AN

This story is about a transgender individual so I will be using words terms that are not that well known outside of the community. So instead of interrupting the story at the beginning of each chapter I will give you a list of words and definitions if you are familiar with trans terms skip to Story starts here

Vocab list

Dead name- a trans person's birth name, a name that they no longer go by. Trans people do NOT want others to know what it is for various reasons.

Misgendered- being referred to as the wrong gender, such as someone using the wrong pronouns or referring to someone that does not identify as male sir or gentleman, or someone that does not identify as female miss or lady

Pronouns - he/him/his or they/them/their/ or she/her/hers

Binder- an article of clothing worn under the close that compresses a transgender person's breasts, making them flatter. It compresses the breasts so much one should wear it for a really long time, sleep in it or exercise in it.

Dysphoric- feeling Uncomfortable about how your gender does not aline with what you're being referred to/ your body.

Un-validated - resulting from a situation where a trans person is made to feel that they are not their real gender

Story starts here

Turquoise, two people that I didn't know were ushered on stage and told to stand in a particular order.

"Turquoise Mona, Rust Angels, Tangerine Cisten, Lavender Zuccone," Ozpin announced. I cringed and hung my head in shame and discomfort as they referred to me by my birth name, Lavender. I knew that they would use it, that's what I'm registered in the school data base was, and I knew that I would be misgendered, I'm far from being able to pass as male, but I thought that the other students wouldn't know my dead name, so they would at least call me by my preferred name.

"You have all chosen the amethyst gem stone; from this day you will work together as... team TRTL. led by... Turquoise Mona."

"Lavender?" Turquoise questioned as we left the stage.

"Please, never. call me that. Ever. It's my old girl name. My name is Tech." I responded still upset about being called by my dead name in front of the whole income class.

We were each given a room key, a copy of our class schedule, and we were told our room number, and that our stuff and new uniforms were already in our room. I cringed when she said uniform, because uniforms are gender specific and the female one is always a dress or skirt...

we proceeded to spend the next half an hour searching for said room. In our defense, it's a very large campus and Rust refused to ask anyone for directions, and would get angry when ever anyone even suggested it.

This is going to be difficult four years having to deal with him all the time, though I have to admit he does have a rather attractive body..

Let me clear something up, gender identification and sexual orientation are not related, I am a gay trans man, meaning I'm attracted to other men.

Once we finally made it to our room, Tangerine asked me a question, "hey Lav! How does it feel to be the only girl living in a small dorm room with three guys?"

This question was a perfect segway into bringing up my gender, which is a very awkward thing to bring up. "I'm not a girl," I stated, "I'm what's called transgender, meaning I identify as a man, despite being assigned female at birth. And my name isn't Lavender, it's Tech."

There was a moment of silence as Tangerine and Rust processed what I had told them.

Rust was the first "That just isn't fucking natural, a girls a girl and a boys a boy, though I will call Tech, that's a cool name, your other name's lame like this guys," he pointed to Tangerine.

"Hey!" Tangerine responded, "a lot of people think my name is a perfect fit for my personality!" he glared at Rust, for a second then turned back to me. "I think it's really cool being transgender! I mean, imagine knowing what it's like to be both a boy and a girl that would be awesome!You're a guy but you know how a girl's mind works! You're a boy now, does that mean you want to be called he instead of she."

"That is correct Tangerine, about the pronouns, that is, but, I do not know what it's like to be a girl, I know all of the standards and norms forced upon girls but I had never actually been a girl, the workings of a woman's mind is a much of a mystery to me as it is to you" I responded, thinking I summed it up pretty well.

Rust was about to make another comment, but was stopped by Turquoise, "why don't we get to our room and go to sleep it's getting quite late."

Everyone agreed and we found our room in silence.

In each corner of the room there are beds dressers and boxes, labeled with each of our names. I opened the top draw of the dresser, and found the uniform I'm supposed to wear. And just as I had feared it had a skirt. This is going to be extremely humiliating and un-validating. Maybe I can talk to the headmaster and ask to exchange it for the male uniform. I found the overnight bag I had the previous night and went into the bathroom to change. I was feeling very dysphoric about the uniforms and the use of my birth name. I didn't even take off my binder before I went to sleep, even though I knew it was a bad idea. After I went straight to bed, our first class tomorrow doesn't start until ten, so they'll be plenty of time to unpack and get to know my teammates in the morning.