It's Just A Skirt

by Matthew Potter

  “Where do you think all the stuff goes after they take it?”

  I shrugged. I just assumed it was returned to the owner. I mean if this was a game like she said it was then no harm no foul. But it was clear to me now that there was more to it. Frank and the guys seemed to not only get kicks out of embarrassing some unsuspecting freshman every year but it would appear they got away with it too.

  “They keep the stuff?”

  She nodded. “The boys of Curtis have been doing this for almost two decades now. Every semester they get a different freshman and every semester he gets away with whatever he was sent for. Somewhere in that dorm, they have twenty years of pilfered items.”

  I put two and two together right there. It was almost as if I could see the gears in her head turning.

  “You want me to find them don’t you?”

  She smiled. “It won’t be easy but you’ve proven to be fairly resourceful. I bet given the right incentive, you could probably find anything.”

  ‘What makes you think I would want to do something like that, though?”

  “Blackmail,” she said.

  I didn’t notice her cell phone until it flashed. So that was her game. She’d take some pictures of me in this uniform and hope to use them against me if I refuse. Well, the joke was on her. I didn’t care if pictures of me in this uniform got out. I’d let her play her game, though. I was already running mine too. Unbeknownst to her, I’d been recording everything. My cell was a little more advanced now. Not only did the record activate on the slightest of touch, I also had this neat little app that could clone any phone in close proximity to mine.

  I wasn’t just the shy little book geek.

  I was the shy little tech geek too.

  “So, in other words, you’re no different than Frank,” I said, pointing to her phone.

  She sighed. “I don’t want to use these pictures but I’m sick and tired of hearing about this Curtis crap every year. Every one of those guys there thinks they can rule the school. We’ve tried in the past to get the stuff back, even brought it to the administration but it never works. They’re always one step ahead of us. I know it seems like something harmless and stupid but it’s the principle of the matter. We’re tired of those bastards doing it and getting away with it”

  I nodded. That I could agree with.

  ‘Ok” I said, choosing my words carefully. “I’ll help you but you have to destroy that picture right now. I’m not going to weasel out of this. I was used as much as you were abused. I want to burn him too. I hate when people try to fuck with others.”

  I watched as Cherry scrolled through her phone, deleting the pic.

  Later I’d hack her laptop and delete the copy she sent there.

  “All gone,” she said, smiling knowingly.

  ‘Good” I said, holding out my hand.

  She looked confused for a second before she realized what I wanted. She smiled and returned the necklace to me. As soon as it was in my hand, I passed her one of the fifties. It was the least I could do after all. I hated to see it go but I needed to gain her trust. If it meant handing over some of my cash then so be it. She looked a little surprised but smiled nonetheless. Hopefully, that would convince her I was sincere and really did want to help her.

  “You actually got money out of him?” she asked, looking at the fifty.

  I laughed. “There was no way I was going to commit larceny without being compensated for my time”

  Cherry gave me another hug. “Thanks for doing this…ummm…I’m sorry I don’t know your name”

  I smiled. “Call me Geo”

  “Cute,” she said with a smile. “I like it”

  We shook on it there, sealing the deal.

  Things had just gotten a whole lot more interesting now.

  **************

  Thankfully I had plenty of time between morning Mass and the first classes of the day. An hour in fact. I was able to make it back to Curtis Hall in plenty of time to get out of this uniform. I got a few strange looks but no one seemed to say anything. I was lucky that the old man at the front desk wasn’t there yet either. I got back to my room in a rush, though, my heart pounding away in my chest, my palms sweaty. I stripped out of uniform quickly, returning it to its hanger then the garment bag. I was a bit sad to see it go actually. Not that I ever wanted to wear it again but it was somewhat liberating too. For a few short hours, I was able to step outside of George and be someone new.

  Geo.

  Sure Geo was still me but she was different too.

  I couldn’t quite understand it to tell you the truth. It was like wearing that uniform made me a different person. More outgoing, more confident even. Maybe even a bit more alive. Nothing like George though. Even looking in the mirror now---stripped down to nothing---I couldn’t see anything of myself there. I mean it was me of course but I looked so different too. The shy boy was still back but there was something else there too, something, not a boy anymore. Maybe I was just over thinking it or maybe there was more to me than just George.

  Maybe Geo was there too.

  It was definitely something to talk to my doctors about.

  Trying not to think any more about it, I dressed in my normal uniform. I made certain to wear the baggy sweater too. I definitely did not want to associate the me from before with the me now. I also took out my contacts. I actually rarely wore them, to be honest. My glasses made me feel secure. I could blend into the background with them. With the contacts, my green eyes were on display for the whole world to see. Putting on my glasses now and looking in the mirror, I started to see George again.

  I was happy for that.

  Before leaving my room, I managed to stick the necklace into the front pocket of my shoulder bag.

  I made good time to Bishop Hall.

