I was in the pool house preparing for my first day of high school. I was a little bit nervous. I supposed that was normal for most people about to go to high school. I hoped that I would be able to share some classes with Kaitlin. I knew I would at least be able to see her at school. I was wearing a cadet blue sleeveless turtleneck dress with a lace floral midsection and a pleated skirt. I thought that I should wear a dress on my first day to make a good impression. I wasn't overly concerned about people liking me, but I wanted to look nice.
"Finally, are you ready to go?" Rose asked as I entered the kitchen. She was wearing a light blue Marvel hoodie and jeans. "So how long do these take to work?"
Rose had started hormones yesterday.
"It'll be a few weeks before you notice any major differences." I remarked.
"First day, are you excited?" Sandy asked. His hair was wet, so I assumed he was done surfing. I probably should ask him to teach me sometime. I shrugged. "Enough said."
"How do you manage to convey everyone with just a look?" Rose questioned as I grabbed a bagel and took a seat at the table.
"How are you doing? Are you nervous?" Kirsten inquired as I stopped drinking my apple juice.
"Why would I be nervous?" I replied, somewhat nervously. I supposed what I was most nervous about was being found out as transgender.
"Because we're going to a school where most of the guys are like Luke and the girls are like Holly without any redeeming qualities." Rose answered before she looked at me. "I see that was a rhetorical question. Look on the bright side. You have a hot girlfriend, even though her dad stole from half the county. Actually, that's probably another reason to be nervous. I'm going to stop talking now."
"That would be a good idea." I agreed.
"Well maybe this year will be better." Kirsten suggested.
"I don't think the water polo team will go any easier now that I'm a girl." Rose replied. She probably wouldn't have to deal with them as much.
"At least you two have each other." Sandy remarked.
"That is very wise, Dad." Rose stated. I could tell that we were doomed. Maybe I was just over anxious because the hormones were acting up. Things probably would be fine.
When I got to school, the first thing that I noticed was that Rose was right about the water polo team. Apparently, they were the football players of the school. I personally thought it would be lacrosse because I thought that was supposed to be big with rich kids. The number of people in the courtyard didn't exactly ease my nerves.
"I need to find Kaitlin." I commented. I knew that seeing her would make a lot less nervous. Thankfully, she was with Summer and Marissa. She was wearing a white short-sleeved blouse with a ruffled light blue skirt.
"Hello, Summer. How does your schedule look today?" Rose asked. I was glad with the progress that she had made.
"Full." Summer answered. I still didn't look like they would be dating any time soon.
"I got you a smoothie." Kaitlin replied as she handed me a cup with red liquid in it. "I hope you don't mind pomegranate."
"As long as there's no raspberry or banana in it, I'm good." I declared before I took a sip from the cup.
"You know I kind of want to skip." I admitted. I knew it was bad because it was the first day.
"We don't want Dr. Kim to call our mom." Marissa remarked.
"Can you hang out after school?" I questioned.
"I'm chairing the Kickoff Carnival Committee and Kaitlin is helping me." Marissa declared.
"She's making me do it." Kaitlin corrected. "I've been looking for an excuse to get out of it."
"I'm an excuse." I told her with a smile.
"I'll meet you out front." Kaitlin promised before I finished my drink. I had a feeling that they wouldn't want us to have them during class. I was a bit surprised that they had them at all to be honest.
"We need to go, Coop." Summer told Marissa.
"So what class do you have first?" I asked Kaitlin.
"English." She stated. "What about you?"
"Theatre." I replied. I had to take at least one fine arts class to graduate, so I decided that I would get it out of the way early.
"Well I guess I'll see you later." She said before she kissed me and walked away.
"See you Summer." Rose replied before the two of them also walked away. At least she was persistent. "Slowly, I thaw her icy heart."
I supposed the good thing about being a freshman was that people didn't know who I was. Still, the ones that did like talked about me like I was trash. I went into the auditorium and took a seat.
