A/N: Trigger warning for Adam experiencing gender dysphoria and Katie having thoughts of her past bulimia.

I am a cis woman so I have no experiences with being trans but I do hope I have captured Adam's journey into discovering who he really is faithfully.

Main POVs: "Gracie", Drew, and Katie

"Alright guys, tomorrow is the Valentine's Day dance and we're going to have our first performance there. We're going to need to knock everything out of the park and get an awesome reputation so we could perform at more events," Mo said to them all as they gathered in a practice room before school started.

Gracie paid attention to him as he spoke, feeling excited but also nervous about performing tomorrow. Anything could go wrong and they would be mocked forever by the entire student body. They didn't call themselves "The Outcasts" for nothing. All of them were unpopular enough as it was.

"In order for that to happen, we need to wear the most bangin outfits and that includes the ladies of this group dressing hot. We need eye candy to grab everyone's attention," Mo continued, and Gracie stiffened at the order.

"Isn't that kind of sexist?" Imogen pointed out with a raised eyebrow. She had two buns on the top of her head that were held up by hair sticks. Each hair stick had a glittery pink cat pendant at the top. Her sweater was also pink with a white cat on it and she wore a black pleated skirt with glittery pink boots.

Imogen was very pretty and it was hard to not notice, especially after Gracie had come to terms with the fact that she was most likely a lesbian. Over an almost two year period, she had only been attracted to girls and her fellow bandmate was only the latest in a long line of them. The unfortunate part was that no one could know, not even Drew.

"It's sexist but it's show business," Mo replied with a shrug, "But you can pull off pretty much anything, Im."

"Really you think so?" She asked, and Gracie tilted her head in curiosity at the red that suddenly appeared in Mo's cheeks before he looked down to avert her gaze. Did Mo like Imogen too?

"Yeah," he answered quickly before turning his attention onto her, "Gracie, I know you're like only five percent actual girl and ninety five percent guy, but can you at least try to look attractive tomorrow? Something feminine?" He asked her. Gracie gave him a hard look. Just the idea of being forced to dress girly made her feel queasy. It was bad enough that her parents got on her case for not being girly, and now Mo was too.

"I don't have a single thing in my closet that would make the male population drool in the crowd," she replied dryly.

"Well find something," Mo insisted firmly, and she sighed, knowing that arguing any further would be a lost cause. Mo was as stubborn as a bull.

"You can come over to my house after school for a makeover!" Imogen offered her, and despite feeling on edge about this whole thing, Gracie couldn't help but smile at her.

She had a feeling that Imogen would be good to her.

Drew was going over his homework assignments for his first string of classes. Since he was diagnosed with dyslexia, his teachers either printed out pages from the textbooks in bigger font or gave him different assignments from everyone else to accommodate his disability. He wasn't going to lie; Getting sympathy and special treatment from (most of) his teachers instead of scorn for being an "idiot" felt nice.

He was checking to make sure that his answers on his algebra homework didn't look completely made up when he heard heels clacking towards him. He looked up to see Alli Bhandari smiling down on him.

"Hi Drew," she greeted flirtatiously while placing her hand on his shoulder. "How are you?"

"Awesome. How are you?" He asked back, looking her up and down in desire. Despite being an eighth grader, Alli was really hot and he wouldn't mind having her as a girlfriend despite the inevitable teasing he would get from his buddies.

"I'm wondering if the guy I've been flirting with for a month has something important to ask me," she answered, and Drew looked at her in confusion. What important thing would he need to ask her? As far he knew, he had no questions about schoolwork to ask her or anything serious coming up.

Alli looked at him with her hands on her hips, and he knew she was expecting something to come out of him, but he truly didn't know what she was talking about. He just awkwardly smiled at her.

Alli nodded her head at something towards her right, and Drew looked at what she was gesturing towards. It was a pink, red, and white poster on a wall advertising the school's Valentine Day dance tomorrow. Oh.

