Pumpkin fire

Wath will they dress up as?

The day was normal, with some annoying comments that I decided to ignore on Lara's advice, but other than that the day progressed bearable until recess time passed. Because when I came back from recess I sat in my seat (as usual with my best friend Lara) it was almost time to leave so I had turned to look at the clock on the wall hoping that time would pass quickly.

Suddenly I could hear some murmurs that made me look out of the corner of my eye over my shoulder, there were two girls murmuring, but that was not all, when I turned to look to the side. Walter and Diego (Diego is the boy sitting next to Walter) watched me smiling. The worst thing is that it wasn't just them, from what I could see it was several of her classmates who were looking at her like that. At that moment I entered, I closed my eyes suspiciously, were they talking about me? But at that moment (before I could say anything) the math teacher, Nilda Soja, came in, so I had to turn around trying not to pay attention to them.

Although it seemed strange to me that they were looking at me laughing like fools, I was not willing to pay attention to them so I just waited for the time to pass quickly. Being in math class made it easy.

As dismissal time approached, teacher Nilda stood with her back to the blackboard looking at us. Nilda is a stocky lady with dyed brown hair and medium light skin.

-Are you excited to celebrate Halloween tomorrow? -Asked Professor Nilda.

Some students respond with cheers while other students, including Lara and myself, respond with a simple yet strong "yes."

Teacher Nilda smiles happily when she hears the yes of her students, although few were those who wanted it with a true one, but whether it was true or not, Nilda loved the emotion of her students.

Who will go trick-or-treating tomorrow?.-Nilda asked us.

All the students without exception raised their hands. It is something that Nilda was not surprised about, and what child does not like to go trick-or-treating on Halloween?

-I am curious to know what they will dress up as. -Exclaimed Professor Nilda. -So we are going to pretend that I am taking a list that way I am going to say their names and one by one they will tell me what they are going to dress up as.

The teacher goes to her desk which is in front of one of the rows of desks; In the classroom there are 3 rows of 4 desks each row, in each desk there are two chairs, making a total of twelve desks and twenty-four eleven-year-old students. The twenty-four children are divided into twelve girls (including Lara and me), twelve boys. Of the twenty-four students, there are fourteen who enjoy bothering their classmates, of these fourteen children, half are boys and half are girls. The teacher takes the list of students in her hands and begins with the 1st name:

-Abad Julio.

A boy with long light brown hair tied in a ponytail raises his hand.

-What are you going to disguise yourself as, Julio? -Nilda asks the boy.

-Of the gorgon Esteno. - Answers Julio Abad.

- Is Medusa like the one with the snakes? -Asks the teacher happily surprised.

-Yes, a woman from Greek mythology too.-Julio answered with a smile.

-Philandering. -Whispers one of the students behind him.

-Who said that? -Asked Professor Nilda.

None of the students responded, although for Nilda it was not difficult to know who they were since the students who normally had fun bothering the others were always the same.

-I don't want to hear them making fun of any of their classmates again. -Said the teacher in a stern tone.

Although Julio heard the whisper he does not turn to see who said it, he decides not to pay attention because it is normal for him to be bothered by his binary gender. In reality, Julio is a gender-fluid boy and for this he is teased by the other students. That is something that Professor Nilda remembers had explained on another occasion. Everything had come about because of another joke like that where they made fun of him saying he was gay, and that was what made the teacher Nilda tell them that it was not okay to bother Julio to which he explained that he was a gender-fluid boy. Of course, neither I nor any of the other students knew what that meant, since they thought it was something to do with homosexuality or bisexuality.

Professor Nilda had to explain: -Gender fluid people are those who transition between two or more genders permanently or sporadically, being able to be bigender, trigender or pangender depending on the number of genders that are involved in said fluctuation.

-Trigender? -A student asked raising his hand.

Teacher Nilda took a piece of chalk and wrote "Woman", "Man", "Both", "None" on the blackboard. -Yes, 4 genders are known, knowing that a person can be a woman, a man, both or neither.-Explains the teacher pointing to the blackboard.-Fluid gender establishes imprecise and variable transition periods, sometimes identifying with one or more genders and other times with different ones.

Professor Nilda paused, approaching the table where Julio was.

-That is why they cannot say if he is gay or not just because of that, because fluid gender is not determined by s****l orientation or by the presence of certain s****l characteristics; but by a constant search for conformity within one's own gender identity. - Explains the teacher.

As the teacher correctly said, the fact that she has not yet found her gender identity has nothing to do with her sexuality, but it seems that they did not understand or pay attention to it. That's why even though the teasing annoys him, he knows that the fact that they bother him denotes ignorance or posture.

I don't know about him, but I knew that both straight men and gay men have different postures where they both attack each other. It is something that is simply seen, there are few who act differently, almost none respect the decision of the other, people like others to do the same as them and he does not want to be the same as anyone. What Julio wants is to search for his own identity in every way so he just ignores them.

-For those of us who don't know her, do you want to explain who she is? -Professor Nilda asked Julio.

-Yes, Professor Croner had talked about that at the beginning of the year. -Answers Julio.- He said that in the myths it was said that there were three gorgons, Medusa, Esteno and Euríale. Surely the one that is best known from the movies is Medusa , she was the only mortal of the three, and had poisonous snakes instead of hair from a punishment Athena gave her.

