Evan picked at his pencil as he waited for css to start.

  The worst part of getting a new book was the wait. The act of going about your life while the big block of pages sat in your room, waiting to be picked up again.

  The same could be said about watching weekly tv shows and waiting for the next episode, but at least there was a consistency to that. You’re only being drip-fed the season by the people who made it.

  But when you get a new book, you already have the whole thing. The entire story is right there, in the very pages! You just needed to get through it!

  But you rarely had the time to. For any decent book, there comes a point where you have to put it down and go back to school or work, or whatever your life was about.

  All that is to say, Evan’s pn to read the new Franco Cruz novel in only smaller pieces in order to salvage the experience had not been so successful. It had only been a few days, and he was already 80% of the way through.

  But who could bme him?! It was so cool! The stakes were literally epic! Before picking it up, he never expected to be so invested in a psychic shrimp-looking alien as a vilin. The conflicts too, god! Who could come up with that wordpy-battle inside the ancient Tower of Babel?!

  Just thinking about the book more made him excited, tapping his feet anxiously.

  He honestly could have read the chapter more sparingly in the early parts at least, but he couldn’t help bingeing the entire first third by the time that femme fatale was introduced. He couldn’t help it! There was so much intrigue! And it wasn’t his fault that mysterious women were so cool and hot!

  No, calm down. Evan knew he couldn’t get too worked up. School was starting, the teacher was walking in. He had to act calm, to not make any fool of himself. Put up that same front where-

  …Evan paused his train of thought, and recalled what his friends had said to him the other day. The way he might be putting people off by appearing distant. How he told them he’d try and make some change after his birthday.

  Maybe he should make more of an effort to be more outgoing, act honest and open with his feelings so he could-

  “Ahem, before we begin, css…”

  Evan’s attention darted back up to the teacher at her desk. He hadn’t even noticed, but a girl had walked in with her, and now stood in front of the chalkboard.

  “Ms. Aria Swanson has just started attending the academy, and will be joining us for css going on for this semester.” The teacher continued. “Treat her well.”

  The girl did a little shy wave. It was cute.

  A girl piped up in the back. “What type of music do you like?”

  In response, Aria’s eyes went wide, and she shifted back uncomfortably. Her eyes went to the teacher, who took it upon herself to respond. “That’s right, I almost forgot. Ms. Swanson is mute. I ask that you not discriminate her based on her disability.”

  Wait, what? That wasn’t something you saw every day. But that went for a lot of things, come to think of it. Evan’s gender made him a walking anomaly himself in this environment, so not like he had the right to judge.

  If anything, he’d sympathize. It could already be tough for a new girl to fit in, but she also had something that made her different. Singled her out.

  Aria was then quickly directed to a seat off in the corner (most were already occupied), and the teacher took the opportunity to transition the topic straight back to the css at hand.

  English! One of the more interesting csses, but still kinda droll at parts. At the moment they were just going over the origin and background behind Hamlet before they’d have to start reading it.

  You know, if the school were a bit more awesome, Evan realized, they’d probably be reading Romeo & Juliet. And they wouldn’t just be reading it, they’d set up some kind of py or whatever once they were done. Out of everyone, the css might end up defaulting to choosing him as the charismatic Romeo, and then he’d get the chance to express some masculinity more openly. Py the charming and handsome co-lead to whichever girl got the part for Juliet.

  But no, they were stuck with Hamlet, blegh. And there was no interest in setting up any big school pys like in some anime.

  There wasn’t really anything wrong with Hamlet, but Evan supposed he was more bored by the whole thing. You know what’d be more exciting? Franco Cruz’ current adventure! He wanted to read more of that story, and find out who that traitor was! The tropes demand it’d be the recently introduced femme fatale, but nah that’s too easy. Personally, Evan was betting on the cat. That answer had already been used in Book Three when Franco Cruz was investigating the theft of the bejewelled skull. But Evan actually half expected that kind of rug-pull from the author, using the same trick twice like that. It’d be some masterful writing, everything continuing to come full circle.

  Oh crap what was the teacher talking about?

  “...and Hamlet has since been used to inspire countless stories. Its themes make for…”

  Okay, still just yapping. But it’d be better if he tried to pay attention more and not let his mind wander.

