The Beginning

Today, is the last day of summer break which means we have to go back to school tomorrow. This year, my friends and I will be starting our junior year and I absolutely cannot wait.

Yesterday, I arrived back from spending the past two weeks in Mexico with my mom and dad. They travel a lot for business but they always make it a point to take my sister Aria, my brother Sebastian, and I somewhere during the summer so we can get a sense of what the world is like outside of Seattle. In those two weeks, I've Skyped my friends over a thousand times.

In my group of friends there is Addison and Mark who are my two very best friends. Then there is Teddy who also happens to be Addison's crush and Owen's best friend. With Owen comes his on and off girlfriend Christina and her person, Meredith. Together they're known as "the twisted sisters". When Mark, Addie, and I became close with them, it brought along Alex who is their other "person" and his now girlfriend Izzie. Meredith's boyfriend Derek and her sister Lexie began to hang out with us more at the beginning of last year and quickly became close with us all. Last but not least, is Jackson who is Mark's, right hand man on the football field and his new-found girlfriend, April.

The moral of that long narrative is that we've all known each other for a while now and there isn't anything that I wouldn't do for any of them. Together we like to refer to ourselves as the "misfit brainiac's" of the school. I mean, just about all of us are athletes and we're all in the top 20 of our class but from time to time a few, if not all of us, get into a little debaticle that may or may not result in a Saturday of detention which proves to be really fun when we're all there.

"Cal where are you" I hear the voices my best friends as they come barging through the front door.

"I'm in the kitchen, what are you guys doing here?" I ask walking through the kitchen door, trying to wipe some of the flour off of my shirt.

"Hey you're making cookies! Looks like we came just in time" Mark says rubbing his hands together as he slips past me and into the kitchen.

Shaking my head at him, I turn to the one person that came through my door with some actual sense, "What are you two doing here? I thought we were going out later tonight" I ask again, hearing a noise from behind me. Turning back toward the kitchen, I see Mark with his tongue stuck out, licking the spoon that I was using for the dough.

"Mark stop it! I was still using that" I tell him, seeing lookup with guilty expression while continuing to lick the cookie dough that's sitting on on the sides of his mouth.

Glancing at Addie with questioning eyes, she says, "We are going out, but we came to see if you brought any gifts back for us" she finishes, smiling because she already knows that the answer is yes.

I smile at them as Mark is cheesing at me with the spoon now in his mouth "Yes, I did..." I tell them only for them to both look at me expectantly, so I continue talking.

"...but I don't know if you really deserve them" Mark's smile drops and Addie immediately refutes this by moving closer to me and grabbing the sides of my face, "Callie I think you're still jet lagged from the flight sweetie" she tells me acting as if I didn't get back yesterday.

Ignoring her accusations, I walk into the living room, grabbing my duffle bag from by the couch and pull out their gifts. Going back in the kitchen, I hand the objects to them, receiving confused looks in return.

"Shot glasses, Cal why shot glasses?" Addie asks.

"I got you that because I also got this to go with it" I say as I pull out some Tequila that I snuck and had my cousin buy while I was in Mexico since I am not 18 yet.

Mark smiles again, "Yesss, that's my girl! You know us so well" he praises as Addie nods along.

"So tonight we take shots before our last party, party of the year then we work on finding Cal a girl" I hear him finish, prompting me to groan and shake my head.

"Yes! Mark that is the smartest thing you have said" Addie says and pushes up against me, smiling.

"Uhhhh no" Glaring at them both, " I don't need a girlfriend I don't even know anybody who I could trust to want to be in a relationship plus this year I'm focusing on school and softball if I'm planning on making captain I have to be focused."

Addison looks at me with a sad smile, "Cal I know how hard it is for you to let people in but come on you can still do all of that stuff plus it's not like you're not going to be captain of the varsity team coach loves you and your the best player on the team."

For the past few months, Addie and Mark have been trying to get me to start dating again. The last time I put myself out there was last year when I meet a girl from a rival school at a softball game.

I took a chance and asked her out and everything was going good, until she asked me to be her girlfriend and I told her about me being intersex. When I told her she was weirded out and things didn't end well. After that I stopped putting myself out their and began hanging hang out only with my friends and the softball team.

"Guys you already know I don't really want to date right now I told you I am focusing on..."

"School and softball yeah we know" they both say causing me to roll my eyes at their sarcastic tone.

"Cal come on tonight we are going to go to the party and I even heard there is two new transfers coming this year one of which is a girl" Addie says winking trying to convince me.

"Is that supposed to change things?" I ask, "You don't even know if she swings that way. For all you and I both know, she can be the straightest thing on this damn Earth."

"Look its 4:30 and the party starts at 7:00 We have to find you something hot to wear and do something with your hair" she tells me while dragging me up the stairs.

Frowning, I ask, "What's wrong with my hair and the clothes that I have on right now?" Giving me a once over, Addison laughs continuing up the stairs, "I am not going to even dignify that with a response."