After the tour of the bois’ school, Baylie followed Bianca out into the parking lot, where they were surprised to see Suzan and Gwen waiting for them. Baylie had almost forgotten that Gwen would be enrolling in the gurls’ school; the bois’ school had given hym a lot to think about. The two bois wandered over. Suzan was leaning against hir car wearing a smart, light blue dress shirt under a black jacket and a pair of black pants. Gwen was wearing a T-shirt with the Chicago Bears logo on it and baggy jeans.
“Everything go okay?” Dr. McMillan asked as they got closer. Bianca nodded as Baylie gave a little wave to Gwen. Gwen waved back and stared wide-eyed at Baylie.
“Hei’s all set,” Bianca replied with a smile. “The school gave hym a list of supplies to get, so we were going to get something to eat and then go shopping.” Baylie gave Gwen a look as shi was still staring at Baylie and then looked up.
“Um, actually, I was wondering if I could spend some time with Gwen? A lot has happened since we’ve arrived, and we haven’t really had a chance to talk it over or process it.”
Suzan and Bianca looked at each other before agreeing. “Alright,” said Suzan. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt. We’ll give you two some space, Gwen, you can take my car.” Shi dug into hir pocket and fished out hir keys before tossing them to Gwen, then shi looked at hir watch. “I should get back to the lab. Do you mind if I drive your car, Bianca? You can then take it home, I’ll get a lift home from Nic.”
“Not at all,” Bianca replied. Hei handed Baylie the list of supplies, which hei put in hys purse, and then took Suzan’s arm as hei led Suzan to where hei had parked.
Baylie watched the two gender swapped parents walk away until they were out of ear shot and then nervously turned to Gwen. This was the first time that they had been alone together since they had arrived in this weird, gender-reversed world.
"Hey," Gwen began, breaking the awkward silence between the two of them as shi sheepishly looked down and idly kicked a loose stone with hir sneakers. "I see that you've been practising walking in heels." Shi added, looking up. Shi had watched Baylie walking across the parking lot.
Baylie nodded. "Yeah, Biffanie had me walking all over the house last night. It's still taking a bit of getting used to."
"And you look good by the way, really." Gwen had also learned that it was good practice to compliment a boi. Shi was still amazed at how natural it was for the bois of this world to be wearing dresses. Baylie didn't look like a drag queen at all. Shi eyed hym up and down. "I'm still getting used to having to look up to you like this," Gwen commented. Even though shi was shorter than Biff shi generally wore heels that at least reduced the height difference a little bit; now, wearing just hir sneakers, the height difference between the two of them was blatantly obvious.
"You may be shorter than me, but don't forget that in this world, you're supposed to be the dominant one," Baylie replied.
"That's just so weird," Gwen commented, and Baylie agreed. It was a weird feeling being taller than Gwen and yet having to defer to hir for all of their decisions as a couple.
"Shall we go and get something to eat?" Baylie asked, changing the subject.
"Sure." Gwen replied, unlocking the car. Baylie was about to get in the driver's seat before remembering that Gwen had the car keys. Reluctantly, Baylie followed Gwen around to the passenger side as shi remembered hir expected manners and opened the door for hym.
"Where do you want to go?" Gwen asked as shi got in the driver's seat and turned on the ignition. Shi had seen several places that looked like they didn't exist in their world including one that looked like it did salads for bois. Baylie shrugged hys shoulders.
"I want to go somewhere that's familiar, although I suppose that I'd be expected to have a salad."
"I saw a McDonna's on the way in. I'm guessing that that's like McDonald's." Gwen suggested.
"Sure." Gwen put the car into reverse and drove out of the parking lot.
"What's the diamond for?" Baylie asked as they pulled into the parking lot of McDonna's. Hei was referring to the golden arches that at least looked the same as in their world, only this one had a small, pink diamond on the corner.
Gwen shrugged. "If it's anything like the rest of this world then it probably means something to do with bois." Shi pulled into a space and killed the engine. Unsure but playing it safe, shi got out of the car and crossed over to Baylie's side and opened the door for hym. This was a new experience for Baylie, having doors opened for hym. Hei had to admit, though… It was kind of nice.
Entering the restaurant, Gwen again held the door open for Baylie, and they took in their new surroundings. Surprisingly, it looked oddly familiar. Unlike at the mall there was no segregated seating for bois and gurls; it was all open spaces. The only difference was at the counter. There were two menu boards: one in blue underneath the main McDonna's logo and another in pink underneath the same diamond logo that they had seen outside.
"I'm guessing that there's a bois’ menu and a gurls’ menu?" Baylie theorized. As they approached the counter they saw that Baylie was correct. The gurls menu was full of the familiar products that Baylie was used to; Big Macs, the McHen Sandwich, and so on, whereas the bois menu featured mainly salads and sweets.
One of the gurls working behind the counter stepped up. "Hi gals, welcome to McDonna's. May I take your order?"
Gwen glanced at Baylie, who looked baffled by the food choices. Hei scanned the bois section, looking for something that hei might be familiar with. “...I’ll have a Cesarina salad.”