"Sooooo," Drew started off, trying to be smooth about this despite not knowing what she was talking about literally two seconds ago, "Alli Bhandari, would you do me the honor of allowing me to take you to the Valentine's Day dance tomorrow?"

"Yes!" She accepted with a squeal that eerily reminded him of Marisol. She must have been spending too much time together lately.

"Great. I'll buy the tickets and pick you up around seven," he replied with a more genuine smile this time. She squealed again before leaning down and kissing him on the cheek. He knew that she left a mark on him. She waved him goodbye before walking past him. He looked back at her in admiration, and concern with how she was able to walk in those high heels.

Grabbing his backpack, he was about to start heading over to Dallas' locker when he heard several books and paper crash to the floor. "Fuck," he heard a feminine voice say before he looked over to see who it was. It was the girl from Liberty Van Zandt's birthday party, Bianca DeSousa.

Without thinking much, he walked over to where she was scrambling to pick up her stuff, kneeled down and picked up some of her textbooks. She looked at him in surprise.

"Thanks Prince Charming, coming to my rescue again?" She asked teasingly.

"I'm always down to help a beautiful damsel," he answered with a wink. She raised an eyebrow at his response before chuckling. In contrast to Marisol's giggles or Katie's brisk laughter, Bianca's chuckles were always dark and came off as if they were at someone else's expense.

"The last thing I am is some damsel," she replied as they both got up at the same time, "But I appreciate the help."

"No problem," he assured her while staring at her lip gloss. They were a light pink and made her lips really enticing.

"Are you going to that stupid dance tomorrow?" She asked him while putting some pink slips in her bag. He immediately recognized them as the ones she got after mouthing off to Mr. Perino yesterday. Along with her friend Fitz, Bianca was no doubt a regular guest of the detention room.

"Yeah, are you?" He asked back. He felt like he already knew the answer from a girl like her.

"Usually I wouldn't because themed dances are fucking stupid," she answered gruffly, "But I'm willing to make an exception if you're taking me," she finished with a flirty, but challenging smirk.

The answer threw him off guard. Girls usually expected the guy to ask them out to dances but not the other way around. And he wasn't expecting her to be interested.

"Um….," he trailed off, his brain trying to register what to say.

"What, I'm too scary for a squeaky clean prince like you?" She teased, and something else inside of him pushed him to answer instead of his brain.

"No, you got yourself a date," he replied. She seemed surprised that he was actually accepting her offer.

"You can pick me up whenever, I don't care. Just don't stand me up or you'll regret it," she warned him before walking off, but not before looking back at him with a sultry smile.

Drew let out a whistle when she was out of eyesight. Bianca DeSousa was really hot. Intensely hot. That was one girl he wouldn't mind spending some time in the Ravine for.

It took him a minute to remember that he already had a date to the dance.

Katie had an urge to throw up her lunch and not for the usual reasons.

She watched with utter disgust as Marisol and her new boyfriend acted all sugary sweet at their lunch table. Marisol was feeding Owen fries while he visibly groped her…everywhere like she was a toy. It made her uncomfortable.

Marisol reached for one of his fries to eat herself, and Owen slapped it out of her hand. "Woah, woah, baby. Wouldn't want you to gain any extra pounds," he chided her. She pouted.

"But I'm hungry," she whined as she reached for another one. The way Owen grabbed her wrist to stop her set up red flags in Katie's mind. If he did it again, she wouldn't be able to stop herself from grabbing the fork from her pasta and stabbing his hand with it.

"Mari, you already had a cheeseburger and cheese fries yesterday, you can't just eat unhealthy everyday. You wouldn't look good as a big girl," he replied to her, "That's why I paid for you to get a salad today, remember?"