"Hi." A girl with bleach blonde hair said as she took a seat next to me. "I'm Hadley Hawthorne. What's your name?"
"Rhiannon Cohen." I told her.
"That's a pretty name." She replied.
At that point, the teacher came in. I couldn't believe who it was. What was she doing teaching a class for a high school? I had a feeling Harbor was going to be very different.
"You're Ava Ramos." One of the girls said. You know, I hated when people did that as if celebrities didn't know who they were.
"Yes, I am." Ava declares. "I'm taking a year off from acting because Dr. Kim, who happens to be my neighbor asked me to teach this year. So, since this is the first day, I won't get the chance to know all of you. So, I'm gonna take something out of the old cliched teaching and have you get to know the person on your right and talk to the class about them."
"So, what do your parents do?" She asked me.
"Well I was recently adopted, but my new dad is a lawyer and my mom works for the Newport Group." I explained. "What do your parents do?"
"Well it's just my dad." She replied. "He created The Valley, plus lesser shows Music City Cops and Byron."
"Wow, that's pretty cool." I replied. I was surprised that she was going to this school. I thought the show shot in Los Angeles. Of course, Newport Beach wasn't as urbanized as LA and probably was more enjoyable to live in. I had never been to LA, so I didn't know.
After school, I was waiting outside for Kaitlin to come and meet me. I was currently reading a book that I didn't know that I had to read. I couldn't believe that I was already behind on the first day. I would have to read the book fast. I supposed that I could get the information that I needed from the book off of the internet, but I didn't think that was right. I was going to catch up. I needed to prove to Dr. Kim that I could do this.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Rose asked.
"You didn't tell me about summer reading." I told her icily. I then noticed that she was with a girl who wasn't Summer. She looked familiar.
"So listen, Vicki here convinced me to join The Plank." Rose replied. "It's a literary magazine."
"I needed an extracurricular and I wanted something that different involve playing sports." Vicki replied. She had a British accent. It was then that I realized that I knew from. She was in that support group.
It seemed like she was a British virgin of Rose. I wasn't sure if we needed more than one of her. Of course, I didn't know if she liked comics.
"She's appealing on many levels." Rose said. "Plus I have written a few limericks that I would like to share with the world."
"Have fun." I told her before I saw Marissa and Kaitlin. I wasn't expecting Marissa to be there too.
"So, I need to cancel." Marissa said. I wasn't expecting her to be involved. "I have to plan the carnival as social chair."
"And I can only get out of it if I do something else." Kaitlin added. "Can we reschedule?"
"Just tell me when." I responded with a sigh.
"You could come to the carnival." Marissa offered.
"And if you want to find something that we can both do." Kaitlin offered. "We can do it right now."
"I have a lot of reading to do." I pointed out, however she was already dragging me away.
We didn't find anything. I wasn't sure if everything had gotten together yet. In the morning, I was at the table, desperately trying to finish the book that I had spent most of the night on. Why couldn't they have chosen something that there was a movie of or something that I had already read?
"Hey, Kid, how did school go for you?" Sandy asked.
"Fine. I'm just behind." I answered lifelessly. I was waiting for the coffee to finish.
"That has to be a new record." He quipped as the coffee pot went off and he poured himself a cup. "I know it's brutal. You're brave to face those preppy little savages and teachers."
"Well private school is definitely different." I declared with a yawn. "Maybe it was a bad idea."
"You're one of the smartest kids they've got." Sandy said as he closed the refrigerator door.
"It's not the work. It's just that everyone has something, even Rose." I explained. "Kaitlin helped me look for extracurriculars and I couldn't find anything that I liked."
"Wait, Rose has an extracurricular?" He remarked in surprise.
"A girl talked into her into it." I explained. "It wasn't Summer either."
"You mean Rose Cohen?" He asked in disbelief. I nodded. "Okay…really? Maybe you should try a sport."
"Can I play sports?" I replied. I didn't know if I was allowed.
"As long as you're on hormone therapy, you should be fine." He informed me. "They have rules about it, including you not having to tell anyone that you're transgender."