Gwen looked at the gurls’ section. “I’ll have a Big Mac and fries please. And a Coke.”
“What size?”
Gwen paused for a moment. “Um… Large.”
“Ok, a Cesarina salad and a large Big Mac combo meal, anything else?”
“I’ll have a Diet Coke,” Baylie added. The cashier added the item.
“That’ll be $11.34.” Shi looked at Gwen expectantly. Baylie nudged Gwen, and after a moment, Gwen pulled a wallet out of hir pocket and paid with some cash that Suzan had given hir. “Here’s your receipt, I’ll call your number out when your order is ready.” Gwen nodded. At least that was the same. Shi looked around. It was fairly empty, but that was to be expected as it was lunchtime on a Monday. There were a few women in business outfits at a couple of tables and someone who looked like a tradeswoman, but not much else.
After a few minutes, their order was ready, Gwen took the tray and Baylie led hir to an empty seat. After making sure that no one was looking, Gwen swapped their drinks around. They didn’t dare swap their food, but Baylie snuck a couple of fries.
“So, what was bois’ school like?” Gwen asked after a couple of mouthfuls. Baylie looked up from hys salad that hei had been picking at and put hys fork down.
“Oh my God!” hei exclaimed. “It’s so fucking weird. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen. I can’t believe that such a place even exists. I mean, what’s the point of having a school for bois if you’re not going to teach them anything useful?”
To Baylie’s surprise, Gwen let out a little chuckle. “So, it’s really like that?” Baylie gave hir a puzzled look. “My, um, parents”—shi wasn’t sure what else to call—”made me watch a movie about bois’ school. It was kind of like Mean Girls but with bois.” Baylie nodded. Hei knew how much Sarah loved that movie. “Are the halls really covered in pink?” shi asked.
Baylie nodded again. “It’s pink all over the place, it’s like they’re trying to enforce the fem…masculinity on us. It’s like being back in preschool, you know when they made us choose blue stuff for boys and pink stuff for girls.” Gwen nodded. “Only the stereotypes don’t stop at preschool, they carry on throughout their entire lives. I wouldn’t be surprised if gurls like Sarrah thought that we all had cooties or something.”
Gwen spat out hir drink. “Funny that you should mention that. Chardeena, my dad, made Sarrah sit and watch the movie with us, but shi didn’t like it and ran out of the room before the movie had really started. And when Suzan drove us to the game on Saturday, it was as if shi’d rather be anywhere else than driving Chardeena’s car.”
Baylie shook hys head. “This place is weird. They want bois to be pretty all the time and cook and clean the house, but they don’t want to be around bois for too long. Like I said, it’s preschool but in adult life.”
“What classes did you get? And the movie mentioned something about a buddie system? Is that real and who did you get?”
“It’s real, they paired me up with Biffanie and another boi since they already had an even amount of bois. Apparently they all share grades as well. It’s some boi named Jonatha.” Gwen looked thoughtful for a moment. “The only boy in our school that I know of is Jon…Gibson, I think his name is. Do you think it’s the same boy? He hangs around with that bitch Karyn Black.”
Baylie shrugged hys shoulders. Hei knew how much Sarah hated Karyn; she thought that she was always trying to steal her spotlight with her big boobs and similarly blonde hair. Baylie just didn’t understand why they didn’t get along or, at the very least, Sarah ignored her. They had nothing in common, and Karyn had made it clear plenty of times that she had no interest in becoming a cheerleader. “Could be although hys last name is different if it is Gibson. Over here it’s Carlyle. Kind of like how my last name isn’t Meadows, it’s Woodwoman.”
Gwen nodded. “It’s like the families have all taken on the maiden names. Like, your mom’s last name is Woodman, so it makes sense. I wonder why mine is still McMillan? Even though they really gave me another name to protect themselves?”
“Maybe there are exceptions or something,” Baylie suggested. “What was the gurls’ school like?” hei asked, changing the subject.
“Compared to the bois’ school? Surprisingly, not that much different from our school back at home… The only difference is that it’s all gurls. Even all the teachers are women.”
“Makes sense,” Baylie replied. “Who in this world would want a boi teaching a gurl? I wonder if any of our teachers are the same from our world?”
“Maybe,” Gwen took out hir schedule and laid it out on the table. Baylie’s eyes opened wide in shock.
“Wait, you get six classes? I only have four.”
“Seriously?” Baylie nodded and pulled out hys schedule which, unsurprisingly, was on pink paper.
“Look, I have advanced makeup, fashion, home ec and dance.” Hei examined Gwen’s. “And you get the normal stuff; math, English, biology, hirstory…” Baylie rolled hys eyes at the gendered spelling. “...Chemistry, gym and geography.”
“Gurls are obviously expected to learn much more than bois,” Gwen commented.
“And apparently, bois’ school doesn’t start until 9. We have much shorter days than gurls do.”
“It’s a crazy system, I agree,” Gwen replied. “But until Dr. McMillan fixes that machine of hirs, we’re stuck here, and we might as well try and blend in until we can leave.” Gwen giggled as shi suddenly thought of something. “I can’t wait to see you in fashion class.” Shi giggled again as Baylie growled at hir.
