Darin Dares

Chapter 3 of 7

© 2014 by D.L.

My happy mood was soon being rapidly eroded away as I found small balls of wet paper hitting me in the back of my head and a few stray shots whizzing past my head.

The final lesson of the day is the one I have been dreading the most. Most of the classes I attend are split by ability level and I'm in the top class for most of my subjects. In general the level of intelligence in these classes is higher and there are proportionally fewer troublemakers. There are a couple of people in my science class that worry me as potential bullies, but they are in the minority.

The last period for the day was History. This particular lesson is not done by ability level and there are a number of students that like to cause problems. Also, this is one of the few classes I attend that has a women teacher. Mrs Baker is fairly young, I would guess late twenties and not very tall. Despite her best efforts she is unable to maintain control of her classes. I don't know why she is unable to gain the respect of the students. It seems she has a reputation of not being able to control the class and this works against her as it gives confidence to the troublemakers to stand up to her. No matter how loudly she shouts, it doesn't seem to have much effect. She is often hoarse by the end of the day.

It doesn't help that I'm one of the last people to arrive at the classroom. The science lab I came from is the furthest and I didn't get out of the previous lesson very promptly. I was also delayed in the corridor. One of the girls in front of me dropped the books she was carrying and caused a traffic jam while she recovered from her slip.

Mrs Baker already looked stressed by the time I arrived, and I don't think my appearance helped. I offered to show her the note, but she declined to read it. I guess by now all my teachers were aware of my current status without needing the explanation.

I could tell it was going to get bad when Gary immediately started cat calling me as soon as I was in the door. Mrs Baker shouted at him, but he didn't seem to pay her much attention. Quite a few of the other students were laughing as well. The teacher called for quiet and the noise level fell to a lower level, but there was still a lot of whispering going on.

My happy mood was soon being rapidly eroded away as I found small balls of wet paper hitting me in the back of my head and a few stray shots whizzing past my head. I didn't need to look round to guess who was using a broken biro as a makeshift pea-shooter. Every time Mrs Baker turned her back more spit-wads of paper flew my direction.

The teacher turned round just in time to witness a large ball of paper hit me square in the back of the head. As I'm leant forward over my book, the projectile bounced upwards, its forward momentum keeping it moving towards the front of the class. Mrs Baker immediately demanded to know who through it, as she picked it up. It didn't take her more than a few seconds to focus on the prime suspect and start threatening detentions.

The projectiles stopped for a few minutes as the teacher went back to writing on the whiteboard. It was not long before a second ball of paper bounced off me head.

"Ouch! Pack that in," I shouted as I turned round angrily.

"What’s the matter, is it your time of the month?" Gary taunted me.

"That is not funny, Mr Prentiss," Mrs Baker yelled at Gary. "Apologise this instant."

I could tell by the tone of her voice that she was livid without needing to see her body language. I did however notice that several of the girls were also pretty annoyed with the comment.

"Sorry, I was forgetting you're not a real girl, just a sissy fag wannabe," Gary responded.

I was totally fuming now, and found myself standing with my fists clenched practically growling at the insult.

"Don't get your knickers is a twist," Gary continued, "What? Are you planning on hitting me, or just pulling on my hair like a little girl while trying to scratch me with non-existent nails?"

"Darin, Sit Down! Gary, do you want to end up in Mrs Davis's office?" Mrs Baker screamed.

"Yes, I think that would be a good idea," a new voice stated from the doorway. With everybody, the teacher included, focused on the squabble going on, none of us had noticed Mrs Davis appear at the doorway and enter the room.

"Mr Prentiss, I find your attitude and lack of respect for female authority figures disturbing. Mrs Baker shouldn't need to tell you not to do something more than once, and I don't think any of the girls here are impressed with your comments. I do hope you weren't planning on dating any time soon, as I think you may just have scuppered any chances of getting a girlfriend. Given your behaviour perhaps you would like to join Miss Mitchell in skirts for a while?" Mrs Davis stated. The use of a female pronoun when referring to me caught me off guard, and actually took the edge off my anger for a second.