"Hello." Rose said as she walked into the kitchen.
"We're trying to find an extracurricular for Rhiannon." Sandy remarked. "I hear Harbor has a great archery program."
"Maybe you could be the next Green Arrow." Rose quipped. "What century are you in, Dad? Open your mind. This isn't me we're talking about. Rhiannon has an athletic albeit small body. She can achieve all that your Jewishness has prevented me from doing."
"You know Sandy Koufax is Jewish and Paul Goldschmidt of Jewish descent, even though he's a Christian." I pointed out.
"Maybe you can play soccer." Sandy suggested. He then put on a fake British accent. "The beautiful game of football."
"I played soccer before, but never as a girl. Are you sure I'm tall enough?" I questioned as I texted Kaitlin about it to see if she was interested.
Once I was at school, I decided to ask her in case she hadn't seen the text.
"You wanna play soccer? Are you sure they'll let you?" Kaitlin asked. She had definitely seen it. "If they let you play, I'll definitely play with you. I used to be great."
"How's the carnival planning going?" I said to Marissa.
"It was very exciting." Marissa replied. I was not sure if she was being serious or not. "So, if you two are going to tryouts, I can meet you afterwards."
"Maybe we can get dinner?" Kaitlin suggested. I wasn't exactly thrilled about having Marissa, but if Kaitlin wanted to hang out with her, I felt that I shouldn't say anything, at least not so early into our relationship.
I noticed that Rose was talking to Vicki again. It was kind of hard to believe that they were just meeting now. Maybe she had just moved from England and that was why they hadn't met before. I so wanted to be making out with Kaitlin, but I didn't want everyone thinking I was this bad girl.
Once I got to English, I found out that the test on the book had been pushed back to Friday. It meant that I had gotten no sleep for nothing. It seemed like the universe was messing with me.
After school, I wore some athletic clothes to soccer practice and even had Sandy bring me some shin guards and knee socks during his lunch break. Kaitlin was with me.
"So, are you two the last of the tryouts?" The coach asked us. I nodded. "What positions are you trying for?"
"Striker for me, wing for her." I replied. "Before we start, can I talk to you about something in private?"
"Do you have a medical condition?" He questioned.
"Sort of. I really just don't feel comfortable discussing it in front of everyone." I explained.
I went with him inside of the school. I made sure that no one was around before I spoke,
"I'm transgender." I replied. "I am on hormone therapy, but I wanted to tell you. I hope you'll still consider me for the team. I also hope that you'll keep this between us."
"Well I'm going to be honest with you too. Freshman usually don't get to play much. Freshman usually don't get to play that much unless you show superior talent. Your gender identity won't have anything to do with that. The district says that we're not allowed to discriminate as long as you don't have an advantage."
I then went outside and realized that Holly was on the team. She didn't strike me as the athletic type. I was a bit out of practice, but I managed to adapt quickly. I ended up getting sweaty and I also managed to score on an assist from Kaitlin. We then went inside to look for Marissa and noticed that Holly was talking to her. I wasn't sure if we should wait.
"Do you feel like making a bet that they'll get back together?" Kaitlin asked.
"No." I replied. I didn't know if it would be a good idea for them to get back together.
"Maybe we should get out of here." Kaitlin suggested. Those were words that I was glad to here.
"I don't want to see Marissa get hurt again." I commented.
"I don't either, but we should let them handle it." Kaitlin suggested.
I realized that she was right and Marissa's love life was none of my business. I then remembered a good reason to wait for Marissa.
"She's the one with the car." I reminded Kaitlin.
"I guess we're walking then." She stated. I grabbed her hand and we started to walk. I was glad that I had a stable, understanding girlfriend. I was also glad that I could do something with her especially since the only class that we had together was History.
We ended up getting some pizza on the boardwalk because she didn't have a lot of money and I didn't want to spend money from the credit card that Sandy and Kirsten had given me.
"Hey, Rhiannon." Hadley greeted me.
