“What’s wrong?” Noah asked.

“Nothing.”

“Daniel-”

“I said I’m fine”, Daniel cut him off. There was to much anger in his voice for him to be convincing.

                                                            ***

His mom had rushed into the principal’s office. Daniel was already sitting in one of the chairs and the two other chairs were occupied with Sebastian – who’s cheek was red and his eye swollen – and his mother.

“What happened?” she had asked once she sat down.

“Your son got in a fight today”, the principal said.

“What? Are you okay?” she had asked Daniel as she looked him up and down and inspected his face. Daniel squirmed away from her touch and looked at his hands.

“Your son is fine. Who is not okay, is MY SON!”

“Okay Susan, calm down”, the principal said.

“Calm down? Calm down!? My son was attacked! I will not have any of this!”

“Can someone please tell me what happened?” his mom said, looking at the principal.

“Well, neither of them wishes to tell us exactly what happened”, he started.

“What happened was that your kid hit my kid!” Susan said.

“Wait a minute”, his mom had said. “Are you blaming my son?”

“No one is blaming anybody-”

“Well your son punched my-”

“Okay first of all, just shut up, Susan” she cut her off. “Second of, why is only Daniel getting the blame here? Last time I checked, it took two to start a fight. If we don’t know what happened, you can’t just come here and accuse my child of fighting!” His mom then stood up and reached out her hand at Daniel. He took it and she walked with him towards the door. “I think we’re done here”, she said before they walked out.

The car ride home was silent expect from the radio, and Daniel spent the entire ride looking at his hands in his lap. When they walked through the door to the house his mom sighed before running a hand through her hair.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?” “Listen, kiddo. It’s two weeks since you started school. You can’t just go around punching other kids”, she continued when he didn’t answer. Daniel wriggled off his backpack before he wrestled out of his t-shirt.

“Dan.. what are you doing?”

“I hate this shirt!” he yelled as he threw it on the ground. His mom only looked at him with a confused look.

“What are you talking about? You love that shirt?”

“No, I don’t!” Daniel shouted. “It’s a girl shirt! And I’m not a girl!”

His mom’s face softened as she picked the shirt up from the floor. “Is it because it’s pink? Did Sebastian tell you that?”

“He said I looked like I girl”, Danie said quietly.

“Hey”, she said as she sat down on the couch. She patted the seat next to her and he reluctantly sat down next to her. “There are no such things as ‘girl clothes’ or ‘boy clothes’ okay? You can wear anything you want. It doesn’t make you a girl.”

“Really?”

“Really”, she reassured. “Now, do you want to put the shirt back on?” she asked. Daniel nodded and took the shirt from her. “And hey”, she said as she looked in his eyes, “from now on you have to use your words, okay? You can’t just punch what you want if you get angry. Got it?” Daniel nodded.

A week after that, his parents surprised him with a drum set. His mom told him it was a good way to let out some anger. At first, he would just hit the cymbal, pleased at the loud noise. Then he tried to actually learn to play the drums, even though he didn’t have any drum sessions or knew how to play. He was so proud the first time he was able to play a beat that didn’t sound terrible. Since then he had played frequently, and he actually got pretty good at it. Then when he turned 13 he got a punching bag in the basement and his parents made him attend therapy every week. He still got in fights regularly, his mom had to beg the school not to kick him out more than once, but at least now he could land a few good punches. And besides, he was working on it. He promised. 

                                                               ***