"You can't do that! It's illegal," Gary protested strongly.

"Pity," Mrs Davis continued, "I think you'd look so cute in a little frilly pink dress. Your hair might just be long enough for pigtails. While you're right in that I can't force you into doing it, I can offer it as an alternative punishment."

This had the whole room laughing. Gary visibly shrunk into his chair at the remarks. Mrs Davis was pushing the limit of what she could get away with I think. There is a fine line between forcing discipline and forcing humiliation, and while the former is acceptable, the latter is not.

"Gary, please report to my office at the end of the lesson. If I hear that you have been anything less than the perfect student for the rest of the period, you'll find yourself begging to be let off as lightly as wearing a silly outfit. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Mrs Davis," Gary replied.

"Darin, I need to discuss your conduct and appearance today. Please collect your things and come with me," the headmistress instructed. I immediately complied, now very worried about being called out of the lesson. Mrs Davis apologised for her interruption to Mrs Baker before leading me out into the corridor. I could hear Mrs Baker berating the class again as we walked away. I couldn't quite hear what she said, but found out later from Kevin that she was complaining about how embarrassing it was that Mrs Davis had to come in before they would shut up and listen to her.

"Relax," Mrs Davis stated as we walked towards her office, "I didn't pull you out because you're in trouble. I thought there might be problems so decided to station myself outside the room just in case. I could see you were on the point of losing it and didn't fancy having to write you up for hitting someone, even if they did deserve it."

"You're determined not to have to call my parents, aren't you," I accused.

"Darin, if I do get involved with your family dispute, I would rather it be on a positive attitude than a negative one. I’d prefer you try to work this out with them first though."

"I normally change out of my uniform with I get home, but I fully intend to be wearing either this or a dress when my parents get home," I state. "I hope to be able to come dressed like this again tomorrow, but if they catch me wearing this then it will probably be confiscated."

We arrived at her office, and I took a seat opposite the headmistress at her desk.

"If you do turn up tomorrow in a skirt, then that won't actually be a problem. As I said, you are not in trouble. I have decided that you made a valid argument this morning. You did break the dress code, for which I hereby issue a warning, but the dress code itself is in breach of the equality and diversity policy, which takes precedence. We have to treat all genders, races and nationalities equally. By allowing girls to wear a wider range of clothing than boys, we are creating an inequality in contradiction to the principal of the policy. Therefore I uphold your complaint and I'm here by allowing any boy to attend in skirts if he so wishes, thereby removing the bias."

I sat there in shock, "You mean I can continue to come to school as a girl?"

Mrs Davis clarified, "You can continue to come dressed as a girl, but you will officially still be regarded and treated as a boy until we are told we must do otherwise by a qualified medical professional. Officially that means we continue to use your legal name, unless it gets changed, and have to use male pronouns in any correspondence. That doesn't mean we can't use a feminine nickname and pronouns unofficially."

I think about this for a moment, "I will certainly be taking you up on that offer. My parents might prevent me from turning up dressed as a girl, but they can't stop me changing into a skirt once I arrive, even if that does mean using the boy's toilets to do so. I have a spare one in my locker for tomorrow. I could change when I arrive if there was time, or even at the end of P.E. third period. There wouldn't be much point changing at break right before P.E. Spending Lunch time and the afternoon as a girl would be better than being in trousers all day."

"Does that mean you will actually be taking part? You said earlier you were planning on refusing, which would land you in trouble. We can't excuse you without a doctor’s note."

"I haven't decided yet," I admitted with a sigh. "So far, apart from some verbal jibes, I haven't gotten into any fights. I think tomorrow in the changing rooms could become a flash point, especially if I'm dressed as I am now. I can hold my own one on one, and I know I will have a couple of the boy's backing me up if a fight starts, but I'm still scared things could get out of hand real quick. The P.E. teachers don't like coming into the changing rooms while we are changing, which given the current political climate regarding potential paedophilia I can fully understand. However that does leave me vulnerable. I also hate having to undress in there. I'm seriously thinking about locking myself in the toilet cubicle to change and when it’s time to shower doing so while still in my P.E. kit. I'd be making myself an ever bigger target for ridicule and laugher for doing it, but I'm not sure I could cope any how else."