Marisol's lunch today was a small chicken salad with light dressing and some itty bitty little croutons. While her best friend wasn't opposed to eating salads some days, while dating Owen she was ordering them more often as he paid for her meals. While Katie was aware of how much she criticized her friend's eating habits in the past, she didn't feel comfortable with Owen policing them. She could also begrudgingly admit these days that she came at Marisol for how she ate out of jealousy and unhealthy projection from her eating disorders. Now that she was seeing someone else come down on her friend for it, she felt guilty.

"Right. I'm sorry baby," she apologized as she picked up her salad and dug in. She ate in small, delicate bites. Next to her salad was a bottle of water.

"I'm just looking out for my little chocolate drop," he assured her with a smile that he probably thought was sweet but Katie found it to be scummy. The couple leaned in and shared a kiss, and from the way Marisol just giggled, she had a feeling he groped her ass.

Katie looked down at her own meal and felt some familiar, negative feelings come up. She was supposed to be rebuilding a healthy relationship with food, but the exchange between Marisol and Owen wasn't helping. She was being reminded of the words she used to tell herself to justify not eating, and the voice in her head telling her that no one was going to want a fat girlfriend.

The voice was still in her head, and it was ringing quite loud. For the rest of the lunch period, she didn't really eat her food. She just played around with it.

After gym class, Gracie entered the showers where the other girls were bathing and changing. She quietly entered a stall and turned the hot water on her body.

Her period flowed down her leg and she tried her best not to look at it as she washed up. Her period was a reminder that no matter how many times she tried to hide her femininity, she couldn't escape it and the awful cramps that came with it. After showering, she came out to see some of the popular girls in her grade applying nail polish to each other's fingers. When they saw her, they gave her a sneering look.

"You want your nails painted too or are you too good for that?" One of the girls asked her. Gracie ignored them as she dried her hair and body.

"Don't you remember? She would much rather act like a boy," the other one replied dryly.

"I'm surprised she even calls herself a girl at this point," the first girl said.

"With that flat chest and hairy legs she might as well be a boy," the second one joked before they both started snickering and soon some other girls in the shower room joined in.

Under normal circumstances, Gracie would have told everyone in the room to fuck off but their conversation awakened something in her mind.

In all honesty, she wished she was born a boy, but there was no way she could change that about herself.

"So you're going to somehow manage to go to the dance with two girls at the same time tomorrow?" Dallas questioned him as they left class together.

"Maybe," Drew answered, even though he didn't know the answer to that himself. He really didn't know what to do.

"Didn't you try to do that the last time with Marisol and Katie and it didn't work out?"

"Well, for a while yeah they were both mad at me for it but I ended up dating Katie out of it," he explained, "Either way I'm going to have to come up with something."

"Why don't you take Bianca and give the cute little Bhandari girl to me?" Dallas offered with a smirk.

"And bring Bianca home for my mom to meet? Have you seen what kind of girl she is?" Drew reminded him with narrowed eyes. There was no way his mother would support that kind of girl as his girlfriend. Absolutely no way. She would kill Bianca then him for bringing her up in her face in the first place.

"So drop her and only bring Alli," Dallas reasoned. It seemed like the easiest solution. But it wasn't. Maybe it was just him being dumb but he couldn't find it in himself to not want to go out with Bianca. Something about her was too enticing despite being a dangerous girl to be with.

On their way to history class, they passed by Bianca, who smirked when she saw him. Drew couldn't help but smirk back.

"Degrassi has all of these hot girls but I'm only supposed to be with one. It's unfair," he complained before they entered history class together.

His best friend chuckled before they took their seats.

After leaving her final classroom for the day, Katie headed to her locker. Hers was right next to Marisol's.

She was unprepared for Marisol to be making out with Owen in a display of truly disgusting PDA. Her best friend was shoved against her locker as Owen slobbered all over her lips. As she approached them, neither of them made any move to stop. Even when she uncomfortably cleared her throat. Rolling her eyes, she did her best to open her locker.

