She has bio! It's not, however, super clear where the biology classrooms are, nor even where the whole of the science block is, and while the school isn't huge, she might like to ask someone for directions. Seeing as she wasn't given a map.

There are quite a lot of people to pick from. There's a group of jock-type characters including at least one rather attractive male, there's a group of girls who seem quite gossipy and probably have rather too much makeup on, there's a few assorted less-cliquey people dotted around the place – like that group of about eight under a tree – and there's a group of (actually seemingly) chic girls!

Most of them seem nice enough – none of them are actively glaring, at least, though a couple look to be in a bad mood, probably just because of school.

Well, why not the rather attractive male, rather attractive people aren't by default bad people no matter what High School movies will tell you. She's proof of this.

(Why no she isn't vain at all.)

"Hello! I'm new." As if it wasn't obvious.

"Oh, hi," he says. "I'm Theo."

The other jock-ish people continue talking amongst themselves, mostly, though a couple say hi.

"So, will any kind soul show me around and more specifically where Bio is?"

"Oh, sure – I've got bio first too."

He moves away from the wall that he was standing against and starts walking bio-wards. "When'd you move here?"

"Last Thursday. I've been in big cities almost all my life so I have no idea what there is to... do here?"

He laughs a bit. "Yeah, not that much really – fortunately it's not like we're that far from a bigger place, so it only takes like twenty minutes if you want to find something more to do."

Well, she has something more to do right there...

...probably best not to flirt with her tour guide. At least until she knows the place better.

"Yeah, fair enough. Are you a junior, too, then?"

"Yeah, I am!" He tilts his head. "Any particular reason you moved in May?"

"My mother switched jobs," she shrugs. Which is entirely true, it's just not the answer to his question.

He nods. And then they are at the biology classrooms! "If you're a junior and you have bio now, I'm pretty sure you're in my class!"

"Unless there are other sessions, yes," she nods. "So, what would you want to be told about the school and the town if you were new?"

"Oh, hm." He thinks for a couple of moments, then says, "It's very small, but you already knew that. … We have a nice festival thing in the summer for plants and things? Seriously, this town is just boring, you're better off pretending you're literally in the middle of nowhere and just twenty minutes away from something fun."

"Well, that's just depressing. And patently untrue, there are at least people, and people are interesting."

"Well yeah, there are people who are interesting, but there aren't really interesting activities to do around here that you don't just get anywhere you have people – like, you can go to a friend's house still, obviously, not like that changes in a small town, but there's nothing else to do."

And the bell's about to go so Theo walks into the bio classroom! They indeed are in the same class. "Oh, by the way, there's no seating plan or anything – usually we swap partners in different sessions so," he shrugs.

"So do you mind if I sit with you? Partnering with helpful, pretty people sounds like the way to go for the first class."

Oops.

He smiles. "Yeah, that's fine."

So he takes a seat at one of the benches.

And she takes a seat with him!

"Anyway, what I meant was that now that I'm here it'd be useful if I, like, knew more about the people, about the social dynamics, clubs, or where stuff is." She shrugs.

"Oh, yeah, um, groups are basically what you saw outside? Like, there's a bit more detail, and I don't think you'll have it all memorized but, yeah, basically like that. Clubs: not many? There's a group of us who get together and do soccer every so often, there's one for Latin, I think? Maybe a chess thing too, not sure. Stuff…" Theo looks over at the door as the teacher enters the classroom and just leaves it at, "Yeah, stuff is kinda difficult to sum up."

"Okay, I suppose I'm gonna have to figure it out as I go along."

And class starts! They're doing various organelles in plant cells today. Vacuoles, cell wall, that sort of thing, labelling diagrams and stuff. Apparently they're not doing a practical today.

The teacher doesn't keep the classroom silent, so Theo's willing to talk to Sadde quietly if she so desires.

Once she notices this, she so desires!

"I realized I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Sadde."

"Nice to meet you," he says. "Theo, in case you'd forgotten."

"I hadn't. It's a nice name."

"Thanks," he responds, smiling. "Yours is… unique."

"A.k.a. 'weird.'"

He shrugs. "A little bit but it doesn't sound bad or anything, so it's not weird in a bad way?"

"Glad you think so, I'm all weird."

"You seem pretty normal so far," he says. "Then again, I haven't really known you for long."

"I'm so disappointed in myself."

"You really seem it," he says mildly. "Is there anything particularly weird that you care to share?"

"Hmmm... Big genderfluid shapeshifting nerd."

"Shapeshifting nerd?" He laughs a bit. "Is that… you're really into the idea of shapeshifting?"

"Oh, no, I'm magic, you see. When I feel like a boy I look like a boy and vice-versa."

"Oh, right," he agrees. "Sounds cool. So you were serious about the genderfluid part?"

"Yep. And that's just the obviously weird part, there are some other subtler weird parts."

