I stared at my closet, trying to figure out what I should wear. I could wear my hoodie (which I really wanted to do), but Mom would probably snap at me for wearing baggy clothes again. And she sadly was in the house, as she had Fridays off.
I grabbed my hoodie, then started looking through my drawer for a shirt. I found a plain one and pulled it on. I stuffed my hoodie into my bag, pulling on a pair of shorts I found. I found a pair of socks, and put them on as I hobbled out the door. I stopped to pet Archie, our family cat.
I ran down to the kitchen, hoping to get out before anyone spotted me. Of course my brother happened to be in the kitchen. “Oh, hey, Elizabeth,” Eli said, looking up from his phone briefly. Eli was short for Elijah, but Mom was very adamant about his name.
His dark brown hair, similar to Mom’s, was messy, he hadn’t spent his morning brushing it. He was wearing a black shirt, black shorts with the chain from an old necklace of his attached to the loops. He wore white socks on his feet, but those would be covered by his black boots when he left the house.
“Hey Eli.” I said, placing my bag on the ground as I went to get myself some food. I tried to make it look like I was planning on eating here instead of grabbing some toast and going, but I don’t think Eli really cared.
Once my toast was done, I put butter on it before grabbing my bag and rushing out again. Eli never looked up from his phone.

“There you are!” Alex said as I sat down in my seat. She sits right in front of me, so she was on her desk with her legs crossed under her. I sighed, running my fingers through my hair. “What’s it this time?”
“Nothing. Just my family being weird.” I said. I lowered my hands and reached for my bag, pulling out my hoodie and throwing it on. Alex smiled. “I thought there was something missing.”
I glared at her, pulling my hair out from the hoodie. “Did you bring the project?” I asked
She nodded. “Of course I did. Calm down.” She reached into her bag and pulled out the project, handing it to me. I took it, reading over it one more time. Everything was as it should be.
“Good morning everyone,” Mr. Owen said as he walked into the room, the bell ringing just seconds later. Alex turned around, not getting off her desk. Everyone chorused a good morning back to him, something they did naturally.
“Alright, so last month I gave you guys a project. Today we’re presenting them. Harper, Alex, you want to start?”
That’s the thing with Mr. Owen. On the first day he has you in his class, he asks you your gender identity and your preferred name. He then proceeds to call you by the name you told him for the rest of the year, unless you tell him otherwise.

After class, Mr. Owen called me back. “Harper? Can I talk to you real quick? I’ll give you a pass to your next class, don’t worry.” He said, smiling. I turned and waved to Alex, heading over to his desk.
“What do you need, Mr. Owen?”
“I was wondering if you could do something for me. I’ve noticed that there are still a few students that might have questions about their sexual orientation and gender identity, but aren’t comfortable asking or even joining Safe Club.”
Safe Club is his after school club dedicated to making sure everyone in the school was safe, no matter what reason they didn’t feel safe.
“Okay. What do you want me to do about it?”
“I want you to start a column in the school newspaper to get everyone to open up.”

Thanks for reading this sheet guys! I tend to think my writing is terrible, but I this is one of the rare, few stories that I feel proud of. Not cause of the writing, no I still think that's crappy. No, I mean the story and message this story is trying to get across.
Now about Eli, he's...weird. More on him will be revealed in later chapters, but he doesn't exactly see eye-to-eye with Harper on the equality and legitimacy of transgenders, non-binaries, gender fluids, and gender queers. Yeah, I made him somewhat of a jerk, but you always need that one jerky sibling. *Chibi Harper bowing*