Andy sat in the back of class, the itchy blue shirt irritating the back of his neck, where his hair had recently been cut short. He had managed to find a cheap boy's school uniform, and nobody was going to stop him from wearing it. He was daydreaming out the window, twirling his short hair around his finger, when he was rudely pulled from his thoughts by the sound of the classroom door opening.
The headmaster stepped into the room, followed by a small, dark-skinned girl. "If I could have your attention, please," the headmaster said, silencing the class. "This is Anna. She's new to our school, and she'll be in your class. I hope you can all make her feel welcome."
"Come in, Anna," the teacher beckoned the girl. Anna timidly walked into the classroom, the headmaster leaving quietly. "You can sit over there, by the window," the teacher said, "next to Amber."
Andy looked up with a sharp glare aimed at the teacher. Anna was looking around, perplexed, searching for a girl. Andy sighed and raised his hand slightly. Anna, still extremely confused, made her way over to the empty desk beside his and sat down.
"Hi," she smiled.
"Hey," he replied. "I'm Andy."
"Am I at the right seat?" Anna wondered out loud, looking around. Seeing that the teacher had gone on with the lesson, she looked back at Andy and repeated her question.
"Yeah, you are," he told her. "People here still call me Amber. Just call me Andy and I won't hate you, I promise."
Anna nodded, puzzled, and they spent the rest of the lesson in silence.
---
Andy was sitting alone at lunch time, his sandwich sitting beside him, still wrapped, as he buried his nose in a book. He heard nervous footsteps coming closer, and looked up to see Anna, her lunch in her hands. "Can I sit with you?" she asked.
Andy nodded, patting the space beside him and closing his book. "Don't you think I'm a freak?" he asked as she lowered herself onto the grass.
Anna shook her head. "Of course not," she said. "I just think you're different, which is perfectly okay."
He smiled. Maybe someone at this school was actually decent after all.
"Hey, weirdo!" called a harsh voice from across the quadrangle. Andy rolled his eyes and looked up to see Blake, the school bully. "Have you told her?" Blake laughed, coming closer. "Have you told your new friend that you're a freak?"
Andy was about to give him the same string of words he always used, when Anna stood up and took a few steps towards Blake. "That isn't funny!" she cried. "He's just different to you, so you torment him?!"
Andy's mouth dropped open. Nobody had ever stood up for him before.
"Amber's a weirdo, though! She isn't right!" Blake countered. Andy cringed.
"He! Andy is a HE! Why is that so difficult to understand?" Anna cried. "He isn't so different from you. You're a boy, and so is Andy. The only difference is that you were born in the right body!"
The entire quadrangle went silent. Every pair of eyes looked their way, and every jaw hit the floor. It was so quiet that Andy could hear the breeze rustling the leaves in the trees above his head.
He looked around at all the faces of all the people who were finally seeing sense. He even saw a few of them looking at their feet in shame. He searched for the guilty eyes of Blake, perhaps with a few tears and some begging for forgiveness, too. But he was nowhere to be found. Across the quadrangle, Andy saw a blonde head and a blue shirt sprinting away, as fast as it could go.
He found Blake sitting against a brick wall, shredding a leaf. He looked up at Andy when he approached, but didn't meet his eyes. "I'm sorry, Am-Andy," he said. Andy realised that he was crying. He sat beside him and leaned back against the wall.
"I was so horrible - I'm so sorry. It's b-because..." he wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "My parents, they're like that. They think it's wrong. And all they want..." he stopped to sob, "All they want is a normal son."
All at once, Andy understood. Blake was trans too. "You... you're a girl?" he asked, trying to be sensitive towards the kid who bullied him for years.
She just nodded. "Re-Rebecca. That's what I'd be called if I was born a girl."
"Well, come on, Rebecca," Andy said, getting up and giving her a hand. "You can sit with Anna and I. I think I have some girl's clothes I can lend you, too."
FIN