  I fell right in with the crowd of my peers flitting about without a care in the world. Like usual, they all ignore me. I found Frank and Henry sitting at one of stone benches in front of the building, laughing together at a private joke. I just hoped it wasn’t about me. Their laughing cut short when they saw me approaching. I waved like an idiot though they didn’t seem to notice.

  “You get it?”

  “You have the rest of my money?” I asked, dropping my bag on the bench.

  Frank glared for a second but forked over the other hundred he owed. I reached into the bag and pulled the necklace out of the pocket, dangling it in front of him by the chain. He snatched it out of my hand rather quickly. For someone pretending it was an heirloom, he sure wasn’t careful with it. Especially when he stuffed it in his pocket like it was junk.

  As soon as he did, he got the biggest smile on his face.

  “Congrats Georgie,” he said, slapping me on the back.

  “For what?”

  “You’ve passed our little test,” he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

  I decided to play dumb of course.

  “Test?” I said, feigning confusion. “What test?”

  “There was no heirloom,” said Henry, acting like the over eager magician, pulling the curtain back. “Every semester we pick a freshman and test him to see if he’s got what it takes to be one of us. The others didn’t think you could pull it off but I knew better”

  “Especially after we saw how you looked in that uniform,” said Frank with a laugh.

  Henry joined in.

  So they were laughing at me before.

  “So now that I’ve passed the test, what’s next?”

  I was kind of curious to see if this was a one-time thing or not. It seemed kind of silly and juvenile. It piqued my curiosity, though. I mean if it was a prank game then why not return the stolen items right back to their owners. I mean why keep them unless there was more to this.

  The knowing look between the two of them was enough to confirm it.

  “All in good time little man,” said Frank, his hand still on my back.

  “We’ll let you know more in a few days” contin
ued Henry.

  I let it go at that. I’m sure whatever they were involved in, it was probably something just as harmless and stupid. Not worrying about them though would give me a chance to look around for their secret stash. Hopefully, I’d be able to find it in a day or two. Then I wouldn’t have to deal with any of this crap. I had nothing against Cherry nor Henry either but I just didn’t want to get in the middle of whatever stupid thing all of them were involved in. I wanted to finish out my last four years here without incident, go to college, get a degree and live a normal life.

  I left them to whatever it was they were doing.

  I started to walk away when I remembered something.

  “Hey Frank,” I said “what about your sister’s uniform?”

  He laughed. “I don’t have a sister dude”

  I’m not sure I liked what that meant. I tried not to think about it. Instead, I gave him an awkward smile and started off for my first class of the day.

  I got there with plenty time to spare.

  I slipped into my usual desk in the back of the room. All my homework done from the previous night, I returned to my Marco Riley book, hoping to get some of it read before the bell rang. As I read other students started to file in. I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Jade and her friends. This was one of the classes I had with her after all. She seemed to remember it too because she was looking around pretty frantically. It took me a second or two to realize she was actually looking for me. For a split second I thought about shouting her over but then I realized she didn’t actually recognize me. I know because she looked at me at least twice.

  So instead I pulled my book up so it covered my face just in case.

  It was fun hanging with her this morning but I didn’t want to make it a daily occurrence.

  I kinda liked being alone.

  Class started shortly after that. It was particularly slow and boring today, though. The boringness didn’t stop there either. It was the same with my next two classes as well. During fourth period, Jade reappeared. It was the second class we shared---Biology. This time, she was alone and she spent the first few minutes before class looking for me again. Once again I hid from her but she did look my way more than once. Biology, unfortunately, was just as boring as every other class today. It was weird too because it was usually my favorite subject.

  Maybe I just couldn’t concentrate.

  I had a hard time concentrating the rest of the day right up to lunch. In lunch, I went to my usual table. I deposited my tray, slipping into the loneliness that was lunch for me. Unfortunately, it didn’t last. A tray dropped down in front of me. I looked up and was surprised to see Henry. He didn’t say anything, though. A minute or two later, Mark and Bill joined him. I half expected Frank to show but when he didn’t I just shrugged.

  “You don’t have to eat alone anymore dude”

  “I don’t mind”

  ‘Hey congrats by the way” said Mark, his mouth half full of sandwich.

  “Thanks,” I said, stretching out the whole word.

  Bill nodded but didn’t speak.

  He never spoke.

  Henry and Mark started to discuss the latest game they were playing. They tried to pull me into the conversation but when that failed they continued on without me. I ate in silence then read some more when I was done. Everything was pretty quiet for me until I had another visitor. I looked up for the second time this period to surprise: Jade.

  Crap, she figured it out finally.

  “Hey,” she said sheepishly. “You’re Geo’s brother?”

  Ok, so she sorted figured it out.

  “Yeah you could say that,” I said, not really lying.

  She sighed in relief and seemed to relax a little.

  “Thank God. I was confused because you look so much like her and you’re in my classes too. I didn’t see her though so I was like…well anyway, I wanted you to give her something”

  She handed me a slip of paper then turned and walked off.

  I looked at it and saw a number.

  Wow.

  It was the first time anyone had ever given me their phone number.

