Can't I just get a break?

By Monday morning I had all but forgotten about the incident with Mr. Jackson, it was now a faint memory in the back of my mind. I was still worried about the wrong people at school finding out that the new girl Zoe wasn't all that she appeared, but that worry was slowly diminishing. I had spent most of the weekend with Riley, with us having gone shopping on Saturday and just relaxing in my room on Sunday. I had packed up all of Allen's clothes and put them in the spare bedroom. We mainly used it as storage and there really wasn't anything in there. I had taken most of the stuff that had adorned the walls down and they were now bare, and painted a light blue color, that I had never really liked.

#
The alarm clock started it's obnoxious racket at three minutes till six. By six, I had knocked the thing to the floor yet again. I was beginning to be surprised that it still worked... I sat up and looked around the room. It seemed empty and wrong, like it belonged to someone else. I stood up, the sleep shirt I wore falling back to my waist, the matching pink pants falling to my ankles and untwisting. I grabbed my robe and headed for the shower. I finished my shower and went back to my room. I had thought for a little bit the night before about what to wear today. I reached into the dresser drawer and pulled out a pair of black skinny jeans, and then went over to the closet and pulled out a baby blue and white striped turtleneck sweater. I got dressed and brushed my hair out. It was getting long enough that I might be able to put it in a pony tail soon... I went down stairs and walked into the kitchen, Where Heather had already beat me and was sitting bowls of oatmeal on the island. I took one and started eating it, and Heather gave me an odd look.

"I like that sweater, Zoe." Heather said. I smiled at her between bites.

"Does it bring out my eyes?' I asked. Heather smiled.

"Yes, it does. Say, the calendar showed a meeting between Mom, Dad, Dr. Hashburn and an Adam Peterson at eight. You know anything about it?" I nodded, taking a drink of a glass of orange juice.

"Yeah, It's to discuss some stuff about what Mr. Jackson said and did Friday..." I replied. "Stuff I'd rather forget about, quite honestly."

"Yeah, well, I'm not sure that forgetting about it would be the best thing to do." Heather said. "Remembering that it occurred will help you the next time it happens."

"I hope there isn't a next time." I said. Mom walked into the kitchen.

"A next time for what?" She asked, attacking the coffee pot and making it give up it's spoils.

"For what happened with Mr. Jackson." I replied taking the last bite of my oatmeal. I put the bowl and the sink and watched as it filled up with water.

"I hope it doesn't happen again either..." Mom said. "You two need to run out and catch your buses. Neither your dad nor I will have time to take you to school if you miss the bus..." I knew that mom's morning was pretty full between the meeting with Dr. Hashburn and then her having to fly to Chicago for a meeting that couldn't be done online. She should be home before dinner..."I have a meeting in Chicago at eleven, so I should be back by five, and your dad has to go to the Portland office and will probably be gone for the next three days." Heather and I looked at each other.

"What should we do for dinner if you aren't back by five?" Heather asked.

"Come up with something, Heather you are getting to be quite the cook..." Mom said. Heather blushed.

"Ok. I can do that," Heather said.

"You guys need to go get to your busses. I'll see you tonight." Mom kissed me on the top of the head, and then did the same thing to Heather. Heather and I then scurried out to the bus so that we wouldn't miss it.

#
Riley sat next to me on the bus, and we chatted all the way to the school.

"Did you get the project done for Mrs. Harpers class?" Riley asked me.

"Yep, I got it done Saturday after we finished shopping... I think that dad will be painting my room when he gets back from Portland. He's flying out today..." I said to Riley.

"Ah." The bus made a stop and let a few more kids on. They glared at Riley and I and I realized that they were in the study hall that Riley and I had been in Friday.

"Faggots." One of them said as he passed to go sit in the back of the bus. Riley and I sat about in the middle the bus, and we didn't have assigned seats. My phone chimed and I pulled it out and looked at it, made a face and showed it to Riley; her face showing a lack of understanding. The message I had received stated that I had received copies of the propose changes to the schools policies in regards to students that were transgender. I opened the file and attempted to read it on the tiny screen of my iPhone. After a few moments of crossing my eyes, I finally frowned and put my phone away.

"Can't read it on that screen?" She asked.

"No, I would either need my laptop or my iPad." Both would be better than the little screen on the phone. "Today is a 'B' Rotation day isn't it?" I asked, and Riley nodded. Normally I was the one keeping track of that kind of thing without much thought. I think that dealing with not being in school most of Wednesday and then missing Thursday messed me up. "So that means a whole new set of teachers..." Not exactly a true statement. Some classes, such as our English, Math and History classes were both 'A' and 'B' day classes. I pulled my phone back out and sent a text to mom and dad, as well as Adam Peterson. When I put my phone back in my purse, Riley gave me a look.

