Sonny hadn't seen that talkative, tall, preppy girl since the party. He had meant to get her number, but time had passed too quickly, and before he knew it, the girl was gone with one of her friends. 

Would she even recognize him? To be fair, he was a she when they had met. Sure, he wore his hair up, exposing his undercut, and maybe he had dressed more masculine than he did at the party, but he still has the same face. 

He thought about all this as he wandered out of the school building. Her he had only made it to the tennis courts when his English teacher stopped him. 

"Maddison! I need to talk to you about that essay grade." He smiled as he neared the teen. 

Sonny returned the smile. "It's actually 'he' right now, for the moment. And just call me Sonny, it's my preferred name." He cocked his head. "And what about the essay?" 

Mr. Hardin was extremely accepting of his gender fluidity, but sometimes he had a hard time understanding it. And sometimes he got it wrong. 

"Ah, okay, my fault." He apologized. "Sonny," He corrected himself.  "Remember, you entered it into that one competition? Well, you made it to the top five, and you got invited to the finals in the next town over." 

Sonny's eyes widened and his mouth popped open. "That's awesome! When are the finals?" 

"They're next Thursday, after school. Six pm." He nodded, his chest filling with pride that he had taught such a miraculous student. He placed a heavy hand on the boy's shoulder. "I know you're destined for writing. You should really consider going into journaling for college." 

Sonny shrugged. "I know. I probably won't, though. You know I don't plan on going to college. If I do, I'll definitely take a gap year." 

Hardin's face creased with worry. "Alright. It's completely up to you. It's your future after all." 

Sonny shifted his backpack on his shoulders. "Thanks for understanding. Most teachers would pressure me to give my best, and not waste my potential." He rolled his eyes. 

Hardin raised a blond eyebrow. "It's not up to us, though." 

"Yeah, but some teachers think it is." Sonny smirked. "I'll see you tomorrow, sir." 

He nodded and waved a simple goodbye. "Get home safely." 

------

"That'll be 6.75." The cashier nodded as Sonny handed her a ten dollar bill. "Thank you. Here's your change." She handed him the change and disappeared behind the counter. 

Sonny excitedly licked his lips as he looked at his doubled scooped strawberry ice-cream dunked in rainbow sprinkles. He had only managed to take a spoonful before a familiar voice made him turn around. 

"She was such a butt about it, too." 

The girl from the party was sitting at a booth in the corner with a shorter girl with blonde hair. She talked exaggeratedly as she stuffed vanilla ice-cream into her mouth.

Sonny flinched when her eyes had flickered up to him. Her eyes were big, as if she could she everything. As if she could see through everything. 

She stood up and squinted at him. "Aren't you the girl from the party?" 

Sonny nodded. "My name is Sonny. Nice to actually meet you. What's your name? I didn't get it back then." Sonny's face flushed with rememberance. "I mean... we just kinda made out... and then you disappeared." He whispered.

"Annabelle." She grinned. She ushered him to sit down beside her. He did, and immediately she grabbed his face. "Oh, I forgot how adorable you were! Your glasses for your face so well!" She had turned to the blonde. "Don't they fit her?"

"Thank you, but-" He blushed. "I'm gender fluid. I'm more masculine today. When I met you, I felt more feminine, hence the dress I wore." 

Annabelle nodded understandingly. "So, he/him right now, right?" 

"Yeah." Sonny nodded, eating another spoonful of his ice-cream. He looked to the girl across the table. "What's your name?" 

Her eyes had found his and made him jump. She looked scary.

"Georgia." She stated. 

Annabelle huffed beside Sonny. "Sorry, she's not a people person. She's the Grinch in disguise." She stuck her tongue out at the blonde, who in turn stuck out her tongue with less enthusiasm. 

"Anyways," Annabelle started. "You wanna come hang out at my place? I want to get to know you if you don't mind." 

Sonny hurriedly looked to his cup of ice-cream and squeezed it. He cursed himself for how easily he turned red. 

"That's fine. Are we all going?" Sonny looked up to Georgia who was not at all listening to the conversation. 

"Aw. Do you want it to be just us?" Annabelle teased, tapping her fingers against her cheek. 

"You guys go ahead. I'm gonna go back to the school real quick." Georgia said, standing up from the booth. She slung her backpack over her shoulder. 

"What? Why?" Annabelle asked, confused. 

"Basketball practice is almost over." She said with a smile.