"Hadley, hi." I replied nervously. I supposed that I wasn't the best at talking to people outside of school. I then looked at Kaitlin. "This is Hadley Hawthorne. She's in my Theatre class. Her dad created The Valley."
"Hi, I'm Kaitlin, Rhiannon's girlfriend." The brunette explained. She seemed a little possessive. Or maybe she just liked telling people that I was her girlfriend. I didn't think Hadley was being particularly flirty with me.
"Aren't you that girl who dad stole all that money and whose sister overdosed in Tijuana?" Hadley asked her.
"Let's not talk about that." I declared. "Maybe we should get a table and we can talk."
In the morning, I noticed Rose in the pool house after I came out of the shower. Fortunately, I was already dressed and not in a towel.
"What did I say about coming in without knocking?' I asked. I might have to start locking the pool house.
"What's up? How's life? I feel like we never get to talk anymore." She told me.
"We ate ice cream together last night." I pointed out.
"Fine, keep it bottled up." She said. I couldn't help but wonder what she was talking about. "Are you still going out with Kaitlin."
"Yes." I answered. "Okay, so I'm a little concerned about Marissa. I don't know if I have any right to be, but I saw her talking to Holly yesterday."
"Were they just talking or were they making out?" She asked. She then ducked when I threw a pillow at her head.
"They were both crying. They could have been making up." I stated.
"It also could have been nothing." She argued.
"It didn't look like nothing." I remarked.
"Did you actually hear what they were saying?" She asked. I shook my head. "Then just ask Marissa about it. There's better place to get information than from the source.
I realized that that was actually god advice. I decided to go and see her at school. I took Kaitlin with me because I had a feeling that she wanted to know about it. I wasn't sure how much they talked at home.
"Hey." I greeted her. "So, we missed you yesterday."
"I waited for you two." She said.
"We got hungry and decided to just leave." I declared. "So what did you do?"
"Nothing." She lied. "My meeting went long."
For some reason, she didn't want to tell us about her conversation with Holly. I thought about calling her out but then she might accuse me of spying on her.
"How'd it go?" Kaitlin asked.
"Good. I think, it's going to be good." She answered.
"Did you do anything else?" I questioned. I decided to give her another chance to tell the truth.
"I went home after I couldn't find you." She said. "Did you two walk somewhere?"
"We should go try to get something before they run out of smoothies." Kaitlin replied. "I can't believe that she's lying to me. I need a distraction."
She grabbed the paper and gasped.
"So, your dad's new firm is suing your mom's company." She told me.
"This could be a problem." I declared.
After school, Marissa actually did come out to the soccer field. She started to talk to Holly while the latter was tying her cleats. I wanted to do something. I thought about taking her out, but that would send a bad message. Not to mention, slide tackling was against the rules.
Dinner that night was intense. No one was speaking. I didn't really have an opinion on things because I didn't know who was right. I figured that it might be best just to stay out of it, so I wouldn't have to take a side. If anyone asked, I would pretend not to know anything.
After dinner, I was finishing the book in the pool house when Marissa barged in. I really needed to start locking the door.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
"What are you doing here?" I questioned. "Are you going to lie to me some more?"
"What are you talking about?" She stammered.
"Yesterday, we saw you talking to Holly and you lied to us about it." I pointed out.
"I didn't know what to say." She declared.
"Well maybe I just want to know if you're getting back together." I responded. "Holly is one of the reasons that you almost died."
"What happened between Holly and I is none of your concern." She told me. I couldn't help but wonder if she was always this irritating.
"Well excuse me for being a concerned friend!" I yelled. "Maybe we shouldn't even be friends."
"Maybe we shouldn't." She agreed. "Just so you know, I can date whoever I want."
The next morning, I noticed Sandy in the pool house.
"So I saw Marissa left here looking pretty angry last night." He said. "Do you wanna talk about it?"
"There's nothing to really talk about." I replied. "I just want to go out with Kaitlin, but that seems difficult since they are living together."