"What was that about?"

"I have a feeling that we might have problems today like we did on Friday... As soon as we get there, I do need to get to a computer. Even if it's just to get hard copies of these changes so I can review them..."

"I hope not. May I see the changes and maybe offer input?" I looked at her.

"Let me find out..." I said, pulling my phone out for the third time in about twenty minutes... I fired off a text to Adam and go an almost instant answer back. "Adam said that's fine. I'll run you copies. He said input from someone that's not directly involved wouldn't hurt." The bus pulled up to the school, and Riley and I stood so that we could get off the bus and into the school so I could get hard copies of these PDF's. "I wonder if Mrs. Smithson is here..."

#
Riley and I walked into the main office and found Mrs. Chattfield at her desk, after not having found Mrs. Smithson up in the library. She smiled at us as we walked in.

"Morning girls, What can I do for you?"

"Need to use a computer. Mr. Peterson sent me some stuff that I need to print, but Mrs. Smithson isn't here yet." She nodded. There was a spot in the office for a second secretary to sit, but after Mrs. Horn had retired right after school started, the desk had sat empty. She also knew that when I said that the mail was from Mr. Peterson, that it was important enough for her to give me access to a computer that I shouldn't have had access to... "Come over here and use this one. It prints to the printer that is between the desks." She said. I walked around the desks and into an area that few students had ever been. I tried to log in to the computer and got told that I couldn't log in here... I tried again just in case I had mistyped something. The same message appeared.

"It's not letting me in over here, Says that I'm not authorized to log on to this workstation." I said to Mrs. Chattfield. She got up and came around to the desk I sat at. She logged into the computer using her information and then went back to her desk. I logged into my email and then printed two copies of the file that Adam had sent me and then logged off of the computer. Riley stood on the other side of the wall of the cubical watching me. I sat there, waiting for the printer to finish before I got up. Mrs. Young walked in and looked at me and then at Mrs. Chattfield.

"Keep hiring them younger and younger..." She said with a chuckle. "What are you doing back there?"

"I needed to print something out and Mrs. Smithson wasn't upstairs yet." I replied. Mrs. Young nodded.

"Get your papers and get out of back there before someone that shouldn't see you on that computer does so." I nodded, grabbing my printouts and walking back around to where Riley stood. I handed her a copy of the documents that I had printed out. We sat there and skimmed them, completely missing the bell at fifteen minutes till, and five minutes till.

"Uh, Girls?" Mrs. Chattfield said. We both looked at at Mrs. Chattfield and saw the clock that sat behind her that controlled the clocks in the school.

"Whoops" I said. Mrs. Chattfield smiled.

"Here's passes, get to class. Hopefully I won't see you in tears again, Zoe." Mrs. Chattfield handed our passes toward us.

"Thank you!" we both said in unison, then we looked at each other and giggled.

"I hope I don't come down in tears again either, Mrs. Chattfield..." I said, as Riley and I left the room...

#
Mine and Riley's schedules were the same for the three classes of both 'A' and 'B' days. It was for our fourth class where we would be separated. That would be the class that I anticipated that I would have a problem.

Unfortunately, I was right...

I walked into the classroom where my Programming class was. This would be the longest that I would be without Riley in two days. I walked into the computer lab and dropped my backpack off in my chair and I heard students whispering about me. Nothing bad, but it was more of a 'that's the new girl: Zoe...' type of thing. I walked up to the teacher, an older balding gentleman who rumor had it had been around when the Einac had been developed.

"Mr. Crutchfield." I said, sounding every bit as nervous as I felt. Every other time I had been introduced as Zoe, it was by Riley or Dr. Hashburn... He looked over from the monitor that sat on his desk and looked at me. "I'm Zoe, I'm taking the place of Allen Franks on your roster." He gave me a look up and down as if he were trying to decide if he should let me take his class.

"I know who you are, Allen. I don't any boys dressed as girls in my class. Get out of here, I don't care where you go, but I don't want you in this class." I grabbed my backpack and left the room, feeling the tears start to fall I headed straight for the school office. I walked through the door and Mrs. Young and Mrs. Chattfield were standing there talking. I just collapsed in a chair, causing Mrs. Young to come over to where I sat.