-I didn't know that, only that Medusa was a female chthonic being, who turned those who stared into her eyes into stone. She was beheaded by Perseus, who later used her head as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to put on her shield. -Exclaims the teacher.-I hope you have a good time.

Julio smiles as Nilda looks at her list again to go on to the next name.

-Abascal Fabian, what are you going to dress up as?

Fabian is a dark-skinned boy who wears square-rimmed glasses, and a trendy low-cut afro style.

-From Albert Einstein. -Answers Fabian Abascal.

-Good idea, Einstein is one of the great minds. -Exclaims Professor Nilda.-I hope you have a good time. Look down again at the list of students to move on to the next name.

-Acebedo Yelsica...

A fair-skinned girl with long straight black hair wearing colorful clothes raised her hand.

-What are you going to dress up as? Nilda asks.

-As a little bee. Yelsica responds with a smile.

-Bee, very good. -Exclaims Nilda.-I hope you have a good time.

-Yes, I hope to get many sweets. Yelsica answered.

-Bebe Scholarship. -Nilda says looking up.

A boy with medium skin and short black hair raises his hand. Seeing the boy raise his hand, the teacher Nilda looks at him smiling.

-What will you dress up as?

-From Count Dracula. -Grant Babier responds.

-The Count Dracula? -Nilda asks Grant.

Yes, it is one of my favorite books. -Grant answers Nilda.

-It's a very good classic. -Exclaims Professor Nilda. -I hope you get a lot of candy for your fangs.

Grant chuckles as Nilda looks down at the list.

-Camaño Yamila..., what will she dress up as?

A girl with dark skin and loose straight hair had raised her hand at the sound of her name.

-A witch. -The girl responds moving a pencil in her hand as if it were a magic wand.-I was practicing wand movements.

-And it shows, you did very well. -Nilda tells Yamila going down to see the list.-Caballol Ayelen.

A robust girl raises her hand and Nilda turns to see her.

-What will you dress up as?

- Strawberry. - Answers Ayelen Caballol.

-Strawberry, what a sweet choice.-Exclaims Nilda.-Very good idea. Look down the list again.

-Calviño Flabio is absent today, his parents reported that he was sick. -Nilda whispers going down to see the name under that.-Cantero Carlos.

A big, plump, blond boy raised his hand.

-What will you dress up as? -Nilda asks the boy.

-From Frankenstein.- Carlos Cantero answers.-I'll go with Grant, we'll make a team of monsters.

-Frankenstein is also a classic monster from a classic horror novel, that's a good idea. -Nilda answers with an expression of pleasant surprise. -Classic horror night on Halloween, that's fantastic.

Among the 10 remaining students who are victims of their teasing, we find 5 girls (Me, Lara Orea, Yamila, Yelsica and Ayelen) and 5 boys (Carlos Cantero, Grant, Fabian, Flabio and Julio Abad).

Not counting Lara and myself, 5 of the 8 "calm" male students are divided into; 2 Flabio and Fabian prefer to concentrate on their studies, Julio is an introvert as well as a good student, there is also Grant and Carlos, two children who are fans of modern and classic novels, so they both spend their free time reading.

The 3 remaining girls are Yelsica who is a girl who considers herself a hippie, and is somewhat introverted who is seen as weird also because of her hippie personality, and two girls Yamila and Ayelen who, although they are not good students or weird, feel sorry for me and that it became evident on several occasions because not only did they not laugh at the things they did, on top of that several times he interceded in my defense.

-Dachs Facundo. -Professor Nilda continues with the names on the list. -What will she dress up as?

-From alien.- Facundo answers. Facundo is a boy with shaved brown hair and a long face.

-What kind of alien? -Professor Nilda asks curiously.

-The green ones and big heads.-Facundo answers.

-Excellent, it's a type of costume I haven't seen before. -The teacher answers, looking down at the list again.-Dambolena Mario.

A boy with a prominent nose raised his hand at the sound of his name.

-What will you dress up as? Nilda asks him.

-As a pirate captain - Mario Dambolena answers.

-He will paint with his candy treasure, good idea. -Nilda says jokingly as she looks down at the list. -Ebora Sandra, what will you dress up as?

-Zombie. Sandra Ebora answers. Nilda continued asking student by student until she reached Lara. Orea Lara.

Laura raises her hand. -What will you dress up as? -Asked Professor Nilda.

-A kitten. -Lara answered smiling.

-A kitten of what color? -Asked Professor Nilda.

-Black and white. Lara answered with a smile.

-This is a cat that I have at home.-Nilda says surprised.-She will feel flattered that they have dressed up as her, I hope you have a good time. Professor Nilda looks down to see the three people missing from the list.

-Pabón Brie.

A girl with a hooked nose and hair in a bun without bangs.

-What will you dress up as?

-From Little Mermaid. -Brie Pabón answers. - Mermaid, excellent. -Nilda says before seeing the list again.-Sorsone Deborah.

At that moment I raised my hand.

-What will you dress up as? Nilda asks me curiously.

-Of Princess. -I replied.

-Will his head become a carriage?