  “Dude you get digits?”

  I nodded.

  “All right little dude,” said Henry, giving my shoulder a playful push.

  Yeah, I guess it was pretty cool.

  Only I didn’t really make a friend.

  Geo did.

  I couldn’t help but feel that disaster was going to soon follow.

  4.

  I sat on the number for a couple of days.

  Partially because I wasn’t sure if I was actually going to call her and partially because I was kind of scared. I felt bad about leading her on the other day like that. I mean she thought I was a girl just like her and it was wrong to keep making her think I was. I was scared that if she found out the truth she wouldn’t want to be my friend anymore. I think I mentioned it once or twice but I didn’t have any real friends, save the people I met in my support groups. Those guys were cool I guess but none of them went to my school and none of them had ever given me their numbers.

  I felt honored that Jade thought I was cool enough to give her number too.

  I didn’t decide to call her until almost two days after she gave it to me.

  It took me that long to get up the nerve to do so.

  I also spent the next few days wondering how I was going to proceed.

  School was kind of dull and slow again. I went through my daily routine with it. I woke up, showered, had breakfast, went to class, ate lunch, more class then eventually back to the dorms. Mass wasn’t actually mandatory so I often didn’t go. All throughout the last two days, I’d been doing a lot of thinking about things. Mainly about what I was going to do about the whole “Geo” thing. I’m not sure when it happened or how but I began to refer to “Geo” as another person. Almost as if “she” was another part of my personality or something.

  The more I thought about her, though, the more I wanted to try again.

  It was like this itch that I couldn’t quite scratch.

  It wasn’t about being a girl either. I knew what kind of person I was. I was happy being me. It’s just there was more to me than most boys out there. I wasn’t just George anymore. That all started to change over the summer. I’d been pretty much ignoring it too. One of my counselors had suggested that I try exploring that side of me once in a while. She was convinced it would help me make decisions about my future. After all, I still hadn’t decided if I wanted testosterone or not. When I told my doctors I was undecided they told me to take a few months and get things sorted.

  So maybe it was time to sort things out.

  I’d been staring at both my cell and the slip of paper on my desk.

  I’d already talked myself out of calling numerous times.

  No more indecision.

  I was dialing before I could stop myself.

  “Hello?”

  Jade picked up on the second ring.

  “Hey Jade,” I said, trying to sound enthusiastic. “Its Geo”

  “Hey you, bout time you called”

  We both laughed.

  “Yeah sorry about that, been kind of busy”

  “I was beginning to think you hated me,” she said that with a laugh too but I heard the fear in her voice too. “I mean you ditched me the other morning after church then you weren’t in class”

  Yes, I was but of course, I didn’t tell her that.

  “Sorry”

  “Its ok”

  ‘No, it’s not. I’m a horrible person”

  “You sure it wasn’t me. I’ve been told I come on a little strong”

  “No,” I said quickly. “You’re perfect!”

  Wow, where did that come from?

  Not that it was a lie of course. Jade was perfect. She was awesome. I liked how she was bold and sorta took charge. It complimented me really well because I was a shy little dweeb. Jade was good for me. In fact, she was good for anyone like me. Everyone
needs their own Jade I think.

  “So now that we’ve both apologized a few times, you want to do something?”

  Crap. I wasn’t expecting that.

  “What did you have in mind?”

  “Well, today is Free Day. Why don’t we meet in the quad and figure things out from there? I’ll see you in about twenty minutes”

  And click.

  She didn’t even give me a chance to say anything. Maybe that was the point. Jade was taking charge of things. Damn her.

  Oh yeah, Free Day.

  It's this thing that they did here at school. The administrators felt that sometimes everyone needs a break every once in a while. So every other Friday of the month is a Free Day. Today just happened to be one of those days. Free Days were great because anyone could do anything they wanted, within reason of course. We still couldn’t go into town without permission of course but we got to walk around campus in casual clothes and we didn’t have to go to class if we didn’t want too. Of course, most students took full advantage of both of those rules.

  I’d never really done anything special on Free Days.

  Usually, I just stayed in my room reading or playing one of my computer games.

  Sometimes I’d go into the common room because it was deserted.

  Now though I was expected to go out and socialize. Not only that but I was expected to do so as Geo.

  Damn it.

  Damn her.

  I rushed through getting ready of course. I brushed my hair in the way I had it the other day, throwing in a couple of barrettes to keep the bangs from my eyes. I swapped out my glasses for contacts and even went so far to use some lip balm to give my lips a shiny look. I stripped out of what I was wearing---girls around here didn’t wear baggy clothes. I scoured my wardrobe, looking for something a bit more unisex to wear. The problem was my body. Most of the clothes in there were baggy because I had to buy stuff one size too big because the stuff I wore a few months ago didn’t fit right. I went with the pair of panties from the other day and a camisole because it helped with the itching. I ended up finding a shirt that fit ok but the jeans well they were a bust.

  Cursing, I threw on a pair anyway.