  “But for now, I’d like you all to form groups of two and discuss your expectations for the story. Then we all report back at the end of the css.” The teacher decred, at which point Evan felt a familiar sense of dread hit him.

  Forming groups was always going to be difficult, at least without his friends around. But he only felt more anxious because, well… this was it, right? If he wanted to spend his sixteenth year socializing more, this would be the pce to start.

  He looked behind him, eyes darting between the various girls in the room. Most of which quickly finding their own friends, naturally. But there was one who sat completely still. Whose expression implied her own share of anxiety. Though he thought he caught her gncing at him for a second.

  The new girl. Of course!

  Instead of walking straight to her desk, Evan made the move of picking up his own chair and lugging it halfway across the cssroom to her, leaning on its back while facing her.

  “Hey! You missing a partner?” Evan happily asked.

  The girl stared back at him, bug-eyed. She didn’t give off any answer, as if her mind was half pre-occupied with something else.

  Oh, that’s right. There was that thing the teacher mentioned. “It’s okay if you can’t talk,” Evan assured. “I have a habit of running my mouth a lot, so I’ll probably yap enough for the both of us.” He chuckled.

  Though he wasn’t sure if she’d respond, he noticed her quickly grab a hold of her textbook and pen to write something down. For a second he wasn’t sure what she was doing, but things clicked and everything made sense when she showed him what she wrote.

  ‘That’s okay. I haven’t had time to study anything anyway.’

  Ah, naturally, that’s how she got around it. Her penmanship was good, Evan had to admit, though he wondered if that’d be awkward to suddenly say out loud.

  “Hey, don’t sweat it,” He reassured. “I’ve never read it myself, and I don’t think we’re supposed to until next week. You’re about as lost as me.”

  She nodded to herself, lips pursing as her gaze wandered elsewhere and she brushed a lock of hair aside.

  …There was a moment where Evan felt his heart beat a little faster, but he brushed it aside.

  “So anyway, what’s your name?” Evan asked, though almost immediately catching what he said and embarrassingly covering half his face with his hand. “Wait, shit, no, the teacher already said it. Aria, right?”

  Aria’s expression grew to a smile, Evan hearing a bit of air huffing out of her nose. Was… that supposed to be a giggle? A ugh? They really weren’t kidding with this condition of hers.

  “But yeah, I’m Evan.” He shook his embarrassment off, offering a smile in return. “I hope we can pretend my earlier slip didn’t happen. I swear I’m actually cool, I promise!”

  Evan’s pretty sure she ughed again in response, it was hard to tell. Either way, it felt… satisfying.

  He’d just acted incredibly awkwardly, but somehow that hadn’t harmed him or anything. Aria seemed unbothered. If anything, it looked like she was enjoying the conversation? And that made him happy! Making a girl ugh was a powerful feeling, he actually felt a bit more sure of himself, suddenly.

  “Oh, but we should probably get to talking about Hamlet.” He continued, looking at the time. “We’ve wasted enough time.”

  He looked back at her for some sign of a response, but found her already looking back at him, brows furrowed and a quizzical expression on her face.

  “...What is it? Something on your mind?” Evan asked. He felt a small chill. It was going well so far, but was this the part where his identity got in the way, now that he’d given her his name? That she realized he was a boy and found him weird for it?

  Aria appeared caught off guard by Evan's probing, almost scrambling to grab her pen to write in her textbook again. Showing Evan a simple message:

  ‘It’s nothing.’

  …He felt disappointed, but what could you do? Maybe he was overthinking it, maybe she was perfectly fine with who he was, or just didn’t care or even notice something off.

  Still, Evan opted to just respond with another easy smile. “Alright, suit yourself!”

  By the time lunch rolled around, Evan was ready to forget about all his worries and anxieties. If there was one thing that could always comfort him, it was good food. Whether meatloaf qualified as ‘good food’ varied depending on who you’d ask, especially when it came to a school cafeteria, but it was food nonetheless.

  Meat, too! Hard to ever say no to all that protein, so long as it went to his muscles!

  Well, until he tasted it. At which point he remembered why meatloaf wasn’t fondly remembered. But eh, it was still decent food, so he kept eating anyway.

  “I’m starting to wonder if Coach Benson wants to kill us at P.E…” Grace groaned. “I swear it feels like my entire body is hurting nowadays when we’re done.”

