast skies, my favorite weather, and I took it to be a good omen.

And, a good omen it was.