"It's definitely different," he says, "but it's not weird in a bad way." He smiles a bit. "Are you trying to provide examples of weird in a bad way or just weird?"

"Just weird, I'm pretty sure I'm not bad."

"That's good."

Biology, biology, such fun.

Whee, biology. Stealing glances from the cute boy sitting next to her.

He doesn't seem to react to the stolen glances!

But then, eventually, bio must come to an end. It indeed does so. "What do you have next?" asks Theo. "I've got English but I can probably walk you over wherever."

"Oh, English, too."

"I wonder how many classes we share," he says, packing his stuff away and picking up his bag. "Anyway! I can show you over there too, since we're going the same place."

"Well, aren't you a gentleman," she laughs, picking up her own backpack and following him.

Off to English they go! And then into the classroom. Theo sits in his regular spot – next to one of the other jocks that Sadde would have seen him with earlier – and smiles at Sadde.

Sadde will find the nearest empty seat and smile at him, too.

(Gosh, he's so pretty, she's rethinking her plan of not seducing him on the first day.)

He is rather attractive! Not, like, ridiculously, but definitely quite. However, he doesn't seem to hear her internal monologue, nor respond to it, so he doesn't offer any comment on whether she should attempt to seduce him!

English starts. It's very fun, very fun indeed. Lots of poetry today. Super fun.

That's a shame. She'll just have to guess.

English! Woo! She won't sleep through the class, and will try to not die of boredom!

That must be such a hardship! Congratulations to her for succeeding. Then class ends and Theo packs his stuff away and he's probably available to show Sadde where to go next!

Such a hardship. And after this she has Geography!

Theo: has history.

Fortunately, the 'humanities' classes are near to each other so he's able to show her to Geography and then disappear off to History. Plus it's not like it's a huge school, so he'd probably be able to do that even if they weren't right next to each other.

Such a gentleman.

But she'll see if she can socialize with someone other than Theo, now that she's going to a Theoless class.

She can! There are various seats available in the class, and most actually seem to have people sitting near them who seem somewhat friendly – apparently there are quite a few nice people in this town.

For example, there's a guy from one of the less-cliquey groups from earlier (just in case she's keeping track)! He's already sitting at a desk and talking to the person next to him when Sadde enters the room, but there's a space on the other side of him, if she wishes to take it.

Well, friendly people is a thing that bodes well, maybe she'll be able to even stay until she graduates in this school!

She takes the seat next to that guy but doesn't intrude, since he's already talking to someone.

He smiles at her when she sits down, finishes off his conversation – only a few more sentences, it would seem – and then introduces himself to her. "Hey! You're new, right? I'm Matt."

"Nice to meet you! I'm Sadde."

"Enjoying your new surroundings?" he asks.

"You could say so," she says, grinning at him.

He grins back. "Cool. So where are you from?"

"Hoo, boy, that's a complicated question. I was born in a town smaller than even Ashbane, but my mom divorced my father" (not 'my dad') "when I was like four, then we moved to Charlotte, and now we're here."

He nods. "Sounds… uh, potentially exciting?"

The teacher comes into the classroom! Doesn't tell people to quiet down just yet, since she's setting things up, but she is now present.

"I suppose that's a way to see it."

He shrugs and gets out his notebook and a pen, and then apparently he has rather good timing because the teacher tells them all to be quiet so class can start.

Geography, woo! Rivers and… stuff.

Yes. Stuff.

Then lunch, probably.

It is indeed lunch, yes!

Matt shows her in the direction of the cafeteria – it's kinda hard to miss everyone going in a similar direction, but still – and then he grabs some food and sits down with the group of assorted less-cliquey people. It looks like she can join him, if she so wishes!

Theo is also in the cafeteria, if she happens to look around. He seems like he'll be making his way over to the jock group in a few moments, but right now he's grabbing some food of his own.

Hmmmm choices, choices...

She'll go with the jocks first, because she simply cannot resist tempting fate. She gives Matt a small wave and goes grab some food to then join Theo.

Theo notices her coming over and moves over to make a space for her! So long as she's, you know, okay sitting between two jocks. "Hey."

Is she okay sitting between two hot boys who practice sports.

"Hello!" She grins at the other jock, too. "Haven't introduced! I'm Sadde. I'm also new."

"Cody," he says, smiling back at her. "You into any sports?"

That's probably his go-to topic.

"Closest thing to sports I practice is running, and not, like, track team running."

He shrugs. "Sounds fun anyway. I'm pretty into running – pretty sure Theo is too?"

Theo also shrugs! "I mean, I jog?"

"Habitually? I could join you."

"Yeah – usually in the evenings, daily. I'm up for that."

"Cool! And, evenings? Nothing to do around here at night, no clubs or whatever?"

