“Hey, isn’t that Bailey?” Jonchelle asked. Vanessa looked over to where she was pointing, and indeed, there she was—dressed a little differently, a bit less pink, and with her hair tied back into a ponytail, but there was no mistaking the huge muscular frame that belonged to the former quarterback.
Jonchelle turned towards Ryan and frowned. "I thought that you said that she was going back to being a guy?"
Ryan sighed and threw his hands up in the air.
"Yeah, you caught me, I guess. Technically she never actually said that she wanted to stop, just that she wanted to tone it down a little."
"And that's a bad thing?" Vanessa asked.
Ryan shook his head. “Of course not, I mean, yes, but…” He paused, trying to think of the right words. He shook his head and started again.
“Look, before the resolution, I was the cheer captain, right?” Jonchelle and Vanessa nodded. “There were certain...expectations of me. How to look, how to act. It’s like in the movies, the hottest girl in school dates the star quarterback and...quite frankly, I was getting tired of that sort of thing. People were treating me like I was just a dumb bitch and I wanted to change that but I couldn’t see how and then when I saw that boys were starting to dress and even act like girls, I saw it as an opportunity to get away from all of that. Out of the spotlight, y’know?
And even though I still want to hang out with my friends and everything, I just want to do it my own way, be a better person and not someone who is bitchy all the time. Is that so wrong?”
Jonchelle and Vanessa looked at each other. Neither of them were expecting this sort of reaction as Ryan continued his rant.
“And then when Biff came to me and said that he wanted to try and be like me, I thought that, finally, someone might learn what it’s actually like to be me that it isn’t all flowers and roses. It actually takes a lot of work, and there are expectations that come with that. So I guess that I was just disappointed when Bailey decided that she wanted to drop the whole cheerleader thing without even giving it that much of a chance. She didn’t even wait to see if she had made the squad.”
Ryan shrugged his shoulders and then put his hands on his head, signaling the end of his rant. Jonchelle and Vanessa looked at each other, flabbergasted and not sure what to say.
“Look, um, Ryan…” Vanessa began as Ryan looked up. “There’s no right or wrong way to be a girl. I should know this especially.”
Vanessa paused, glancing towards Jonchelle with a knowing look. Jonchelle tilted her head a little but then understood. Taking Vanessa’s hand she squeezed it reassuringly.
“I wasn’t going to tell you guys this, but…” She looked square at Ryan. “Since you’ve been so...different, I will.” She paused, taking a deep breath. “I’m trans.”
Grace almost gasped, while Ryan simply raised his eyebrows and allowed Vanessa to tell her story.
