I'm back! I hope I wrote this chapter with tact and respect.

Guy fieri: Glad you liked it! I must admit I'd taken a lot longer than usual to put up the third chapter, I just had a bit of writer's block coupled with lack of time. Thank you for reviewing!

Thanks to fan no. j for following and favouriting my story!

"I'd like you all to partner up to draw a poster during today and tomorrow's class, based on the novel we have studied."

Yoshi sighed audibly as the teacher finished her speech. Studying that novel was possibly the most boring thing they had done since they had started eighth grade, not to mention that he was no Leonardo da Vinci when it came to drawing.

He glanced at Toad, sitting two seats away from him. He was the most obvious choice for a partner. After all, they were best friends. Not to mention that Toad was reasonably smart, smarter than Yoshi at any rate, and a bit better at drawing.

From there his thoughts drifted to Birdo, sitting at the front of the classroom. Her mousy brown hair was tied in a medium ponytail that swished when she turned around to get a box of coloured pencils from her schoolbag. He shook his head slightly. Why would he partner up with Birdo? He knew next to nothing about her, though he had her face memorised from the multiple times he'd watched her: tanned skin, dark eyes, large mouth, and always wearing that purple eye shadow, no matter what.

"Everyone, pick your partners!"

Yoshi snapped out of his daydreams; he'd missed everything the teacher had said, and had no real idea of what they were supposed to do.

He looked at Toad, who gave him a nod, starting to approach his table.

Was this what he really wanted?

He liked Toad a lot, despite his tendency to despair when things went wrong, his constant fretting about life, his occasional tactlessness. But Toad's bluntness was exactly what was stopping Yoshi from being honest with his friend: while he would enjoy working with Toad, he wanted to get to know Birdo a little better. She wasn't just the "transgender girl" as a few people in his year put it: there had to be more to her. And he wanted to know what was beneath the surface, but he was also afraid of what Toad would make of that.

He gave Birdo a quick look. She didn't look lost, like an awkward, partner-less person would usually appear, but confident, almost defiant at the world around her, the people who wouldn't give her a chance because she was a little different.

"Uhh, Toad?" he said before he could stop himself. "I-I'm working with Birdo. I... I hope you don't mind."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I... yeah."

Toad gave him a funny look, but dropped the subject, to his relief. However, as he strolled to Birdo's desk, he felt even more afraid than when he was telling Toad what he wanted to do instead. His hands felt clammy: how did you talk to someone you liked? He thought of when he had forced Mario and Daisy to be alone, and felt guilty. Now that he knew how awkward it could be, he wouldn't be pulling that trick on a friend again any time soon.

He felt himself blushing, and tried to look Birdo in the eye as he spoke, though it made him feel all the more embarrassed.

"Uhh..." He said. "Hi... I..." Real smooth, Yoshi, he thought, wanting to kick himself.

Birdo blinked. "Yeah?"

"Uhh, I was thinking... Can I work with you?"

She smiled. "Yeah, sure. And you don't need to be so afraid of asking, you know. I'm a nice person, once you get to know me." She winked, causing his face to turn even redder as he took a seat next to her.

"So, Birdo." He scratched the back of his neck, lowering his eyes, unaware of how adorable that gesture was from Birdo's point of view. "I-I wasn't really listening there, so... can you tell me what's going on here? Like I know we have to do a poster about the novel, but..."

"That's all you need to know, really. She was just yapping on and on, I was like, will you just stop!" She rolled her eyes, and Yoshi chuckled. "So, are you any good at drawing?"

"Nope. How about you?"

"Not really. I'm not bad at art, though, I mean, I love makeup. Makeup is an art, right?"

Yoshi thought about it. "Yeah. I guess. You're basically painting your face, so yeah."

Birdo laughed. "We'd better get going with this. I think we should draw two people looking into each other's eyes. Just their faces, so it's not too hard."

"Then we can draw a heart in the middle, so people know it's a poster based on a romance novel, not a story about two mad people staring at each other for no reason." Birdo laughed harder, and Yoshi was encouraged to continue. "What? That's what it'll look like if I draw it. Like this." He widened his eyes til they looked like they were about to pop out, and gave a mad, toothy grin. At that stage, Birdo had tears of laughter streaming down her cheeks.

"Now that you know just how bad I am at drawing," Yoshi smirked, "I think we both know who should do that job."

"Okay," Birdo said, her shoulders still shaking with mirth. "I'll do the drawing. You can get the credit for the ideas. And the humour."

Birdo took out a pencil, and quickly sketched an image of two people looking into each other's eyes, with a big love-heart in the background.

"Sorry it's not great," she said.

"I think it's good. Maybe I should colour it, just so I can say I did something."

Birdo glanced at her watch. "Hmm... we've only five minutes left. I don't think we'll have much time."

"Oh. Well, tomorrow! I'll do it tomorrow."

"Yeah. Anyway, I was wondering. I'm very busy this week, but... do you want to go on a date with me on Saturday? Not this week, but next week? I'm free that day."

Yoshi simply gawped at her as she smiled and batted her eyelids. A date? With him? Birdo, his crush since the start of the year, wanted a date with the disgustingly obese Yoshi?

"Uhh, yeah, s-sure," he stammered.

The bell rang at that moment, as Birdo packed away her things. "That's great," she said. "I was worried you'd say no. I'm not exactly every boy's dream, you know? They don't want to go out with another "boy", as they sometimes like to call me."

"Oh," Yoshi uttered, unsure of how to respond at her sudden bitter tone. "Well... see you tomorrow, Birdo."

As Yoshi walked out of the classroom that day, he couldn't remember ever being this happy since he'd started middle school. A date with a girl he liked, someone he'd originally thought he had no chance with. What could be better?

Again, I hope I wasn't disrespectful against transgender people, but at the same time I wanted this to be realistic: not everyone is very accepting in the real world. Please review!