Thankfully, Ms. Grant was known by her students for subscribing to the "speak softly and carry a big stick" approach, and everyone was eager to avoid getting on her bad side. And so the rest of class went pretty smoothly; although Becky could feel the stares of her classmates and heard the occasional whisper, the lesson flew by unhindered and before she knew it, it was time for lunch.
She was one of the first students out of the classroom, and she got to the lunchroom early enough to grab an empty table. In the far corner of the room, she could see Michelle, a girl about Jenny's age who lived a few blocks up the street from them; she had a sister named Zoe who was Becky's age but in a different class, and another sister, Jennifer, who was in high school. She was confined to a wheelchair, and the lower half of her body was always wrapped in an afghan. Everybody wondered what was under the blanket, but school officials had made it clear that messing with a handicapped kid was pretty much an on-pain-of-death offense.
The playground rumors said that she was actually a mermaid, and she wrapped her lower body up to conceal the fact that it was a fish's tail, a rumor bolstered by the fact that Michelle's family had covered the backyard swimming pool with a heated building connected to the house by a covered walkway around the time she was born. Becky, for her part, had never believed a word of it, but she had passed Michelle in the hallway once and overheard her muttering "it wasn't supposed to turn out like this!" and something about losing a stone. She wondered what that was all about, but Michelle was a very bitter and antisocial girl, not the type who was likely to share her secrets with others.
She was distracted from her thoughts about Michelle by Andrew plunking down next to her. "You don't mind if I sit here, do you?" he asked.
"Nah, go ahead," Becky smiled. "I don't bite."
The two shared a laugh and talked about games for a while, until Jason and some of the other guys walked over and sat down across the table from her and Andrew. "So, Benny," he said, "that's really you in there, isn't it?"
Andrew looked at her, unsure what to do, but Becky just shrugged. "Eh, why lie?" she said. "Yes, it's me."
The other boys stared at her. Whatever they had been expecting, it wasn't such an up-front, candid admission of transgenderhood. Jason, though visibly taken aback, kept his cool.
"So," he said, "did you just get tired of being a boy? Or was it that month-long sickness you had that made you a chick?"
Becky knew that he was trying to make her feel awkward, trying to pick a fight. But she was prepared for this. "Actually," she said, "the sickness left me...unable to function as a male. So my parents and I talked about it, and we decided I'd have a better chance for a normal, happy life this way." She didn't like lying, but this was one of those situations where telling the truth wouldn't make anything better for anyone.
Now it was Jason's turn to feel awkward. He was okay with mocking transsexuals, but picking on the victims of exotic, debilitating diseases was at least a couple notches too low for him. "Um...sorry to hear that," he mumbled, before hurriedly moving to another table, the other boys following suit.
Giggling, Becky continued her discussion with Andrew for a while, until some of the other girls from her class came over and struck up a conversation. Grinning happiky, Becky re-introduced herself. Yep, it looked like things were going to be okay.
