Abnormal Gender by St. Onovan

The sky shone brightly as Craig walked past the rows of apartments towards the bus stop. Fall had come to an abrupt end and already the chilly teeth of the winter weather was beginning to bite Craig's face. He remembered that he really should have grabbed his coat before leaving but the bus was already pulling to the stop he started to run faster. The door started to close but Craig began to yell for the bus to stop. Luckily the driver saw him and he used his last bit of energy to dart to the bus since he knew the other kids hated to risk getting to school on time. He finally reached the mammoth bus and used the railing to pull himself up a few steps eventually reaching the top of the tall steps to stare at the bus driver. "Be glad I didn't listen te these kids," he said smiling as Craig walked past the him"otherwise you'd 'ave needed te run anothe' two blocks te the next stop." The doors closed as Craig looked for an open spot. The only seat open was one with sort sort of liquid poured all over it. He grabbed his gym towel to wipe it up but fell when the bus suddenly began to drive. The kids around him began to laugh as he picked looked at his hands now marked with lines of dirt. He rubbed them on his now similarly marked jeans and then wiped up the mess on the brown faux leather seat. His white towel picked up a yellow stain and Craig felt pissed. He'd just washed the towel last night and already there was a new stain which smelled like and probably was urine. Finally able to seat he closed his eyes only to see the other kids on the bus finally getting up from their seats. Franklin Thomas High School was created in that era of the 70's when fake artistic architecture was all of the rage among school districts. The school essentially look like a horribly depressing and drab grey cube with a large flat platform on the the roof making it look most like some birdhouse with its huge entrance and the small windows dotting the grey exterior. Craig had heard rumors that they were planning to remodel the building but they had been squashed when a fundraiser went awry costing a large portion of money from the schools coffers. After what seemed to be an eternity waiting to get off of the bus, Craig was finally able to remove himself for it's light green interior and set his feet down on the hard pavement, suddenly adding strength to his reawakening legs. Then he realized he'd forgotten his bookbag back at home. "Crap," he thought. He pulled out his phone, "12 minutes before class, possibly enough time to call home for it to be dropped off." He opened up the Contact list, scrolled down when suddenly he heard a voice call out. "CRAIG!! YOU FORGOT YOUR BOOKBAG!" Craig turned around loathingly to see his Aunt in a bright yellow and pink sundress waving frantically from her rusted old van. She was the one person who could embarrass him while doing a simple task while sitting in her car across the parking the lot. He was stuck and so he turned around to hide his face. He knew if he recognized her and went to get the bag, he'd be the laughingstock of the school for a few days, while if he didn't get it, she'd get angry and probably come over but he'd have the bag. The choice was hard to make and he decided to ignore her. "CRAIG ALEXANDER FELTSON, COME OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!" The new voice sent a shiver down his back. It was his mother who he'd apparently not seen in the van in his quick glance over. He knew he was boned now one way or the other so he began trudging over to the car where his mother and aunt were glaring at him. His mother held out the bookbag from the opened window of the car and he grabbed it. "Sorry Aunt Milly, I didn't hear you at first. I had my headphone in and the music up loud." His mother glared at him. "You left your Zune in your bookbag. We will talk about this when we get home." She slowly rolled up the window and then started the car with a few turns of the key before the byproduct of the first age of Volkswagen finally was ready to leave the parking lot. Craig put on his side satchel bookbag and began to walk towards the school entrance once again sticking his phone in his pocket. The day continued on in similar levels of suck for him. People laughed at him in the hallway, he found out he failed a test and to top it all off his best friend Kyle wasn't apparently taking a self help day meaning he'd get a call sometime during the evening from his best friend drunkenly trying to find out what he missed in all of his classes. He finally got to his last class of the day, economics, which was easy enough as long as he didn't think like a generous person. The teacher was talking about opportunity cost when suddenly his phone started to ring loudly. Craig recognized the ringtone immediately as the one he had set for Kyle as he groaned. The phone was loud as he did his best to open and close the phone in his pocket ending the call. He was successful and the teacher didn't find out who it was and he relaxed. Suddenly the phone started ringing again. The teacher came over and held out his hand for the phone. "Hello, who is this," asked the teacher after opening up the phone. "Fuck, is the Mr. Habersmith," said Kyle obviously drugged. "Yes it it Kyle. I think I know why you aren't here attending my class right now. Plan to have you parents get a call from me tonight," he said and then turned off the phone sticking it in his pocket. "You Mr. Feltson get to spend some time with me and the principal after class to discuss your disregard of school policy and the actions of your friend. The class laughed and Craig thought he heard somebody even did the Ooooooh! sound. Craig slunk down in his seat for the rest of the class feeling horrible about life. Finally the bell rang and all of the other kids left him sitting in his chair feeling horrible and embarrassed. Mr. Feltson continued to work on grading some papers and make some phone calls before finally getting up from his desk to talk to Craig. He walked over to the desk next to Craig's and sat down. "Craig, I know you are a good kid and the phone thing was probably an accident. It's your friend I am really worried about though. I want you to be honest for a second," he said as he moved to lean on his elbow. "Did you know your friend has been doing drugs during school?" Craig was stuck. He had been friends with Kyle since the first grade and they had stuck together until their freshman year when Kyle started into drugs. They'd still hang out but Kyle always seemed more interested in stealing beers from the fridge. "Yes," said Craig weakly feeling his shoulders slump down. "Why haven't you