"We have, uh, one club?" he says. "It's pretty small and people usually just throw parties and things instead or go to one of the bigger towns or something, though."

Cody makes some sort of affirmative grunting noise, then says, "The club's not too bad though."

"Well, see, there isn't literally nothing to do here, you misled me!"

"Hyperbole?" he tries. "There's practically very little but still some– so yeah okay there's some stuff." He laughs a bit. "Here, I've told you about the stuff now."

She squints at him, then turns to Cody. "Is he telling the truth or is he hiding some secret Disney park somewhere?"

Cody laughs. "No Disney park. There's a regular park, though."

Theo smiles.

"Which is presumably where you jog?"

"Yeah, through the park sometimes and around town a bit other times, vary it a little so it doesn't get too repetitive, listen to music, that sort of thing."

"Sounds like fun!"

"It is, actually, yeah!" He smiles. And then takes a bite of his food, since, lunch.

Yes! Food and lunch! Good thinking.

"You into any other stuff?" asks Cody after a few moments. "Other than running."

"As far as sports go? Not really. But other than that I really like reading, and walking around aimlessly, and getting to know people, and singing, and seeing how blatant I have to be with my flirting before its target can realize I am in fact flirting with them."

He raises an eyebrow. "Sounds fun. What's the record so far?"

"Haven't kept track. Since I arrived here I'm zero for one."

"Someone already noticed you?" He laughs a bit. "Do you just flirt with, like, everyone you meet on the first day?"

"Not everyone, just the people I find immediately cute. I get around to everyone else by the end of the first week, though."

He smiles at her and– maybe looks her over a little. "Sounds like an exciting life you live."

Well, if he will look her over a little, she will look him over a little, too. "Not very exciting, I don't think. Just regularly exciting."

"Had any luck with that shapeshifting thing?" asks Theo.

Cody looks inquisitive!

"Luck? In doing what?"

Theo shrugs. "You said you were a shapeshifting nerd, right? Had any luck finding more out about the shapeshifting, is what I meant."

Cody: is confused. He thinks he's missing a joke or something, so he'll just chat with some other guys for a sec.

"Oh, no, I meant I am a nerd who shapeshifts, not a nerd about shapeshifting." She turns to Cody and says: "I told him I was a genderfluid shapeshifting nerd earlier, and that when I am feeling like a boy I'm shaped like a boy and when I'm feeling like a girl I'm shaped like a girl."

"Oh," says Cody. "Okay." Then, if that's all, he turns back to the other guys.

"Oh, right, I thought you meant you were a shapeshifting nerd who was also a nerd about shapeshifting." He shrugs. Then he smiles.

She giggles—telling people that and then having them not believe it is kinda fun—then looks at Theo. "Well, I haven't been able to figure it out over the years, so by now I only have the token effort left in me."

"Still sounds like it'd be cool to have, but if it's limited to changing sex when you feel a different gender, I don't think it'd apply to me."

"Oh, no, it's just really hard and fiddly so I mostly use it for gender. It has something to do with proprioception in a way I haven't been able to hack yet."

"… Proprioception? I thought that was just for the positioning of your body parts in relation to you, but, like, I'm guessing you mean something like phantom limb? It seems like it'd be difficult to get that detailed enough to make it care about… other changes?"

"Yeah, something like phantom limb. At least when it comes to gender it seems to be the case that dysphoria very easily triggers it, so it's sort of a matter of... feeling like I should be shaped some way or another before I actually get to do it. It's hard to force body dysphoria."

"Have you thought about whether it does healing? Like, presumably your body doesn't expect to be damaged, so if it were, it'd maybe change back from that?"

Nom.

"Doesn't do healing as far as I've been able to determine, it's pretty hard for me to convince myself I'm not hurt when I am in fact feeling pain."

"… Okay, that makes sense. I was sort of imagining – not that I expect this is a good idea or anything – how it would react if you, um, lost a piece. Since, you know it should be there because it's a part of you, like, phantom limb syndrome or whatever, but you also know that you've been hurt and it therefore isn't."

"But phantom limb syndrome is in fact a thing, and some scientists theorize that it's related to body dysphoria, so I wouldn't be surprised if it fixed that... But I really don't care to test it."

"No, I wouldn't expect you to." Nom. "So what's this for? A story you're writing?"

(Sadde has been intermittently eating in spite of the narration's lack of mention of same.)

"Oh, it's just true. You'll see when I'm actually a boy."

He shrugs. "Okay then."

After a few moments, "Got any favorite subjects?"

"Math, mostly! Science in general, I am terrible at languages and good at English but actual English class bores me."

He nods. "I'm pretty good at languages, but yeah, I like math and science too."

"Anything you don't particularly like?"