"Sometimes love is hard." He told me. "Have you been reading the paper lately?"
"Yes." I responded. "I don't know how you do it."
"I don't know how I do either." He admitted. "The last thing I want is to lose my marriage because of a case."
I started to wonder how custody of me would work in that, but I didn't want to think about that.
"You know, I'd love to see you play sometime." He said. "Rose was never really into sports. I can see why that was now."
"I still don't know if I'm going to be starting." I replied. "I don't want you to be there just to see me on the bench."
I later went to school with Rose and met up with Kaitlin and kissed her.
"So, I hear you have a girlfriend, Rose." Kaitlin remarked. "She's a British blonde."
"Vicki and I are just friends." Rose stated.
"Well does Summer know that?" Kaitlin questioned. "If you're planning on making her jealous, it might be working."
"I think that's exactly what they're doing." I answered. "So did Marissa talk to you about last night? Things got pretty heated between us…but not like…we got angry."
"You're cute when you babble." She stated. That caused me to blush brightly.
"I just don't know if I should apologize to her, even though I'm pretty sure I'm right." I said.
"Well considering that she is my sister and it would be easier for us to date if you didn't hate each other, you should." Kaitlin reasoned. "You can do it tonight at the carnival. Speaking of which, will you be my date?"
"I would love to." I declared.
That night, I was wearing a black tee with a leather jacket and a red button-up skirt with black boots. Kaitlin wore a red tee with a pleated floral knee-length skirt. I was happy to be on a date, but nervous about apologizing to Marissa.
"So do you wanna go on the Ferris Wheel?" She questioned.
"I can't." I replied. "I get panic attacks around heights."
"Well I would be there to hold you close." She pointed out before we noticed Rose and Vicki by the skeeball booth. "Are you sure they're not dating?"
"Yeah." I confirmed.
"So do you wanna play? I could win you a stuffed animal. I didn't see any last time I was in the pool house." She offered. I thought about getting stuffed animals, but I didn't know what to get.
I could tell that Vicki was really good at it. Rose looked like she was impressed.
"Vicki, this is my girlfriend, Kaitlin." I introduced.
"Charming." Vicki responded. "I don't think Rose understands playing hard to get."
"That's because she's not hard to get." I replied. "Why are you helping her with Summer?"
"Why not?" She challenged. I raised an eyebrow "I don't think I'm her type. Summer has beautiful hair, lush lips and real boobs. When she looks at me, she sees a lab partner."
"Half of the school already thinks that you're dating." Kaitlin declared. "If you like her, go for it and see what happens."
At that point, I saw Summer and Marissa.
"I'm gonna go talk to her." I said. "I like the cat."
I then went over and grabbed Summer's arm. They were about to go on the Ferris Wheel.
"Do you mind?" I asked Summer.
"I am not getting involved." Summer declared. I was extremely nervous. I took a seat. I hoped that I wouldn't freak out too much.
"What are you doing?" Marissa asked.
"I need to talk to you." I stammered. I had to keep it together.
"Are you okay?" She questioned. She probably that I was shaking.
"I'm kind of afraid of heights." I said. "This is important and I said some things last night…"
Suddenly, the wheel stopped at the top. Fuck, my nightmares were coming true.
"Why did it stop? I need to get down. I shouldn't have done this. I'm going to die." I babbled.
"Rhiannon, it's okay." She assured me. "You're strapped in and I've got you."
"I'm sorry okay." I declared. "If I'm going to die, I want you to know that. I shouldn't have said what I said and I do want to be friends."
At that point, the wheel started moving again. As soon as it got to the bottom, I ran into Kaitlin's arms. I was on the verge of tears. She gave me the cat I wanted and a kiss. I hoped that I would never have to do that again.
So Rhiannon's first week of school went well. Rose and Vicki might end up dating. Plus Hadley goes to Harbor. She's played by Dove Cameron and Ava is played by Aimee Teegarden. The coach is still played by Eric Allan Kramer. Please don't forget to review.