  “Huh? Ish it tough thish week?” Evan asked, his mouth still half full.

  “First off, please remember to swallow, second,” Grace paused. “You don’t even wanna know. Better not spend half the week in dread over it.”

  Being reminded of proper etiquette, Evan swallowed his food before speaking. “Ehh, I’m sure I’ll be fine. I mean, come on.” He lifted his forearm to pat it, “I think I have more muscle saved up than you!”

  “I’m not sure how much that matters when all you do to try and gain that muscle is eat,” Grace noted with a skeptical look.

  “No, it makes sense…” Maddie mumbled out loud, lightly picking at her food. “Evan has more energy. You’re always tired because you’re uptight…”

  “Wha-?” Grace leaned back, aghast. “I’m not uptight!”

  “I think you need to eat more meat,” Evan added, grabbing another forkful. “You’re always so picky, but you need real gains for those noodle arms!”

  “And I think that you’re letting all that meat fill up your head.” Grace remarked. “Besides, Maddie’s zier than I am, so if we’re talking about anyone it should be her.”

  To which the girl shook her head. “Gaming gives me high dexterity. My grip strength and finger muscles outcss both of yours by leagues.”

  “Huh, good pointh.” Evan answered while still chewing.

  “I don’t see how that handles with- And Evan for the love of-” Suddenly Grace paused. After a quick second, she sighed. “Okay, no, you’re right. I do get wound up too easily.”

  “It’s part of who you are.” Maddie quietly added.

  Evan nodded, “Yeah, don’t sweat it, Grace. We still love ya for it.”

  “Mh, thanks.” She calmly responded, turning her attention back to her food.

  With the momentary silence at the table, Evan found his eyes wandering, eventually locking to a familiar face in the distance.

  Tray in hand, hesitantly stepping through the cafeteria, was the girl from earlier. The one who was new. Yeah, Aria.

  “Oh yeah, by the way, apparently a new girl enrolled all of a sudden.” Evan commented.

  Grace nodded to herself. “That's right, think I heard of that. Weird, considering it’s the middle of a semester.”

  Maddie swallowed her food, “Money.”

  “Yep, that would expin it.” Grace looked up, chin leaning on her palm as she noticed Evan’s fixed gaze. As she looked behind her, she questioned, “Oh, is that her?”

  “Yeah.” Evan answered. “Met her during English today.”

  Grace looked back at Evan with a suspicious gnce, “You mean you actually talked to her?”

  He snapped his attention back to his friend, “What? Is that weird?”

  “No, no no,” She dismissed. “I’m guessing it was just for css?”

  “Yep,” He replied. “Though I’m kinda the one who decided to group with her.”

  “What’s she like?”

  “Well, she uhh…” Evan stopped himself. Would it be rude to bring up the elephant in the room first? It was basically a disability, right? Not like the girl would be proud of it. Evan knew he wouldn’t want people to introduce him by first naming the source of all his insecurities. But then again, how much did he actually know about her? She didn’t have much room to talk for herself during css, it had mostly been him.

  “She’s… cute, I guess.” He finished, the first thing that popped in his mind. “Kinda… quirky.” He continued, his eyes wandering back to her. She still looked a bit lost. Was she looking for someone?

  “Interesting way to describe someone,” Grace remarked sarcastically, but Evan didn’t listen.

  Instead, he decided to stand up. Hastily walking over to the new student, he lightly grabbed her arm to grab her attention. “Hey, need a pce to sit?”

  He didn’t even hesitate. Right as he saw her hesitant nod, he started bringing her back to his table. Ah! Though he let go of her first, of course. Yeah, that had been an awkward move.

  Focusing his mind on the present instead, he arrived back at the table, gesturing towards Aria. “Grace, Maddie, this is Aria.”

  “Hi,” Maddie bluntly answered with a wave.

  “Um, hey!” Grace answered with a bit more of an awkward tone, giving Evan another side gnce. “Nice to meet you!”

  Aria wore an embarrassed expression. She opened her mouth, but instead shakily decided to just give a short bow before gingerly sitting down at the table with her tray. Evan plopping down next to her.

  Grace looked back at her with some concern. “Hey, you okay?”

  This only seemed to make Aria grow even more nervous, giving Evan a gnce as if asking for help.