"Uh. History can get a bit tedious with, remembering dates and stuff? Geography can be a bit… um, 'colorful'? Meaning 'color in this picture, honestly, this is good classwork', which is kinda, not great." He thinks a bit more. "Um, I'm not great at art?" He shrugs. "I like lots of things, and the things I don't like so much I try to do well anyway, and then like, art I dropped so I don't have to do that anymore."

"Yeah I am absolutely terrible at art. I think I'd like being a historian, but studying history I don't. It's made too neat."

He nods, eats a bit more of his food, and then he's done. "Hobbies? Oh, reading you said – any books in particular? Specific genres?"

"Behavioral psychology, economics, math, physics, biology, sci-fi, fantasy, mysteries, sometimes your random bad romance with vampires and attractive shirtless people on the cover. How about you?"

"Mainly sci-fi and fantasy, in terms of fiction – for nonfiction it's usually like Wikipedia and various online sources and articles instead of, like, actual physical books about the stuff."

"Pretty, friendly, and smart, my, aren't you interesting."

Yes, that is a rather pretty smile he has there, isn't it? "Thanks," he says. "You seem rather interesting too."

It seems like he's being friendly more than actually flirting.

Yeah, and she has an inkling she knows why. Well. She'll try it at a more appropriate time. For now, she can maybe flirt with Cody who was more obviously interested.

Cody in fact was more obviously interested, yes. He's very willing to continue to be obviously interested, possibly for the rest of lunch.

Well then maybe Sadde will manage to get asked out by him before the end of lunch, while still trying not to neglect Theo and make it look like she's only interested in flirting with him. She's not, he seems nice, so she'll try to be friendly.

Nah, it's fine, Theo gets that the two of them are hitting it off and there are other people at the table that he can talk to while they're doing so!

(And yes, Sadde could totally be asked out before the end of lunch – how's ice cream? They apparently do have an ice cream parlor in town!)

Ice cream sounds like a great idea! She definitely does not remark about how kissing after eating ice cream feels really nice.

Of course she doesn't. He therefore doesn't mention just how they'll have to demonstrated that with, like, first-hand experience and stuff.

And then lunch is over!

Theo has Geography and Sadde has Government! Theo's willing to show her to whatever classroom she's got Government in – it says on the timetable – and then he'll leave her and go to Geography.

And after Government/Geography: gym!

Gym! Hopefully Sadde brought her gym stuff and is prepared for a fun class of… tennis and/or badminton! Apparently that's what they're doing today. Taking advantage of the tennis courts to play 'approximately tennis-like sports'.

Sadde did bring her gym stuff! She is not very good and not very bad at playing! She is good at running though so this might help.

This indeed does help! And the other people playing with her can give her pointers on it, possibly – especially if she's playing with Theo, he's pretty good at tennis – and then class will be over.

And after class: ice cream with Cody!

Ice cream with Cody indeed! It goes relatively well, or at least he thinks it does, and he's very charming.

She's very charming as well! Hopefully charming enough to actually maybe experiment with how the temperature of something you just ate affects kissing?

Yep! They are both charming enough for this to occur.

Good! Then this will occur a lot! And then they will go to their respective homes having exchanged phone numbers and facebooks, and the next day—

—there will be class again.

There will be! And in Sadde's first class of the day, math, is this girl sitting approximately in the middle of the room, chatting to a friendly-looking brunette sitting next to her. When she notices Sadde, she smiles and waves. There is, Sadde might notice, an empty seat beside her.

Well, Sadde will take that empty seat! "Hello. I'm Sadde, I'm new."

"Hi!" she says. "I noticed! How are you enjoying the place so far?"

"It's pretty great! People are very friendly even if there's not a whole lot to do, and school seems okay."

"Yeah, people are pretty nice around here, it's pretty wonderful."

Theo enters the room! And moves Ev-wards for a place to sit.

She smiles at him as he enters the room. "Hey, Sadde, you've met Theo, right? – Oh, I'm Evelyn, or Ev, by the way."

"I have in fact met Theo! And a couple more people, including his friend Cody, with whom I had a lovely afternoon yesterday."

Theo takes a seat in front of them just as the teacher enters the room. "Hey Sadde."

She frowns a little. "Oh, okay."

And then class starts! Woo, math.

Math! Sadde enjoys math, it's nice.

It is! Theo also likes math.

Ev seems to get on okay. Then she has history, so she says bye to Sadde and departs.

Theo has biology! He offers to show Sadde the way again, in case– he's. Um. "Hey, Sadde."

"Hello, there."

(Ha.)

Theo looks at Sadde's face. A bit. And frowns a little. "So, um. You seem to have good makeup skills?" he says. "Do you have– preferred pronouns or something?"

"Shapeshifting, I told you," he winks. "Pronouns is whatever you last saw me as, or they if it's too much of a hassle."

"Okay," he says dubiously. "And just to clarify I'm meant to call you by Sadde, still, today, and I can refer to you by 'he' or 'they' because you look male, right?"

