A few days later, at school, Ricky was walking to the cafeteria with Nicky, when they were stopped by a tall boy with blond hair.

"Hey, you," he said, looking at Nicky, "Want to come sit with us?"

"Sure. But can Ricky come too?"

"Yeah."

"Alright."

"So, you guys are Ricky and Nicky, right?" he said as they sat down at the table

"Yep." said Ricky

"Nice. I'm Kipper. This is my fake girlfriend -and best friend- Sadie."

"Girlfriend? How old are you guys."

He laughed and said, "We're 15. A lot of people in this area are surprised by this, but we actually started fake dating -well, we don't tell most people we're faking- when we were 13. Probably because most people here don't date until, like, 16."

"How come you were fake dating?" Ricky asked

"Well, because I'm gay." he half-whispered

"There's more to it than that." said Sadie

"Yeah. So basically, like, 95% of people at this school don't like queer people. Like, last year, my friend Pat got outed, and they got bullied so badly that they had to switch schools."

"Woah."

"So, backtracking a bit, me and Sadie have been friends since second grade, when she moved here. She and Pat have been my only friends since I came out to some of my other friends in fifth grade. Anyways, in eighth grade, Sadie's parents made a rule that she wasn't allowed to hang out with guys unless they were actually dating. Dunno why, but then we started fake dating so we could keep hanging out."

"Wow."

"Yeah. Sometimes other people will come sit with us because I'm on their soccer team or something -thats why I asked Nicky on the first day, because he was wearing a soccer shirt- but sometimes rumors about me from fifth grade circulate during the first few months of school, and they stop hanging out."

"Wow. That sucks." said Nicky.

"Yeah. Anyways, the only reason I told you all that is because I noticed the subtle pin on his shirt." he said, looking at the trans flag pin on Ricky's shirt."

"Subtle? I'd hardly call that subtle," said Nicky.

"It's subtle to most people here, who don't know the trans flag from the American one."

"Yeah."

"So, Ricky, you're trans then?"

"Yep. I'm a trans boy, demisexual, and omnisexual."

"Cool."

"Yeah. And Nicky's bisexual."

"Nice. You guys are brothers, right?"

"Yeah."

"You look nothing alike."

"I know. I probably got my bio dad's hair, while our sister and Ricky got our bio mom's hair, and our brother got a mix." Nicky said

"Nice. Are you guys adopted?"

"Yeah." said Nicky.

"We were actually split up for 5 years up until January."

"Woah." he said, "All four of you?"

"Yep."

"In different areas of Colorado?"

"Yeah," said Ricky, "And I had to go to a Christian private school for all those years."

"Woah. How did you deal with being trans there?"

"Well, those parents didn't know. Which made it easier and harder. I was actually allowed to cut my hair, and I mostly used sports bras to bind and sweater vests to appear more like a boy. That probably made it a lot better. But the constant misgendering definetley took a toll."

"Yeah, makes sense. Where did you go, Nicky?"

"A public school in Denver. I had friends who were accepting, but I got bullied- because I was bi and other reasons too."

"Good that you had friends, but too bad that you were bullied."

"Yeah."