  Evan blinked, “Oh! Oh yeah, that’s right.”

  Realizing that he'd yet to expin, he went ahead and gave his friends the quick summary for what her deal was, including the things she herself had told him.

  “So she’s… mute?” Grace asked, eyeing the girl.

  “I mean, when you think about it it’s not that big a deal,” Evan continued, trying to py it cool. “Not so different from Link, right Maddie?”

  The smaller girl didn’t see much shift in her expression as she thought to herself. “Hmm, the silent protagonist trope isn’t as effective in real life as in fictional interactive media.”

  “Well it’s not like she’s totally silent, she can still write stuff. Right Ari-?” He stopped as he found himself tilting his head to Aria’s side, noting her ck of a bag. A ck of writing equipment altogether in the cafeteria. Though she just looked back at him puzzled.

  “Although… It’s tough if you don’t have your stuff with you.” Evan noted.

  In response, this seemed to spark a realization in Aria, followed by a deep frown as she held her hand over face. Like trying to hide herself.

  Huh, it only looked like she just realized it herself. Plus the way she tended to act, Evan got the sense she was… nervous. Which was normal on your first day, but something about her felt particurly sensitive. It didn’t seem like any temporary jitters.

  “Hey, it’s alright,” He said. “You don’t have to stress about it. I’m sure we could, uhh…”

  He awkwardly looked around. Quick thinking, quick thinking… “Hey Grace, you have a pen on you?”

  Her smug expression was all the answer he needed. “Evan, who do you think I am?” She responded, offering one as requested from one of her uniform’s pockets without skipping a beat.

  From there, Evan stretched to the napkin dispenser at the other side of the table. “And there we go!” Sliding a napkin and pen in front of Aria, he smiled. “You could try using these!”

  Aria looked almost unsure, looking back at Evan, to the napkin, to the girls, to Evan, and to the napkin again. But soon she grabbed the pen, and scribbled a quick message in tiny letters.

  ‘thanks’

  “It’s nothing!” Evan tried to py it off coolly, hands behind his head as he leaned back. “Really, all in a day’s work for- wooaAAHHH!”

  While Aria tried to reach out, Evan found himself stumbling backwards with that lean, almost nding straight on his back were it not for his own hands catching his fall just in time. “Uh, whoops!”

  Aria looked down at him with concern, even as he readjusted himself and sat back up.

  “Oh, don’t mind that, Aria.” Grace said with a wry smile, “He’s always like that. You can get used to it!”

  “You don’t need to tell her that!” He compined.

  Grace lifted her hands up, “Alright alright, don’t want to embarrass you in front of the new girl.”

  Maddie, although still quiet, let out an approving ‘hm’ while chewing her food.

  Evan sighed, before looking back to Aria with an awkward smile. “But anyway, yeah. If you ever need any help or questions, feel free to ask. It’s still lunch period, so we could answer whatever.”

  The new girl paused for a second, taking a while to think before hesitantly writing something on the other side of the napkin.

  Evan was curious and quite eager to see what she wrote, but he wasn’t expecting to freeze quite so stiff when he read the message.

  ‘Are you a boy?’

  “Hm? What is it?”

  As Aria awkwardly slid the message to Grace and Maddie on the other side of the table, Evan tried not to let the panic get to him.

  Of course she’d ask that. He’d almost forgotten that this was something to worry about. It was only natural his gender would stick out. Even if she was new, Marie’s being a girl’s school was right there on the pamphlet!

  …But no. Calm down. Evan recalled the dozens, if not hundreds of conversations in his head where he imagined expining himself to a cssmate. This was just that time. He would simply educate her as calmly and rationally as he could.

  With a small ‘ahem,’ Evan gingerly pced his hand on his chest. “I am transgender.”

  The look on Aria’s face was of a minor confusion, so Evan continued with his rehearsed expnation. “You see, I was born as a girl. W-Wrongfully, I mean! Like, I was supposed to be a boy, but instead I-! I mean I guess that’s a more simplified expnation because uhh…!”

  Somehow he’d already screwed up. All those conversations that pyed in his head! Repying over and over again! He wasn’t even prepared!

  “A transgender person is someone who does not identify with or feel comfortable with what they were born as, and changes their gender expression and/or sex to better align with themselves.” Maddie suddenly said with perfect crity.