"Lets go to my office." She said. I stood and started that direction. "Get Riley down here. I think that Zoe's gonna need her." Mrs. Chattfield nodded and started typing on her computer.

#
"He said that he didn't want any boys dressed as girls in his class and told me to leave. He said he didn't care where I went, but he wanted me out of his class." I paused, and blew my nose. There was a knock on the door, and Mrs. Young opened it to reveal a very concerned looking Riley. She rushed into the room, and sat next to me, embracing me in a hug. You would think that she hadn't seen me in months.

"What happened?" She asked looking from me to Mrs. Young.

"She had an incident with Mr. Crutchfield. Similar to the one that you guys experienced with Mr. Jackson. I figured that you would be the best person to help her. If you two would excuse me for a second, I'm going to call Dr. Hashburn and let him know." Riley and I both nodded and watched as she went to her desk.

"You know, this kinda thing is getting annoying." Riley said. "You're getting more flack from staff than students."

"I know, I think that it's coming though. It just hasn't sunk in yet." I replied, Riley looked at me.

"You think their still in shock?"

"Yep. And when it sinks in, that's when the gloves are going to come off and this is going to be a real challenge."

"I'll be right her when that happens." Riley said. "No matter what." We smiled at each other. Mrs. Young came back over.

"Dr. Hashburn said that he will let Mr. Peterson know, Zoe, and that he will take care of it. He also said that they hashed out the papers that you were sent this morning, but he still wants your input before he presents them to the board." She smiled. "You are the ground breaker on this, so you are making history. Someone might have an easier time next week because you've laid the groundwork. You should be proud Zoe." Mrs. Young said. Riley smiled at me.

"I am." I said. "Someone has to lay the ground work for everything. It hasn't been easy that's for sure."

"I know." Mrs. Young smiled. "I want you both to know that my door is always open." Even though both Riley and I knew what she meant, we both looked at the closed door. She chuckled. "You two are silly. I think it's almost your lunch period, so why don't you guys scoot on to lunch and if I need to talk to you about what happened, I'll send for you."

"Ok." I said, standing and feeling the tight jeans shift as I stood. Riley had worn a brown tiered skirt and white turtleneck. Perhaps we should coordinate our outfits...

#
Riley and I made it all the way to business applications before anything else worth mentioning occurred. Riley and I had both just logged into our computers when the PA system activated.

"Mrs. Harper?" Came Mrs. Chattfield's voice.

"Yes."

"Can you send Zoe Franks and Riley Edwards to the office with their stuff, please?" Mrs. Harper looked at us and nodded.

"On their way."

"Thank you." Riley and I looked at each other and then logged out of the computers. We packed up our belongings and left the classroom.

"What do you think it's about?" Riley asked as we headed for the office.

"Probably something to do with Mr. Crutchfield..." I let the thought trial off as we walked into the office.

"Go see Mrs. Young." Mrs. Chattfield said before the door to the office had even shut. We both walked back to Mrs. Young's office and I knocked on the door.

"Come in." We heard very faintly from the other side of the door. It sounded like Dr. Hashburn's voice. I opened the door and we walked in to Mrs. Young's office. I was right, Dr. Hashburn was there, and sitting in the same seat that he had sat in Friday, leaving the couch open for Riley and I.

"You guys are probably wondering why you were summoned?" Dr. Hashburn asked with a smile. Riley and I looked at each other and nodded.

"Yeah, we are." I said speaking for both of us.

"Zoe, I actually wanted just you to come down, but Mrs. Young told me that the odds of Riley just coming down with you were pretty good, and that I should have her come too just to save some paperwork and some explaining." Dr. Hashburn said. "I wanted to tell you personally, that Mr. Jackson is no longer employed by the school district, and Mr. Crutchfield had decided to take an early retirement." Riley and I looked at each other again.

"Does that mean that in less than a week I've cost three people their jobs?" I asked, alarmed.

"No. They left on their own because they couldn't handle being around someone that was different. Have you had a chance to look over the documents that Mr. Peterson emailed you this morning?" I shook my head. "Ok, I want you to look at them tonight and send me an email with your feedback. At the moment your voice is the only transgender voice in this district, what you have to say is important." I nodded. "Riley, same goes for you. You may not be transgender, but you have a unique position here. You see the way the current situation is affecting Zoe, and you are in the unique position to be able to help her out." Riley beamed. The statement was a compliment whoever it came from. Dr. Hashburn pulled out two letters. "I want to take the two of you to lunch, these are permission slips, Bring them back and we'll go somewhere Friday. The bell's about to ring, so why don't you two go catch your bus."