"Correct! I do not change my name when I am a different gender."

"I didn't know if Sadde was gender-neutral or– what, was just checking," he says. "So, um. Bio?"

"Sure thing. And yeah, I'm pretty sure it's not only gender-neutral, it is actually unique on Earth."

Off to Bio they go, then. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure I haven't heard it before," responds Theo. "Sounds sort of Spanish or something, though?"

Shrug. "Maybe I should ask my mom how she came up with it."

Theo also shrugs! Then they're at the Bio classrooms and oh look they're still in the same class, that hasn't changed and oh– would Sadde like to partner with him again?

Sure!

Then Biology will start and pass by and Theo will try to not seem too visibly confused by the changes in Sadde's physical appearance and he will actually mostly succeed, and he'll make small talk when possible that Sadde will hopefully respond to in a non-awkward fashion.

Sadde is the king of non-awkward! He will also continue subtly flirting. He won't be as obvious as Cody, Theo has possibly gotten the idea by now.

Theo… doesn't think he's going to respond to the subtle flirting right now. He's going to make small talk and maybe less-small talk and he's going to just converse and work for the rest of Biology and then it will be over and he has French, Sadde has Spanish, they're in approximately similar locations so Theo can show Sadde the way there, and then he can have an hour of French just before lunch.

And then: lunch! Who-all's there?

Cody, Theo, various other jock-type characters on that table that Sadde sat at before!

Alternatively, he can go talk to Matt who's over at that other table, like lunch yesterday.

Alternatively! Ev seems to be chatting away to a large number of people over at a relatively busy table. Maybe Sadde's curious about her? Or maybe not.

Yes! Yes he is! But he's gonna go talk to Matt and his friends instead.

"Hi."

"Hey," says Matt, moving over to make space for Sadde. "How've you been?"

"Alright, school seems nice, people seem nice, Cody is very nice. Yourself?"

"Yeah, I've been fine," responds Matt. "Cody? You mean Theo's friend Cody?"

"Yeah, we had ice cream yesterday." And made out, but he won't kiss and tell. He might kiss and hint, or kiss and innuendo, but not tell.

"Oh, cool," says Matt, then he introduces Sadde to the other people at the table and vice versa.

Introductions! New people! Yay! Can he flirt with them? Can he flirt with Matt?

He can try flirting with them! Some will be up for it – mainly the girls, not so much the guys, surprisingly enough – and Matt himself will indeed be somewhat up for it, yes.

Ah, yes, monosexuality, Sadde's greatest nemesis. But that's alright, he'll be a girl again eventually and be able to flirt with the other boys.

Now he has to choose, that's so terrible. Well...

"So, Matt, what's your thing?"

"My thing?" he asks.

"Yeah, you know, what you like to do, your hobby, 'describe yourself in three sentences,' that sort of stuff."

"Oh, right, uh – I like talking to people? And sports?"

"Talking to people's great," he agrees. "What sports?"

"Soccer?" he says.

"Why are you asking me?"

"No, as in– soccer-what-about-you?"

"Running, mostly! I do fine in sports that require running but don't really practice any of them consistently. But with such good incentives," he says that part giving Matt a look to indicate exactly what the incentive is, "I might just start."

Matt smirks a bit. "Sounds like a good idea."

"Does the school have a soccer team?"

"Nnnnope," he says. "A few of us get together and play soccer before class, though, some days."

"That sounds like fun, would it be okay if I joined you guys sometimes?"

"Yeah," he says. "Sounds good."

"Rad! I'm also joining Theo running on evenings, probably."

"Oh, cool! Whereabouts? Just through town, or…?"

"Through town probably! And the park. Parks? I wasn't clear on whether there was more than one."

"There are a couple in the town, yeah, but you've also got a lot of trees and stuff near the edge if you want to jog there."

"...the edge. I am so not used to tiny towns."

Matt laughs a bit. "There's like – trees and stuff. And a lack of houses. And a sign that's like 'you are now leaving Ashbane' or something."

"Yeah, very weird."

Nom. "I'm used to it," says Matt. "You know, having grown up in a small town. Not sure how I'd fare in a city."

"Well there's more—stuff to do."

"Yeah, that's for sure," says Matt. "We have some stuff here but if you want to do anything major you kinda have to go elsewhere."

"Do you guys do that usually? Get together and go somewhere bigger to do stuff?"

"Yeah, pretty often – I'm sure some people'd be up for it if you suggested something."

"I probably will! Hanging out with new people's fun. But I might have to divide that between several trips, I can't very well bring the whole school."

"You could try," responds Matt, laughing a bit, "but yeah, I don't think it'd work too well."

"I could start with one person," he says brightly.

"You could!" He smiles. "That is definitely completely possible."

"Now who should I ask, who should I ask," he muses, making a show of looking around for a likely target... before settling, of course, on Matt himself. "How about you?"

