My first period was gym and I groaned, realizing I’d left my gym kit at home in the rush to get here. Not relishing the idea of having to do it in my underwear, I quickly found a stairwell to duck into and wished my gym bag into my hand. Nervously I headed to the changing room and found a quiet corner to get changed in. The entire time I was nervous that everyone was staring at me, but I told myself that was just paranoia talking. I considered stuffing a pair of socks down my boxers to give myself a bulge, but that would just lead to awkward conversations if they fell out mid lesson. Tugging my tee-shirt as low as it’d go I headed out into the gym with the rest of class.
“Afternoon ladies,” growled Coach Cooper, the gym teacher with his usual disdain for us; my paranoia would have assumed that that comment had been directed at me if it weren’t for the fact that the ex-Drill Sergeant always made such comments. “Right today we have a new student joining us. Jonson, Jeff!” he barked “Step forwards.” A dark haired boy stepped forwards nervously. “Right we’ll start off easy today with dodgeball. Jonson, you’re it.”
“Huh?” said Jeff in confusion “Isn’t that a bi-“
“Drop and give me twenty!” roared Cooper. “Thirty!” He corrected when Jeff showed no signs of moving. Panicking, Jeff dropped and started doing push-ups. “You can join him!” shouted Cooper as some of the jocks snickered at this. Grumbling, they all complied while the rest of us waited.
The rest of the period went on as normal with Cooper going full drill sergeant nasty on us as usually and pushing us hard. Soon we were all drenched in sweat and I cursed inwardly; in all the commotion this morning I’d completely forgotten that gym always gave us such a hard workout that we’d need to shower afterwards. I wasn’t looking forwards to that, and there was no way I’d be able to get out of showering.
When the bell rang I headed for my locker and grabbed my things, heading for the far corner away from most of the rest of the class and took a seat on a bench, deciding to wait for everyone else to finish; hopefully I’d be able to slip in unnoticed. I waited patiently as the babble died down as most of the class lied into the showers, pushing and shoving to be first, few of them wanting to risk being stuck with no hot water. As the noise died down to be replaced by the sound of running water I overheard the voices of two of the handful that had decided to wait out the rush.
“No way,” said an unfamiliar voice.
“Seriously,” replied a familiar one. Was that Joseph?
“I don’t believe you.”
“Believe me, I’ve seen.”
“You’re pulling my leg.”
“No, really. Look, he’s got to around here somewhere; you can ask him yourself.” I heard approaching footsteps and a familiar head poked around the lockers at the end of the aisle. “Here he is. Hey Jon.”
“Hey Joe,” I sighed, not liking the sound of where this was going. He approached, the new kid in tow. Hi...Jeff was it?”
“Hi, err, yeah,” he nodded back. Glancing around he asked “Is it true?”
“Is what true?” I asked cautiously.
“Some of the jocks were making comments about your...you know,” explain Joseph “Jeff here overheard and doesn’t believe it.”
“No way, he looks just like a normal guy. Oh, shit, sorry man, I didn’t mean it like that.”
I sighed and said “And what if it is true?”
Jeff appeared flustered, not sure how to reply.
“Exactly what I said,” interjected Joseph, taking a seat.
“I... umm... are there others like you?” asked Jeff, glancing around.
