A/N: Hey everyone, I'm back! Sorry I've left this story for so long, but I've finally gotten re-inspired to finish it and you can thank MarioDS01 for that for sending me an email reminding me not to leave people hanging over this story. So here we are everyone, chapter five!
"I've been thinking." Sam murmured to Danny in class, she was carefully concealing her voice from Tucker, she didn't want him to hear this conversation at all.
"Glad to see you think boys are capable of that." Danny replied coolly.
"I- I never said that boys were…" Sam trailed off, she could distantly recall a few comments on the boys intelligence ending with her storming off frustratedly shouting 'men!' she bit her lip.
"I never meant it, you know that." She offered hopefully, Danny looked at Sam carefully.
"I know, but you see what I mean? Girls are just allowed to say that kind of stuff and get away with it, but we're not allowed to say it about them back. It's not fair." Danny glowered Sam seemed to have nothing to say to this but sat in silence feeling annoyed and the uncalled for barb, Danny eventually felt guilty and broke the silence.
"What were you thinking?" He asked quietly, Sam turned and tried to judge if this was a trap so Danny could snipe at her further, 'after all' Sam reasoned, 'girls were sneaky'. She was shocked that this thought had come unbidden into her mind, and it wasn't even 'we girls are sneaky', no, it was 'girls are' as in, THOSE girls, those other people. But regardless of body she was still a girl surely… right? Sam sat with a shocked look on her face until Danny waved a hand in front of her which snapped her back to reality.
"Sorry," Sam mumbled shaking her head, "I was wondering, are you still finding Paulina attractive?" Sam questioned in a whisper. Danny frowned at this and looked over at Paulina, he supposed she was attractive but he couldn't get out of his mind how horrible she had just been to him.
"I Suppose… maybe… yes?" He ventured puzzled at his own lack of response, normally Paulina seemed jaw droppingly gorgeous to him but now… she just seemed… mean.
"Mmm." Sam said thoughtfully and said no more, Danny felt exasperated at this.
"Why?" He hissed irritated.
"I… uh… no reason." Sam stammered facing back to the front of the class, she hoped to pass it off as being worried about being told off again by teachers but her real motive was a little less pure. Though her skin was still aching from the punches that were soon to be bruises she couldn't help but stare at Dash Baxter, her eyes ran over tight muscles and tan skin. She squeezed her eyes shut guiltily, she knew how horrible a person he was, how he'd enjoyed beating up Danny for years and even how he'd so recently attacked him; but the second Sam's eyes opened again they were on him all over again. She closed her eyes again, she'd never liked Dash before even when she was all female but it seemed testosterone simply focused on physical need rather than what kind of person someone was. She frowned, even with Danny's previous blindness to Paulina's horrible personality he was never this bad. Maybe he had been right, it was a battle to control male urges.
After a science class of trying to keep her eyes off Dash was over Sam began to exit the class following after Tucker, she hadn't gotten far when she realized that Danny wasn't following.
'need to talk, wait.' Danny mouthed silently at them, Sam nodded and waited outside.
Danny was deliberately slow in gathering up his books so that he was the last left in the class before he made his way over to his teacher. The science teacher was a slightly elderly man who seemed pleasant enough, he seemed to know his stuff even if he was a bit absent minded at times.
"I- sir, can I ask for some advice?" Danny asked hesitantly.
"Of course Ms Fenton, what can I do for you?" The man smiled pleasantly down at his best female student.
"I know you have to be really good at science to be an astronaut, but do you have to get good grades in other things? It's just Mr. Lancer seems determined to keep failing me in English." Danny asked irritated at Mr. Lancer's continued dislike of him, it was only when the science teacher laughed that Danny looked up.
"Oh Danny, I really think astronaut is aiming a bit high don't you?" The man said trying to hold back a smirk and failing.
"What? Why? I'm the best at science in the class and I'm not terrible at maths…" Danny blinked stunned at his teacher's reaction.
"Well, yes Danny… But I don't mean to be harsh but, well, it's a little out of your reach." The teacher said placing a hand on Danny's shoulder, Danny gawped at this, his teacher had always approved of his desire to be an astronaut before he was even the one who passed on the idea of space camp to Danny in the past. Suddenly a horrible realization hit like a bucket of ice cold water.
"This isn't because I'm a girl is it?" He asked mortified, the teacher looked a little caught out at this and withdrew his hand.
"I- no, not as such; I just don't think it'd be the best career for you." The teacher frowned a little.
"What'd you prefer, homemaking?! There have been women astronauts before!" Danny shouted angrily, the teacher looked a little weary at this.
"Well of course there have been, equal opportunities and all that." The teacher waved a hand dismissively, Danny could feel his face burning with anger.
"Are you saying," He began in an attempt to control his temper, "that those women were only chosen to make women think that they stood an equal chance, rather than their abilities as scientists." He said slowly.
"Not in those words, no." The teacher said hastily.
"In other words yes." Danny snapped and turned and left the classroom, he could have sworn when he got to the door that he caught a mutter of the words 'damn feminists' he felt a sob choke in his throat and he ran for it. Sam and Tucker blinked in surprise as Danny blurred past them in a run that seemed almost unnaturally fast, the two looked at each other and gave chase.
"Danny?" Sam asked leaning around a tree where Danny was huddled up at the base.
"Go away." He said muffled through his jeans, Sam winced at the tone before sitting down next to her friend.
"What happened? It's not like you to be this upset." Sam asked concerned.
"Apparently as a girl being an astronaut is too far out of my reach." Danny spat mimicking the voice of his now ex-favorite science teacher.
"Ah." Sam said quietly and looked down at the grass.
"It doesn't matter, he's going to be so fired." Danny sniffed lifting his head up and rubbing red eyes, being an astronaut was his life's dream and to be told that suddenly he couldn't do it just for some petty reason like being female hurt. What if he never got back to being a boy and he could never be an astronaut? What would he do then?
"I wouldn't count on it." Sam said darkly, Danny's eyes widened at his.
"What do you mean don't count on it? You're not allowed to say stuff like that anymore!" Danny gasped horrified.
"It's your word against his Danny, things like this so rarely ever get anything done about them. You can't do anything about it." Sam said emphasizing this last point clearly.
"But… but… that's so…" Danny trailed off hopelessly.
"Yeah, I know. You and I might be equal on paper, but in reality it's a whole different situation sometimes. Most people aren't like that but there's nothing you can do about those that are. Sucks doesn't it?" Sam said staring across the field and instantly picking out Dash Baxter, she tore her eyes away guiltily and looked back at Danny.
"Has this ever happened to you?" Danny asked slowly as the thought came upon him.
"A few times, it's worse in the male dominated subjects, science, maths, that kind of thing." Sam shrugged, Danny said nothing but sat in amazement at this.
"How do you deal with it?" He asked after a while and ignored the people heading inside the school at the bell.
"You've just got to ignore them and try and prove them wrong. It's all you can do." Sam shrugged getting up and stretching, "we're gonna be late for gym." She added and the two of them walked off back to the school each filled with new and strange thoughts.