"What, me?" Matt asks, making a show of looking surprised. He smiles. "I think I'd enjoy that."

"Cool! So, do you have a suggestion on what to do or should I just come up with something and cross my fingers?"

"If you want to go further afield, mmm, not sure, but if you just mean getting together for stuff – ice cream?"

"Well I got ice cream yesterday but I'm not about to refuse getting ice cream."

"Oh right, you said that – uh." He thinks for a few moments. "Mmmmaybe grabbing a bite at a café? There are a couple in town…"

"After school today?"

"Yeah?" he says. "Sounds good."

"It's a date, then!"

"It is."

The rest of lunch proceeds, then afternoon classes start. English, woo.

Woo, English!

And after English, Theo has Geography and Sadde and Matt conveniently have History.

Can Sadde sit somewhere close to Matt so he can accidentally look cute?

Yes. He definitely can. And Matt might 'accidentally' look cute back.

(Who's kidding, he looks cute practically all the time.)

Well, Sadde's making an effort at this, he'd like it to be recognized!

It definitely is being recognized! And responded to, apparently.

Yay! Sadde is successful at definitely not flirting at all.

And then class is over and he can be more blatantly cute while directly interacting with Matt. Well, first he'll put his stuff away and sling his backpack over his shoulder, but then he'll interact. "Ready to play tour guide to the new guy?"

"Sure," says Matt, grabbing his bag likewise and moving in the direction of the crowds. "Do you want me to tour you 'round the parks in addition to the café?"

"Oh no it would be so terrible to spend more time with you I would not survive it," he giggles. "Yeah, sure."

"Cool," he says. "Sssso– tell me about yourself?"

"Have I used the 'genderfluid shapeshifting nerd' line on you yet? It's my go-to three-word explanation."

"I don't think you have, actually! It'd explain the –" he waves at his face. "You seem pretty good with makeup."

"Almost supernaturally so, I've been told."

He thinks the whole "messes with people's minds" part is creepy but does he have fun with this kind of stuff.

Matt laughs a bit. "Unfortunately I don't have a neat three-word description of myself like that."

"Well, I have more than three words about me if you want, maybe that could inspire you to do the same?"

"Yeah," he says. "Might well do."

"Proud, vain, smart, altruistic, ambitious, dramatic, extroverted slash chatterbox, analytical, bookworm, crrrreative aaaaand that's ten."

"Ambitious?" he asks. "Any particular ambitions you're aiming for?"

"Generally making the world a better place, don't have a specific plan for the time being, just seeing what resources there are to be gathered and gathering them. I might become a politician of the kind that does speeches."

He nods. "Sounds interesting! I'm not really sure what I want to go into long-term, but I think I'm pretty good with people…?"

"What kind of good with people are you?"

"People seem to like me? Typically? And lots of people don't actually listen properly – I try to make sure I do that, don't just discard what people say, that sort of thing."

"That suggests therapy, journalism, or maybe law."

"… Those sound really varied."

"Yeah but they have the property of your listening to people and them liking you being advantages."

"Oh yeah, I know, I was just saying," he shrugs. "Therapy might be good, I'm not sure I'm really the right type for journalism, and I– don't know about law?"

"Why not?"

"To the journalism thing? I'm not sure I'd be great at writing newspaper articles and things." He shrugs again.

"No, to the law thing."

"I haven't done much law? Or much about law? So, uh, maybe, but like, we don't learn much about law so I don't know if it's a thing I'd want to do."

"You haven't done much about therapy either," he points out.

"Yeah," he says. "But I think I have a vague idea of what that's like, whereas with law, like, do you mean attorney or judge or legal… helper person, I forget the term, or what? Because I have no idea about any of that."

"Well any of those! Do you have feelings about any of them?"

"I– don't know? The legal helper person – uh… paralegal? That might work, since I think that's mainly Englishy stuff instead of actually trying to win over… a jury or whatever? – I don't know how a lot of this works, so."

"Yeah, fair enough, neither do I. I don't know much about politics either, but being charismatic and winning people over is fun. I'd also like to be a scientist though and being a politician who likes science in this country might be doomed from the start."

He laughs a bit. "Yeah, they don't seem great."

"Okay, so, your turn, ten words."

"… Charismatic, smiley. Funny?" He thinks for a moment. "Frustrated by conflict, sometimes talkative, and apparently boring since I can't think of ten individual words to describe me?" He laughs a bit.

"That doesn't make you boring, I'm pretty sure most people can't think of ten words to describe themselves on the spot. I just happen to have a particularly easy time verbalizing my thoughts."

"I don't think I'm great at that," says Matt. "I have difficulty working out what I'm even thinking? Let alone putting it into words."

"What do you mean, you don't know what you're thinking?"

