It all started when Arno van Keef helped Beckie Applebaum with some notes, but before Arno knew it, Beckie was asking him out and bringing him flowers! What happens when Arno finds himself playing "the girl" in a role-reversed romance?
This story's...
It was Friday. Arno stood at his locker, gathering his books and gathering his thoughts. Beckie's basketball game was that night, and Arno had to figure out what he was going to do. On the one hand, he genuinely wanted to go watch Beckie play and have pizza afterward... but on the other hand, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was getting in too deep with this whole thing where he was the girl and Beckie was the boy.
Arno pictured Beckie running up and down the court, dribbling the ball and dunking it—being the horny teenager he was, he also pictured parts of Beckie bouncing as much as the ball. Then he imagined her taking him to Hoboken's Pizza, leading him by the hand, putting her varsity jacket around him when the cold wind blew—
"¡Hola, cariño!" said Beckie's voice, making Arno jump. He turned around and saw her standing there, wearing a striking dark blue dress.
"Beckie!" said Arno. "Wow... you look amazing!"
Beckie smiled. "Thanks," she said. "The members of the girls basketball team always dress up on game days." She held out a fresh purple daffodil with white sploches on it.
Arno stared briefly at the flower. "Uh... nice flower," he said, pretending he didn't know what was going on.
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"It was growing in my dad's garden," said Beckie. "I've never seen one like it before. I wanted you to have it!"
Her father would have a flower garden, thought Arno, developing a hunch about the dynamics of the Applebaum family. "Uh, thanks, Beckie," he said. "That's..."
"I know, girls don't usually give guys flowers," Beckie continued, "but I thought, what the heck? It's the 21st century."
Arno took the flower, turning it in his fingers. "I can't wait for tonight," said Beckie. Arno looked up at her. She was smiling sweetly.
Arno had once seen a video on YouTube of a fight breaking out in the Turkish parliament. Arno imagined a bunch of little versions of himself controlling his mind getting into a similar brawl over what he should do about Beckie.
"I... can't wait either," Arno said flatly.
Beckie beamed. "See you in Spanish, mi bonita!" she said before turning and departing for first period.
As the day progressed, Arno continued debating the Beckie issue with himself. In math he looked at the flower. In English he thought about Beckie picking him up in her mother's car, paying for dinner, and walking him to the door. In history he asked Quantell for advice.
"Bro, she gave you a flower?" he whispered.
"Yeah," said Arno. "She said her dad grew it—"
"Dude are you blind?" said Quantell. "Beckie's obviously from some kind'a gender nonbinary family. She's gonna put you in a dress if you keep going along with this shit. She's testing you."
Arno raised an eyebrow. "You really think so?" he asked.
"Bro, girls constantly test guys!" exclaimed Quantell, struggling to keep whispering. "You've had girlfriends before. How can you be this dumb?"
Arno opened his mouth as if to respond, but found no words. He looked down, then shook his head. "You're right," he whispered. "I can't do this."
"We're going to Traylor's place tonight," said Quantell. "We'll play video games and eat tacos. Traylor even got us hooked up with a little..." he did a gesture of smoking a blunt.
Arno grinned. He'd smoked marijuana a couple times before at parties, and tonight he could definitely use some.
"It'll be good for you," said Quantell. "Three bros, just chillin' without a care in the world."
"Quantell, you and Arno had better be whispering about the Sudetenland back there!" snapped Mr. Novak, the history teacher.
"Totally, Mr. Novak!" replied Quantell. "The Sudetenland; Hitler buying up all the beachfront property and putting little orphan Anne Frank in a cage and whatnot..."
Mr. Novak stared incredulously at Quantell, then simply shook his head and continued his desk work.