They finally stopped while she was in the middle of getting her schoolwork for tonight. She overheard Marisol giggle in the process. When she reached all the way in the back, her blue journal fell out onto the ground. Before she could pick it up, Owen grabbed it for her.

Him touching any of her possessions, especially that one made her ill. She yanked it out of his hands without a second thought.

"Wow, you're not even going to say thank you?" Owen questioned her with a glare.

"Thanks," she replied thinly with fake politeness. His glare darkened.

"Aren't you a little ray of sunshine? I bet you think you're better than me because you have the teachers up your ass," Owen jeered.

"Owen…," Marisol jumped in with widened eyes, but he looked at her and silenced her immediately.

"I have the teachers 'up my ass' because I'm a hardworking student. You're a bum that can't even pay attention in class. You're a moron," she snarled.

"Katie…," Marisol spoke up again but this time with a warning look. She didn't know why she was getting it and not him when he was the one being an asshole.

"And you're a little bitch," he snarled back, and she suddenly saw red. She lunged for him only for Marisol to hold her back.

"Katie, Katie, he doesn't mean that," Marisol quickly tried to reason.

"I do mean that," Owen insisted bluntly, making her bristle.

"Katiekins, why don't you and I hang out at the mall today after school? Around five?" Marisol offered with a pleading look in her eyes.

"We're going on a date tonight, remember Mari?" Owen said to her. Marisol looked back at him.

"That can wait tomorrow," she replied firmly before looking back at her.

The brief flash of rage in Owen's eyes at that statement sent off another alarm in Katie's mind.

Her mom dropped her off at Imogen's house, and she could see the excitement her mother had in her finally having a "makeover". It somehow made her more uneasy.

Even if Imogen's idea of a "makeover" ended up being rather eccentric.

"Are people really going to take us seriously wearing sparkly tutu skirts and multicolored hair bows?" She questioned her friend with a raised eyebrow as she looked at herself in Imogen's tall mirror. She was wearing a black shirt with long sleeves, a sparkly red tutu skirt and matching sparkly sneakers. She was wearing sparkly black tights as well. She looked like a fairy.

"An important part of being in a band is having a distinct style that makes people recognize you," Imogen answered with a smile, "Now let's give you a manicure!"

Gracie sat on Imogen's bed as her friend painted her fingernails with a zebra print design. Every so often, she would fidget and cause Imogen to mess up, earning a pinch from her friend. The whole time, she was feeling a great sense of unease about this whole thing. It was however after putting some curls in her hair along with some bows, that Gracie couldn't contain her discomfort any longer.

"I can't do this," she said as she stopped Imogen from applying lip gloss to her lips, "This whole thing is wrong."

"What do you mean? I'm just trying to help," Imogen replied in confusion.

"Well it's not me! I'm not some girly girl! I don't want to ever be that! I don't even like being a girl! I wish I was born a boy!" Gracie explained in frustration. She waited for her friend to argue back, to say that she had to do this even though she couldn't.

Instead Imogen had a contemplative look on her face.

"Do you really hate being a girl, even as a tomboy?" She questioned as she sat down next to her on the bed.

"I wish I was born a boy," Gracie repeated. She really did. She hated the body she was born in and the expectations forced on her because of it. She even hated her name. Even accepting herself as a butch lesbian didn't make her feel any better about being a girl.

"I have an aunt in Italy, and for the longest time she was my uncle Ronaldo. Then a couple years ago, she came out as a trans woman and changed her name to Lucia. She was a woman this whole time, but born in the wrong body. Do you think that's the case with you, Gracie?" Imogen asked her.

The question threw her off. "Trans?" She asked back, the word resting on her tongue. She heard of transgender people, but always in the most negative way. They were freaks. They were something to be made fun of and looked down upon just like gay people.

"If being a girl really makes you uncomfortable, then maybe you really aren't one. You're a boy, just not with the right parts, but you have the mind of one and that's what matters," Imogen added.