"Sometimes it's a very vague idea on a thing and I have to poke it if I want to find out that my opinions are more than just 'not super positive, not super negative'?"

"Huh, so you're more like an intuitive feelings person or something?"

"Maybe," he says. "I haven't really thought about it much."

He giggles. "You're really cute."

Matt smiles. "Thanks."

And then they are nearing a park! Matt points out the park. It is indeed a park.

Yep. Such a park. Wow. "D'you wanna walk in the park or just wave it by?"

"Walk in the park might be nice."

"Off we go, then!" And on a whim, Sadde takes Matt's hand.

Matt's okay with this. And off they do indeed go.

The park's relatively pretty. Not amazingly so, but there's a small lake and there are lots of trees and things.

It's quite peaceful.

So they can continue holding hands and seeing the sights and getting to know each other while holding hands!

They can! Matt seems to be enjoying himself.

Awesome! Sadde's glad of this.

Then they've walked through the park and, "Should we go get something to eat now?"

"Sure! Lead the way, cutie."

So he does! And then they arrive at a nice little café that has a few other people from school in it and they can order from a selection of food – pastries, cake, fries and stuff if you happen to want dinner early, various things. Drinks are also available.

Matt offers to pay.

Sadde feels like technically he asked Matt out so he should pay.

Matt suggests they split it? But he's not going to be pushy about paying if Sadde insists.

Splitting sounds fine to him.

Splitting it is, then!

What does Sadde want?

Sadde...

...kinda wants to kiss Matt.

… Should they possibly get some food first and then kiss while sitting down? Or does Sadde want to kiss at the door to the café?

Getting some food first and kissing while sitting down is fine by him.

It's fine by Matt, too.

Sadde'll have a pain au chocolat (butchering the pronunciation) and a hot chocolate.

Matt does not in fact wince at the pronunciation, because he's not great at French himself.

He gets a piece of brownie and some cola. Weird combination, but oh well.

Sadde's not one to judge.

...so can they kiss while they're waiting?

They can.

They don't have to wait long, but they definitely can.

Eee! Kissing!

It's great, isn't it? But then their food is ready.

… Matt is not opposed to continued kissing.

...continued kissing, then a bit of food, yes?

Yes. Obviously Matt wouldn't want his brownie to go to waste.

Good! They can eat a bit and then share chocolatey kisses!

They can!

So many kisses!

It's pretty great, isn't it?

Also food. And a drink.

Eh, sure, food, whatever, kisses.

Kisses indeed!

Then Matt will break away and suggest they talk about things instead of just kissing, as nice as kissing might be.

"Hey, we've been talking all afternoon, it's not like it's been just kissing!" he protests. "Not that I'm opposed to talking, quite the opposite."

"If you wanna go back to kissing, I'm okay with that," says Matt, smirking.

"We could alternate between kissing and talking," he suggests.

He seems up for that.

Then some more kissing for now because eeee kissing! Then talking some more.

Then a bit more talking, and then some more kissing.

They can probably spend quite some time doing this.

Yup! All afternoon, in fact.

But then the afternoon will be over, and Matt should really be getting going.

So should Sadde, probably. Bye Matt! You're cute, kissing you was great.

He thought it was great likewise.

The following day: school! With people!

Various people! Such as Theo!

And Willow!

Whom he hasn't really talked to yet! ...he'll talk to her later there's plenty of time now he has to seduce Theo.

"Hello again."

"Hey there," he says, turning to face Sadde. "Still– feeling guyish, then?"

"Yeah, usually lasts two or three days, sometimes more, sometimes less."

He nods. "How's your time here, so far?"

"It's going pretty alright! I am constantly surprised by how nice everyone here is."

Theo tilts his head a bit. "People are pretty good, yeah."

"I mean, there aren't cliques and teenagers being awful? I've kinda gotten used to that and it's nice that it's not like this here. ...is it like this here and I'm just not seeing it?"

"Nah, it's not awful. We have groups but people aren't– really serious about sticking to them or anything, and people are typically nice. Not everyone," he shrugs, "but most."

"Then I suppose I'm lucky—or not unlucky, at any rate."

"Yeah," he smiles.

The bell goes. Theo and Sadde both have bio.

Bio!

"So, we should probably schedule the running thing."

"We should!" he says. "Usually I do it before dinner, which I tend to have around– like, seven, seven thirty?"

"So, like, six pee em?"

"Yeah, about that. … But you don't know where my house is, I bet, so– I mean, I could show you where it is tonight, we could do things this afternoon? Or I can text you directions, or we can meet up at a park or something?"

"We could definitely do things this afternoon, I'm a fan of doing things."

"Sounds cool," he says.

Then the teacher starts class, so Theo starts paying attention to them and less so to Sadde.

Studiousness. Woo.

Yeah sure bio's fun. Studiousness!

And then it's over and they have math!

