It was October now. Two months had gone by since I started school. Things did not, in fact, turn out fine for me. As it turned out, Mrs. Richardson was pregnant, and I couldn't help but get this awful sinking feeling that it was with my kid. I mean, it's possible that she could've gotten pregnant by Namęšéme (they were dating, after all), but I knew deep down that it was my kid. It had to have been. That was my white stuff on her hand when I woke up that morning after their date. I had no idea how, but I was convinced that she must have gotten it near enough that... that... no, no, no... not this again. I couldn't keep trying to dredge this up. I needed to push it down as far as I could into my brain.

School hadn't been going great for me, either. I managed to do okay in classes, but some kids were giving me a hard time because I "didn't look like a girl." It was at this point that puberty started actually affecting me and how I presented myself in public. My voice started changing, growing deeper by a few semitones. My first facial hair started coming in (only a couple hairs, admittedly, but I quickly had to pluck those out before anybody else could see), and before I knew it, hair started growing all throughout the rest of my body. I had to figure out a way to get rid of all that hair before they could cause me further embarrassment. I knew Namęšéme could tell that I was miserable just having to do all that. I could see in his eyes the pain of having to watch me deal with a changing body that betrayed who I was.

I absolutely dreaded having to spend any more time with Mrs. Richardson than I needed to, but I had to remember what Frankie told me: "You may not like Mrs. Richardson all that much, but you shouldn't have to be so angry about her." In a way, she was right. If I was ever going to survive seventh grade, I needed to get past everything I felt about Mrs. Richardson and focus on other things at hand.

It wasn't easy, though. One day, about a week before Halloween, I was getting ready to go to lunch when out of the corner of my eye, I noticed two girls accosting Frankie over something. I had to rush over and put a stop to it.

"Yo, what the hell?" I asked out loud. "The fuck are you guys doing? Why are you guys being dicks to Carnelian?"

"I don't know, Jasper," one of the girls sneered. "Why are you wearing girls' clothes?"

"Because I'm a girl?"

The other girl just laughed at my answer. "No, you're just a guy who thinks he's a girl."

"Shut up, Elena."

"Why should I? I'm just stating a fact. Besides, everybody knows that girls don't have wee-wees." Elena laughed at me some more. "You should be ashamed of yourself for thinking otherwise."

I gritted my teeth. "I said shut up, Elena."

Elena started mocking me further. "Oh, what's the matter? Little baby can't handle facts? I've got news for you, baby boy. Facts don't care about your feelings!"

That did it for me. I ran right over to where Elena was and punched her halfway across the hallway. Frankie just looked at me in shock, awestruck by my reaction.

"Oh my God!" Elena's accomplice yelled out. "Elena, are you okay?"

Elena mumbled out something that was barely intelligible. I think she was assuring her friend that she was fine, but I couldn't make it out.

"Oh my God, I'm so telling on you!" Elena's accomplice threatened at me.

That threat flared me up even more. "I'm gonna kick your ass!"

"Oh yeah? What are you gonna-?"

I threw out another punch, which instantly connected with her left cheekbone and sent her backwards onto the floor. I smirked while she reeled from the impact.

"Oh, what, little baby can't handle a punch?" I asked mockingly.

"Shut up, you cross-dressing asshole!" Elena's accomplice screamed at me. "I didn't ask to get punched before lunchtime!"

Elena and her accomplice continued to scream at me while I whipped out my middle finger at them and walked off to the cafeteria. While that was going on, Frankie caught up to me.

"Oh my God, I can't believe you just did that," Frankie said.

I just shrugged. "Eh, no big deal. I'm sure you would have done the same for me."

"Yeah, but to go up against Elena Locklear and Tiffany Richardson? That takes serious balls."

My eyes widened upon hearing Tiffany's last name. "Richardson?"

"Yeah, I guess Tiffany is Mrs. Richardson's daughter or something? I remember she said Tiffany was in seventh grade just like us."

"That Tiffany?" I nearly crapped my pants at the revelation. "Oh God, Mrs. Richardson's so gonna have it out for me when she finds out what happened."

Frankie shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't see anybody else around. I bet you that nobody else saw what happened. You'll be fine."

I crossed my arms. "Geez, I hope you're right. I can't imagine how the rest of the school year will go if word gets around."

Before I knew it, Namęšéme and I were sitting in the principal's office. We sat alongside Elena and her parents and Tiffany and her parents (Mrs. Richardson, plus her ex-husband Mr. Richardson and his new girlfriend Ms. Aguirre), all of whom had cross expressions on their faces. The principal glared at me from across her desk, and I knew it was specifically at me because her eyes had been laser-focused in my direction.

"From what I understand," the principal began. "Miss Traversie was the one to instigate the fight, correct?"

"That's what Elena said," Elena's mother replied. "My poor sweet angel was just minding her business in the hallway when this... this..." She pointed a witch finger at me. "...pervert decided to beat her up for no reason!"

"It wasn't...!" I was about to say before Namęšéme hushed me.

"Let them speak, please," Namęšéme politely demanded. "It's not your turn to share your side of the story yet."

I grumbled while clamming up. I then had to listen to Elena and Tiffany and their families play the victim while they told their obviously bullshit sides of the story. I couldn't believe it. Frankie had told me that things would be fine. How could things turn out so bad? I had to keep quiet for just a while longer until Elena and Tiffany had finished telling their sides of the story.

"Alright," the principal spoke again. "What do you think happened, Miss Traversie?"

I told the principal the whole story, how Elena and Tiffany weren't the victims they claimed to be, and how I only punched them because they were picking on Frankie. I just wanted to get it over with. I didn't even want to be here. I wanted to be back home, thinking about what kind of costume I wanted to wear for Halloween and trying to do my homework. I ended my story around the part where I pulled out my middle finger at Elena and Tiffany and walked off to the cafeteria.

"Very interesting story, Miss Traversie," the principal said. "Unfortunately for you, I'm more inclined to believe Elena and Tiffany, and for that I hereby suspend you from school for at least a week."

My heart dropped upon hearing the news. Holy crap, this was bad...

"What the hell, Namęšéme?" I asked while he drove us home. "Why didn't you stick up for me?"

"I mean, Elena and Tiffany's side of the story did seem awfully convincing," he replied.

"Namęšéme, are you serious right now? You're supposed to be on my side."

Namęšéme sighed in frustration. "Look, I'm sure you thought you were doing the right thing when you got physical with those girls. However, that school already has it out for you just because of who you are. Please don't try to prove them right."

I tried to hold back my rage. "Tiffany literally called me a cross-dresser! How am I supposed to let that slide?"

Namęšéme sighed again. "I get it. I really do. Bullying is a terrible thing to go through, but you shouldn't have to fight fire with fire."

I honestly couldn't believe what I was hearing. "So what am I supposed to do, then? Let them abuse me?"

"If that's what it takes to keep the school off your back, then I guess so."

It hadn't even been a whole day since my school suspension went into effect, but I was already starting to hate what it was doing to me.