"Wouldn't that make me a freak?" Gracie questioned in fear. What Imogen said was a simple concept on paper but they both knew it really wasn't. It was practically a death sentence and an invitation to be hated by everyone.

"Everyone's a freak to somebody. You know what people at school think of me. But you really shouldn't have to go around pretending to be someone you're not, or trying to convince yourself to be that person," her friend answered.

"I can't be trans, Im. My parents, especially my mom, would freak out. I'm her only daughter," Gracie argued, anxious at the idea of telling her mother that she may not be a girl after all….

"If you're actually a boy, there's nothing she can do about that. If she was a good mother, she would accept that she has two sons instead of only one," Imogen reasoned. Gracie bit her lip in discomfort. She really felt overwhelmed by everything. She just accepted herself as a lesbian and Imogen was now telling her that she was a whole different identity altogether. She didn't even want her family to know she liked girls…

"I need to go to the bathroom," she said before getting up quickly and leaving the bedroom. When she entered the bathroom, she quickly locked the door behind her. She looked at herself in the mirror. She saw what was supposed to be a girl but yet wasn't what she wanted to be. But what she wanted to be wasn't allowed in this society.

Before she knew it, she was crying.

The next morning, Drew entered the school with a sense of dread of what he was about to do. He looked around for Bianca and found her leaving the principal's office. She had a disgruntled look on her face. 'Great, she's already in a bad mood and I'm about to make it worse,' he thought to himself dejectedly as he approached her.

"Hey Bianca," he began as calmly as he could, "I have to tell you something."

"That you're not arriving at my house in a horse carriage tonight?" She asked dryly.

"That I'm already taking someone to this dance. Alli Bhandari," he explained with regret, "She had me ask her out first and I forgot. I'm sorry."

"Simple, tell that eighth grader that you're going out with me instead," Bianca replied, "Do you really want to take that baby to the dance?"

"Alli's a nice girl," he answered defensively. She was in the gifted program and a cheerleader. His mom would love that instead of a bad girl whose idea of extracurricular activities was drinking at The Ravine and hooking up with guys.

"She's a boring girl," Bianca said bluntly, "Is that what you want, Drew Torres? To hang out with boring girls because it'll make your parents sleep better at night?"

'No,' was his honest answer. However, he knew it was just going to have to be that way. "I can't associate myself with girls like you. There's rumors from Lakehurst kids that you have the number of every boy there underneath your skirt," he accused. She snorted.

"And I know you want your number to be underneath my skirt as well," she countered with a smirk before dropping it out. "You can take that Bhandari girl to the dance tonight, but I'm still going and we'll see how long you can stand to be around that little baby when I'm there," she challenged as she reached over and rubbed his chin seductively. She then walked away from him.

Drew looked back at her, feeling like his night was about to get more interesting.

After the events of yesterday, Katie found herself wanting to avoid Marisol whenever her boyfriend was around from now on. No one on this Earth would be able to restrain her from ripping Owen's balls off if he called her a bitch again.

In homeroom, she colored in her coloring book to distract her violent thoughts. In therapy she was given a coloring book and colored pencils to use whenever she had harmful thoughts or urges. Because of Owen Milligan, she had already used up five pages. She hated him and had no idea what Marisol saw in him other than him being "hot".

She heard someone take a seat next to hers, and she didn't have to look up to see that it was Marisol.

"What did you think of the movie we saw last night?" Her best friend asked her. At the mall last night, they saw some high school movie that was a blatant rip off of Mean Girls. It really wasn't entertaining at all.

"I cared more the previews than the movie," she answered bluntly. And the popcorn that, while delicious, was almost too buttery for her taste. She probably consumed a thousand calories last night.

"Well, I thought it was fun," Marisol replied before there was a pregnant pause. "Katie, can you and Owen at least try to get along?"

"I can't when he's such a piece of shit," Katie answered bluntly again as she turned to look at her. Marisol was wearing heavier makeup than usual these days under Owen's request and it was unflattering. Marisol didn't need to wear that much makeup; she was beautiful enough.