told anybody?" asked Mr. Feltson "Because, I don't know, I guess he's been my friend for so long. I guess I didn't want to betray him," said Craig feeling worse about confessing. "To tell you the truth Craig, you just did something incredibly brave. I want you to know that he won't be in trouble anymore. Drugs at his age can lead to tons of problems. I think you've had enough punishment right now," said the teacher handing Craig his phone back. Craig got up silently and slowly walked to the front of the school. It was raining heavily outside and Craig sighed. He couldn't walk home and he couldn't call anybody either. He decided to sit down on the floor for a bit. In a long stream of crappy days, this topped the list. He looked at his phone. The battery was almost dead for him. He'd need to charge it when he'd get home. The smell of rubber and the sound of wet wheels breaking broke the silence as Craig saw a green convertible pull up and watched Kyle get out of it with his dad. Even through the rain specked glass, Craig could see Kyle looked beaten and his dad, who was by no means a small, looking furious. The walked through the doors and Craig did his best to look away knowing he'd probably sent his friend into a fate singularly worse than his entire day had been. The rain finally let up after another twenty minutes but it was already late as Craig started to walk home. Suddenly he heard the breaks screech and he saw Kyle driving the green convertible over to the side. The window rolled down and he heard a voice say "Get the fuck in douche." Craig did his best to ignore it and continued to walk with the car following him demanding him to get in. He finally got about a mile from his house when the rain picked up again and a bolt of lightning cut the darkness of the sky. The car still followed him and Craig decided the worst that could happen in the car was that he'd get beaten up and then he'd at least get some sympathy when he got home. Kyle glared at him. "My dad slugged me in the chest when he heard I was doing drugs again," said Kyle lifting up his t-shirt. Where the fuck do you get off leaving your phone on in class?" Craig tried to hold in his laughter. "You think it's my fault that you got in trouble for calling me stoned or whatever while I was in class?" "Buckle your ass in, I'm running away and you get to tag along," said Kyle stepping on the gas moving up to 40, 50, 70 miles per hours through the quiet neighborhood. "You stole your dad's car and you plan on running away?" asked Craig flabbergasted. "Yeah, we ditch this in one one place and then head off in the other direction," replied Kyle doing his best to make his plan seem like it had sense. "Dude, this is bullshit. I'm leaving, you can go off on your own. I don't want any part of this," said Craig. Suddenly Kyle locked the doors. "Oh yeah. I forgot. My drug dealer found out about how you ratted me out. He hates to lose customers and is probably looking for you to kill you." Craig slumped in his seat and tried to get his cell phone out of his pocket. "You make a call on that and I swear to wherever the fuck is running this world that I'll crash this car. It'd get us both out of trouble a whole lot quicker. They continued to drive for about an hour until the rain let up and Kyle pulled over to the side of the road. "Here is where we get out," said Kyle pulling up behind a sign. "How much cash do you have on you?" asked Kyle. "About twenty bucks or so, why?" said Craig knowing that he knew the answer as he saw Kyle emptying his dad's wallet with some large bills in it. "We need some food and we need a place to stay," said Kyle. "I want your phone now," he said holding out his hand. Craig tried to go in for punch but Kyle saw it and grabbed Craig's arm and twisted. "This plan is not going to get fucked over by you or anybody else. I am running away and you can either come or you can let my drug dealer kill you like he is probably killing your family right now! Do you understand Craig!" he said intensely as he still held Craig's arm. Craig nodded and his arm was let go and Craig felt his arm throbbing in pain as he pulled out his cell phone and handed it to Kyle who dropped it on the ground and stomped it under his foot breaking it. The two walked for a while as the sky quickly turned dark only stopping at a small hometown restaurant where the quickly ate and paid. The highway soon changed to corn fields as the boys continued to walk in the now almost pitch black night walking off the road as they'd see headlights comes towards them. Finally after what was hours of walking the corn fields stopped and the boys saw an abandoned house in the middle of a now defunct field. Kyle lead the way running towards the farmhouse only stopping once when he tripped on some plant ripping his jeans and cutting a gash on his leg. They reached the porch knocking first on the door even though it was pretty obvious that nobody was home. Kyle tried to lock the door and when it wouldn't budge he kicked it in with his good leg. The front room was covered in webs and dust but it was dry and warm. "We set up base here tonight, tomorrow we start our new lives as runaways," said Kyle as he felt around eventually plopping himself down on a cobweb encrusted loveseat. Craig groaned as he sat down on a similar couch and realized he forgot his bag back at the car. He knew this was his best chance to escape but his tired brain told him not to worry since Kyle would probably settle down in the morning. As he lay his head down her tried his best to clear the spider webs away with no avail. "Screw it ," he said and just laid down, tired, wet and beaten. Craig woke up startled as he heard a girl screaming. He turned over to see where Kyle had been sleeping to see a girl in his place and clothes. "What the fuck," she said staring at her hands. She got off the love and started at her chest as she tried to pull it off. "Who the fuck did thi," she said in pain but she stopped as she turned to look over at Craig and she started laughing. "What the fuck have I been smoking," she said rubbing her eyes. Craig stared down to note long brown hair in front of his view and two large lumps on his chest. "What the fucknuts happened," Craig said in a voice he didn't recognize as his own. "Ok," said the girl across from him. "You are slash were Craig, right?" she asked calming herself down. "Yes, I thought I was till I saw this," he said pointing at his body. "Crap. And I'm not dreaming this then," said the other girl as she went and bit her own arm to see. "Definitely not," she said. Craig started to panic. Waking up this way was an even worse way to start the day than forgetting his bookbag.