"I'll ask the P.E. teachers to keep an ear out for trouble. They'll enter the changing rooms if they think the is a fight going on, so simply scream loud enough if you think you're in danger. Unfortunately that is as far as I can help you at the moment."

"Thank you, I understand. I'm actually very relieved and slightly surprised that you have been as kind as you have been," I declared.

"I've witnessed the results of depression and bully first hand. I had a student commit suicide at a previous school where I worked. I vowed to never let that happen again, and I'm always on the lookout for students who might be at risk. Your teachers have noticed that you don't seem to interact with other students much, hardly say anything in lessons, and very rarely smile. If it wasn't for your growing friendship with Kevin over the past few weeks then you would have been scheduled to see Mrs Bates already," Mrs Davis stated causing me to shudder at the thought of seeing our school counsellor.

A puzzled expression came to the headmistresses face before her eyebrows rose in revelation, "Mr Phillips was very surprised by you behaviour this morning, saying he has never seen you so happy and relaxed. He said Kevin suggested this was your normal behaviour when presenting as a girl, and therefore he must have known about you beforehand. You said this morning that there was only one student with prior knowledge about you: the person you had to comfort after speaking to Mrs Bates. I may be jumping to conclusions here, but I'm thinking Kevin might be the person you were talking about earlier."

I felt my cheeks burning slightly. It had not been my intention to out my friend. I opted to stay quiet, neither confirming nor denying her assumption.

Seeing that I wasn't going to break confidence, Mrs Davis broke the awkward silence, "I have investigated your claims regarding Mrs Bates. I have a number of trusted students who I can go to for honest opinions, and they too perceived a bias. I even sent one of the sixth form drama students to her to ask advice regarding homosexual feelings, and we were both disappointed with the results. I have subsequently spoken to Mrs Bates, and she will be attending some additional training courses in the coming weeks. I take student wellbeing very seriously, and I want to make sure that everybody on staff is best able to do what is needed."

"My friend will be pleased to hear that," I replied. "I will let him know what you said. He may be willing to speak to you about it."

Mrs Davis nodded and said, "One of the reasons I decided to let you come dressed as you are is because I think it may be in your best interests. I have been watching you from a distance all day, and after speaking with your teachers, the general opinion is that you seem to be a lot more alive today. You seemed have talked to more people today than you have all term, you’ve been laughing and smiling and nobody can remember the last time you did that. Your attitude and general demeanour today has been much more positive than usual, and if letting you dress as a girl is the price for that, then I'm willing to adjust the rules a fraction."

I smiled in return, just relieved that I'm at least being taken seriously for once.

"That brings me to the other reason why I took you out of class," Mrs Davis said. "I fear that you could potentially be in danger at leaving off time if any of your fellow students do decide to take issue with you. I can't let you leave early without parental notification or consent, but I can let you stand at the gates, with you skates on, ready to depart as soon as the final bell rings. That will give you a at least a couple of minutes head start by the time everybody has gotten out of their lessons and out the door. I also suspect that Mrs Baker will be detaining her class as long as long as she is allowed after the bell, which will give you another five minutes lead over the people who were giving you trouble earlier. Gary will be even later once I have a word with him about his behaviour."

Teachers are allowed to prolong lessons by five minutes at the end of the day for bad behaviour. Longer detentions have to be served in lunch or break times. If after school detentions are needed, then parents have to be informed, especially as it could results in changes to transport arrangements for some students, and cause worry to some parents if their children are late home.

As there is still some time left before the end of the day, I'm told to sit at a spare desk in the main school office and read my history textbook. I do as instructed, and as arranged, pack up several minutes before the end of the period so that I can be ready to leave on the bell. As soon as it sounded, I rolled out of the gates in the direction of home, as fast as safely possible. I don't think I'm in danger, but it’s possible that somebody on a bike could catch up with me if they wanted too.