"Well at least try because I don't want my bestie and my boyfriend to hate each other. I care about you both so much. Please?" Her best friend pleaded. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"Fine. Only for you, Mare," she accepted, coloring in one section of the flower on her page a little too roughly. It caused the top of her red colored pencil to snap off. She sighed before closing her coloring book.

She was having a hard time trying to relieve stressful thoughts with Owen around.

Later that night, Gracie showed up behind stage where her other band members were getting ready for their performance. When Mo saw her, he had a look of great confusion in his eyes.

"Um, is that what you're wearing?" He questioned her critically. "I told you to dress hot!"

She was wearing a large hoodie, denim jeans, and her most fashionable Nike sneakers. A beanie was on top of her head.

"Yup," she confirmed nonchalantly while folding her eyes. His eyes narrowed.

"I can't have you on stage like that. I told you-"

"Everyone give a warm welcome to Degrassi's hottest new band, The Outcasts!" An announcer said enthusiastically as they heard cheers from behind the curtains.

"There's no time for me to change," Gracie said to her bandmate, daring for him to tell her to leave. Mo glared at her and she knew he wanted to but couldn't.

"Alright everyone lets rock and roll or whatever the old folks used to say!" Imogen urged them all cheerfully as she pushed out her table full of drinking glasses. She was dressed in a poofy purple minidress with pink fishnet tights and rainbow sneakers. A big purple bow was on top of her hair. That was her idea of sexy.

Mo grumbled something to himself as they all headed out stage but Gracie was pleased that this argument wasn't going to be dragged out any further.

This was only the beginning of her rejecting to do anything feminine because she wasn't a girl.

At the dance, Drew was bored out of his mind as Alli tried to talk to him.

"With you by my side, I'll be one of the most popular girls at Degrassi," Alli squealed, "We could go on cute double dates with my friends K.C. and Jenna, we could hang out at The Dot after school, make out in the bleachers after games. This is all so exciting!"

"Yup," he agreed flatly as he played around with the chicken tenders on his plate. Alli was a nice, cute girl but he really couldn't see himself in a long-standing relationship with her. Yet he was here with her instead of Bianca, a mistake he was now sorely regretting.

There was Valentine's Day decorations all over the gym, and the pink and red lights gave the dance a nice atmosphere but love was not in the air tonight so far.

Alli left the table for a moment and came back with a tray of chocolate-covered strawberries. "A sweetie for my sweetie?" She asked flirtatiously as she sat back down and held up a strawberry for him to eat. He did his best to smile as he opened up his mouth for her to put the treat in. She giggled as she fed him the strawberries.

He was in the middle of chewing on his third one when he saw Bianca come into the gym wearing a tight red bodycon dress with red heels. Her hair was in millions of curls and she was wearing red lip gloss. Drew knew what his next decision was going to be.

"Alli," he began as he grabbed a napkin and wiped the chocolate sauce from his mouth, "You see my friend Dallas over there? Why don't you go over and uh get to know him while I take care of something?" He suggested as he got up while pointing to his best friend, who was joking around with some guys on the side of the gym. Alli raised an eyebrow in confusion but he was already on his way to Bianca before she could say something.

"Hey Prince Charming, you saw the error of your ways?" She greeted teasingly as he grabbed one of her hands. He was surprised at how soft they were despite her being such a rough girl.

"Yes," he answered, looking at her intensely. She was the hottest girl in this room, there was no need to deny it. And she smelled good too. He caught a whiff of perfume from her body. "You want to dance somewhere where Alli can't see us?" He asked as a Beyoncé song played over the speakers.

"Actually, I was thinking we could do something more fun than that," she replied, and there was a seductive look in her eyes.

"And what's that?" He questioned. She tugged on his hand.

"Follow me," she urged as she led him out of the gym. Drew followed her, not knowing where she was going but anticipating what she was planning.