Ev is there. Since she has math with them.

Yyyup. Hi Ev! How're you? Would you be interested in some subtle flirting?

She– will not react in any negative way to the flirting, no! She will not, however, reciprocate it, though she does feel flattered by it.

She's always up for making new friends, though.

Oh well. Sadde will reduce the flirting to standard background noise levels of Sadde flirtiness, then. Can't win them all, and he's pretty sure this one isn't a case of incompatible sexualities.

If it makes him feel any better, it doesn't seem like she's actually dated anybody here. Perhaps she's just not into the idea of dating in high school.

It doesn't really change much, she doesn't need a reason beyond "I don't feel like it" to turn him down, he's cool with it.

Math will continue, in that case. And then it will be over and she will smile, wave goodbye, and head off to English.

Theo has French and Sadde has Spanish, woo.

And then lunch of course.

Lunch! Then since it's a Wednesday they've got various clubs and then gym, woo, and then it's the end of the day!

Theo is out the front of the school waiting for Sadde.

"Hi."

"Hey!" says Theo. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah!"

"Cool," he says. "Got anything in particular you want to do, or…?"

"Well, yes, but it's a bit too early for that, so I'll accept suggestions."

He raises an eyebrow. "I was going to suggest games, since it'll only be a couple of hours before we go running, and then I don't know if you want to get back to your place right after or what."

"Let's not decide in advance where I'll be going then. What games?"

"Theeeere are soccer games, racing games, puzzle games, platformers, um. I have quite a lot of games? I was just gonna show you the lot and see if anything caught your attention or something."

"Oh, video games, grand, I haven't actually ever played, sure, you can show me them."

"You– huh?"

"What?"

"Well, for one, you've never played video games? And for two, yeah, I wasn't exactly talking about board games, they're not my favorite."

"Yeah I've never played video games. Nor a whole lot of board games either."

"Welllll, I have quite a few so I can show you– various ones?"

"Sounds good to me!"

"Cool! And in the meantime… Got any interesting hobbies? Oh– the shapeshifting thing, if you know anything else about that you could tell me about it?"

He shrugs. "Not really, the shapeshifting's very frustrating, and it's not really a hobby. As far as hobbies go, I like reading, going on walks, watching movies, talking to people, flirting and making out with them, nerding about stuff..."

"Nerding about stuff sounds possibly fun, if you have particular things to nerd about," says Theo. "Any particular genre of movie or book that you prefer?"

"I like nerding about lots of things! Like math. I like nerding about math. Or physics. Or biology. I just—don't often have anyone to nerd with. As for genres, mmm, I like stuff with good well-built stories and worlds and characters, especially smart ones, but nothing in particular beyond that. How about you?"

"Nerding sounds fun, but I'm not sure if I'm nerd enough about enough topics. For books – I like ones with happy endings, mainly, especially if there's a– thing that they have to overcome."

"...so like ninety percent of them," he laughs.

"Yeah, it's– a bit more precise than that but I'm not sure how to word it, and the happy ending has to be an honestly happy ending, as opposed to something like 'and then he became god and recreated the world in the horrific way it was before, but at least it's not destroyed', because that's… stupid."

"I don't really mind a sad ending so long as it's, like, sad for a reason and not some Diabolus Ex Machina. Like, if things go wrong because god decided they would that annoys me, if things go wrong because the characters are stupid in ways that don't make sense for them to be that annoys me, but if it's genuine lack of forethought, or if the problem was genuinely hard and they had only a very slim chance of succeeding anyway, or stuff like that, then I enjoy that."

"Mm… I think it depends, but I'd prefer to know it's gonna end badly going in, then it has a chance to redeem itself on the other properties before I get to the end and have the sad note that makes me think 'ugh.'"

"I don't particularly enjoy a book less if I know its ending but I prefer not to. I like trying to figure out what's gonna happen." Pause. "I really dislike Sherlock Holmes books."

"I haven't actually read them!" says Theo. "Is any of this due to the 'look how smart I am deducing all these things' thing?"

"If he were actually deducing all these things I'd be okay with it, but he's actually doing voodoo magic to reach his conclusions and that's not nearly as interesting. Or, rather, it'd be interesting if it were explored as magic rather than just waved away with a 'huh.'"

"Yeah, so it's the– oh, right, I didn't mean the stuck-up attitude, I meant to, like, scare-quote 'deducing'. Since, you know – 'deducing.'"

"Right, yeah. It's just that the process through which he deduces stuff is very black-box-y and impossible to replicate at home. It's not really interesting to reach the end of the book and find that the key to solving the mystery wasn't even actually mentioned to the reader. It's probably supposed to make me feel impressed by how Mr. Holmes thought about looking at this very obscure thing but it only makes me feel frustrated that I never got the chance to check whether I would, in fact, have looked at this very obscure thing had the information been available to me."