  “That-!” Evan began, stunned as he tried to find the words for Maddie’s surprise interjection. “...Is actually a pretty close and solid definition.”

  “I always do my research.” Maddie succinctly responded.

  That she did. The most reliable partner in a group project Evan had ever met. But that was beside the point.

  “Well yeah.” Evan turned back to Aria, “My parents don’t know, I was still trying to live as a girl when they sent me here, so… yeah.” There was more to go into about how it took more realization on his part after his enrollment for him to come out, and that he wasn’t even sure how his parents would have felt even if they knew, but that didn’t need to be shared. If this was Aria’s first time hearing about trans people, better keep it simple.

  It wouldn’t even be that surprising. This was a religious school, after all. The kids here and their parents were by and rge going to be uninformed or bigoted, though it thankfully leaned to the former. This might have been Aria’s first time ever being exposed to that type of identity.

  Which meant Evan totally didn’t have to feel any additional pressure at all for how to act around her.

  But for now, Aria just nodded slowly in understanding. Evan wasn’t sure if she actually understood, or if it was easier for her to just continue on instead of bothering to probe further with a makeshift notepad.

  “Just try to blot out your ears if a teacher uses his deadname during roll call,” Grace added. “As in, the birth name he stopped using.“

  Evan nervously chuckled, “Yeah, it’s not like there’s any pressure. You’re always free to ask, but you kinda get it.”

  With the topic wrapped up, he felt the tension lighten a bit. He didn't feel like he needed to stress about his identity now. The conversation proceeded as normal, Evan and the girls talking about things at school, expining bits to Aria.

  There wasn’t much time left for lunch period, but near the end right as the bell was about to ring, Evan could swear he caught Aria smiling. A small, but genuine one. That for some reason, lingered in his mind.

  Crap. Fuck.

  It had been at the back of Evan’s mind for most of the day, but for a split second the thought felt undeniable. Having had two conversations with her, knowing bits and pieces of her and how she acted. And now this…

  She was cute. Like, cute, cute.

  Solomon made his way through the halls briskly after the bell rang.

  It had been over twenty-four hours since Adam had left the St. Hanssen’s school grounds under his new guise. In that time, nothing had blown up. The headmaster hadn’t tried talking to Solomon, though he expected the old fellow was growing concerned as time passed. School had already been skipped for an entire day, who knew how things would escate.

  But there was not much else to be done. No solution Solomon could see. Best he could imagine was take his mind off things, study in advance for that English test next Monday. But even that felt wrong…

  As he happened to pass by Adam’s cssroom, he saw some students pouring out, and a part of him couldn’t help but at least try to overhear their words.

  “Yeah man, they said he was dealing drugs on school grounds.”

  That part, was that about Adam? Surely that rumor still wasn’t going, let alone being fanned further. It was as Solomon tried to collect his thoughts that a figure bumped into him.

  “Oh Sully, thank god!”

  He turned to look at Flynn, who had an almost panicked look in his eye.

  “Flynn? What’s the matter?”

  “Shh! C’mon!” Without warning, Flynn started dragging Solomon off to the corner of the hallway, where the crowd was far more sparse.

  Once a bit more isoted, Flynn hunched over and whispered in a hurry. “I know I’m gonna sound crazy! But just listen!”

  Solomon furrowed his brows, “What?”

  “Whisper!” He commanded, to which Solomon also decided to hunch down.

  “What?” He repeated.

  “It’s Adam!” Flynn said. “He’s back!”

  Solomon looked back at the boy incredulously. “Already?”

  “W-Well no, or I dunno! It’s not him!”

  “What on earth are you talking about?” He questioned, almost annoyed.

  “I-I tried talking to him! Just trust me!”

  “You can’t be serious. We saw him off just yesterday, how would-?”

  But as he was about to finish his question, Flynn forcefully turned his head. “Look!”

  Behind them, at the cssroom door, emerged a familiar figure.

  “My god…”

  Adam walked on ahead in the direction of the cafeteria, almost casually. Simple smile on his face, as if nothing could ever be amiss. But no... there was something about his stride that triggered an uncanny feeling about him. For a second, Solomon felt goosebumps across his arm.

  “It’s not him!” Flynn repeated.