by Lucy, written at age 11
Book 1: The New Kid
CHAPTER 1 –
Hi, my name is Angela Garcia. There was a new kid at school today named Daisy. She looks sort of cool. The principal said that she came from the West Newman Private School, or the WNPS. Jeez! She must be really smart!!! (WNPS is the Oxford of America, basically.) She has straight blonde hair. I don’t want to be rude, but her sense of fashion looks like it came out of a People magazine of the ‘80s. Maybe Catrina has something to say about this. (Note to self: Ask Daisy later if she got all A’s at WNPS.)
I sneaked a peek at my friend Catrina Davis. She looked at me and winked. Even though I have been at this school for six months so far, I still like Catrina and her awesome drawing skills.
I was new here, too, but I came here in September, on the first day of school, not in the middle of February, which is when Daisy got here.
My teacher, Mr. Patel, motioned Daisy to stand up and introduce herself.
“Hi, my name is Daisy Fastrain. Just a heads-up, I am transgender so I use they/them pronouns. But it’s okay if you call me she because I look like a girl and I have the body parts of a girl. I won’t feel bad if you guys call me by the wrong gender, or tell somebody else that I am a girl.”
Matthew Brown raised his hand first. Typical Matt.
When Mr. Patel called on him, he asked: “What does transgender mean?”
Daisy answered the question by saying, “Oh, it just means that if you were born a boy, but in your heart, you feel like a girl, you can become transgender and switch to a girl, or vice versa. Got it, now? Also, what is your name?”
“Matthew Brown,” he said. “But you can call me Matt.”
“More like Matt the Rat!” yelled Calvin Jackson from across the room. Calvin was so silly. He gets the title for Class Clown.
I rolled my eyes, staring at Catrina. “Calvin is such a weirdo,” I muttered to her.
“Yeah,” Catrina said, giggling. “He is such a jerk.”
“You eat out of the trash! I saw you last week. You were eating a banana peel. You even look like a rat! You’re so skinny!” Calvin yelled.
“No, I wasn’t! That’s a lie. You probably heard that from my grandma’s sister’s friend’s cousin’s husband’s uncle’s daughter’s sister’s son,” Matt said, trying to stand up for himself.
“That isn’t even possible, bro. That’s, like, five generations back. We’d be in the year 1900,” said Calvin. (Matt is Calvin’s “bro,” but I don’t think Matt likes that.)
“Don’t be silly,” said Matt. As Matt and Calvin were busy arguing about who knows what, Daisy sat in her—er, their—seat.
Later in the day, I saw Daisy opening up their lunch box. It was blue. A few boys were yelling across the lunchroom to their friends: “Daisy has a boyish lunch box!”
Daisy asked if there was a unisex bathroom. I guess they didn’t feel comfortable in the girls’ bathroom. The unisex bathroom was right next to the cafeteria.
One of the boys in my class, Xavier, said: “Only the teacher’s bathroom is unisex. Sorry.” As Daisy was walking towards the opposite hallway, Xavier did something that surprised me. He stuck his leg out in front of Daisy and they tripped. Everybody laughed except for me, Catrina, Roberta, and Lucy.
Danny, a boy in my class, frowned and said, “Why is everybody laughing? Nobody told a joke.” I like Danny. He is really nice. He’s cute. (What? No! I don’t mean it like that!)
I explained to him what had happened. “Oh. I get it now.” He paused. “Can’t we do something? Tell them to stop. Then teasing boys will go bye-bye.”
“It’s not so easy, Danny,” I said. “Well, we can tell them to stop, but if the bullying continues, then we have to tell a grown up. Okay?”
“Yes. Can we stand up for Daisy? They are upset.”
Sometimes I forget how smart Danny is. I feel kind of bad, though. His parents want him to study more and have less screen time. That’s why he doesn’t have a phone.
“Here, Daisy,” I said. “I’ll get you up.” I held out my hand. Daisy grabbed it.
“Yay!” Danny said, clapping his hands. “You got a new friend!” When he saw me frowning, he asked: “Aren’t you happy?”
“Yeah, but she was bullied! That’s no fun!”
“No fun at all!” Danny agreed.
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