She led him in front of the Boiler Room and opened up the door. "Why don't you say we get to know each other more?" She purred as she squeezed his hand.

"Uh…okay," he replied with widened eyes. She smirked as she dragged him into the room and closed the door behind them.

It turned out that her idea of them getting to know each other more involved his pants being down.

Later that night after dinner, Katie stood over a toilet. She had lunch with Owen and Marisol today, and it didn't go well. That douchebag wouldn't allow Marisol to eat some pizza, and pressured her into eating salad again instead. "You need to fix your eating habits before you're wide as a cow," Owen had said to her best friend, and Marisol didn't do anything to fight back. She just ate her salad, agreeing that she had no intentions of being fat.

The conversation had stuck in Katie's mind for the rest of the day, and she was feeling guilty for eating a cheeseburger and fries today even though she shouldn't. Combined with the lamb chops and mashed potatoes her mom had cooked tonight, she was well aware that she had consumed a lot of calories that could add on to her weight. It led to this moment right now.

Katie numbly stared down at the toilet seat as she prepared to throw up the contents of her meal. If she started binging and purging again, she would be more careful this time so no one would notice. She kneeled down in front of the toilet, opened up her mouth, and got ready to insert her fingers deep into her throat.

"Katie?" She heard Maya ask from outside. She froze just as she was about to do it. "Are you alright?" Her little sister continued to ask.

Tears welled up in Katie's eyes as she stood up. She couldn't go through with this and hurt her family again. "I'm…fine…," she replied, shaking.

"We're playing Taboo downstairs and I need you on my team!" Maya said.

"I'll be right down!" She promised as she looked back down at the toilet.

She knew she couldn't go down this dark path again, but she also couldn't watch Owen shame her friend at lunch for what she ate. It was triggering.

It was painful to admit but she would have to sit somewhere else at lunch from now on.

The next morning, Gracie walked into the school wearing her brother's hand me downs as usual, but something inside of her shifted.

While she was getting books out of her locker for morning classes, she saw Imogen skip towards her. "Hi, friend! Great job on the base yesterday!" She complimented warmly.

"Thanks, you did a great job too," she complimented her back. Their first performance went smoothly with the crowd vibing well to the songs they did. Most were covers but there was one original song written by Eli. Called "Maribella", it was about a girl that kept falling in love with and dating losers when there was a guy who was willing to give her everything but she refused to give the time of day. It was like a guy version of "You Belong With Me".

"Did you think about what we talked about the other night?" Imogen asked, folding her arms as she leaned on the adjoining locker next to hers.

"I did," Gracie answered, "The thing is, Im, if I'm trans I can't come out to my anyone, not even my parents. Who knows what they would do to me."

"That's sad," Imogen said with a frown, "There's nothing wrong with realizing that you're a different gender than what you were raised as."

"My dad and Drew are Catholic, and we all attend mass on Sundays. There's no way anyone in my family would approve of this," she explained, and there was a pain in her gut at that. "I can't even imagine the type of hell I would go through at school. Other girls already treat me like shit for how I dress."

"Fuck those people, you have me," Imogen declared strongly, "We can be weirdos together."

"Only in private," Gracie replied with a sad smile, "Even then, I don't even know how to go about being trans. I don't even what's the right way to go about this."

"Well I'm not trans so I don't truly know, but would it help to at least start referring to yourself as a guy…in private so you can be more comfortable with being a guy?" Imogen questioned. Gracie thought about it.

Thinking of herself as a guy meant that using she and her to describe herself was no longer accurate. She was actually he.

He.

He was a guy, just born in a girl's body but he was a guy all the same.

The ease Gracie had with referring to himself in his head was surprisingly but it brought an inner peace he had been looking for since he was a little kid.

"You're right, Im," he replied to her. "I guess I should be looking for a new name to call myself now, right?"

A/N: And thus the "Gracie" persona is finally dead.