Twenty-Three: ReedThe first month or so of the school year was… weirdly normal. That particular oxymoron fit because the way things usually went were like so: I go to classes, some guy calls me a faggot under his breath, I tell him to f**k off, and I get kicked out of class.
I remembered vividly the first time I'd ever semi-sworn in class in the fifth grade. This kid, Richie, would not let it go that I had sleepovers with Rose and Rowyn. It went from him and his friends thinking it was cool because they had never spoken to an actual girl before, to them deciding I must be a girl, to finally just that I must like boys, leading me to the assumption that they were very confused about homosexuality and gender fluidity. A whole new world opened up to them after that. I'd muttered “screw you” a
