When not spending his time looking at himself in the mirror and calling himself a freak, sixteen year old Sonny finds himself mostly in school. With two months remaining in the school year, Sonny was, like every school year past, ready to escape from this prison. Today he found himself in his normal math class taught by a Mrs. Finch. As Mrs. Finch handed out the results of the pre-finals, Sonny predicted that he would be getting a less than appealing score. Finch's disappointed face was only the preview of the big bold 45% neatly written at the top of the paper.
Sonny thought to himself, 'I'm not just a freak, I'm an idiot too'.
With class over, Sonny tried his hardest to sneak out of the room, only to be stopped by the irritating voice of Mrs. Finch.
"Sonny. Wait a moment."
He turned to the woman and simply asked "What"?
"Please don't talk to me in that way."
"Sorry, what would you like?"
"I would like for you not to fail my class this year. Your results on the pre-test were more than disappointing. I know you don't like to pay attention to me in class, but to see how little you really picked up just gets on my nerves."
"Well, this late into the year, I don't really see what can be done to change things."
"Ah, but you see, that's where you're wrong. You see, I think the best chance you have at this point is to be tutored."
"Yeah, sure, but my parents aren't gonna be able to afford some fancy tutor."
"Oh, don't worry about that. You see, I found someone who can tutor you for free."
"Why would someone tutor me for free?"
"Because she's looking to improve her Gym grade. Mr. Lang made her an offer; She tutors the members of the basketball team who are currently failing and she gets bumped up a grade. Since Mr. Lang owes me a favor, I'll add you to the list of people she's tutoring. Now, before you consider saying no, I have already let your parents know about my wonderful offer and they are delighted to know their son is getting such great help. I don't think they'd be very happy to know you turned it down… especially since I'd have to tell you how badly you're doing in my class."
"Why do you care so much?"
"I haven't had a student fail in five years from now; and I'm not going to let you break that streak. Now, you'll find your tutor, Catherine, in the library."
She had him. Up until this point, Sonny had been signing his own report cards, but if Finch really did tell his parents, he was more than screwed. It wasn't like he wanted to see her face again next year. He finally decided he would just take her offer and made his way to the library.
The library was twice as crowded as usual; this was the lead up to finals after all. Sonny could only wonder how in the hell he was gonna find someone he'd never met before.
Then, there in the corner, sitting at a desk, was a single girl surrounded by three tall men.
Basketball players.
Sonny walked up to the table and tapped on the desk to get the girl's attention.
"How can I help you?" the girl said without even looking up.
"Hi, I'm Sonny and-
"Mrs. Finch's student, right?"
"Yes."
Finally, the girl looked up. Behind strands of long black hair was a face more beautiful than most girls in this school. A warm red blush on top of healthy flawless skin. Sonny already felt someone this beautiful was probably wearing makeup, but it was too difficult to tell.
"Great, and here I was hoping you wouldn't take the offer. Look, I obviously don't have the time to help you study right now. Why don't you see me later, room 119, in about an hour."
"You want me to wait around for an entire hour?"
"Either that, or go study by yourself and see how far that gets you."
I didn't have to do that to know it wouldn't get me very far.
"Alright, I'll wait. You said room 119?"
"Yeah. Now, John, you said you needed…"
As he walked away from the table, he decided he'd kill time by taking a walk around town and by the time he got back, a little over an hour had passed. 'Shit, I hope she isn't mad I'm late' he thought as he walked into room 119 to see Catherine sitting in a chair staring at the wall.
"Took you long enough."
As he sat down in the chair next to her, Catherine pulled out a math textbook.
"Great, let's just get the pain and suffering over with."
For the next hour, Catherine and Sonny studied math until he could barely pay any attention.
"All right, I'll see you tomorrow then."
"Tomorrow?"
"Ha, did you think that one hour was enough? Please. It's gonna take everyday from now until finals for you to really get everything absorbed into your brain."
"That's four weeks."
"I know, right? You think I wanna spend all my free time tutoring people who can't bother to pay attention in class?"
"No?"
"Hey, you got that one correct. Your reward is to come to this room at the same time every weekday until you take the finals."
"Every day?"
"Every. Single. Day."
And that was how things went for the next week. Catherine and Sonny studied each and every day. As much as he hated having to study every day, having to stay after school was eating into his cross dressing time. Yes, despite calling himself a dirty disgusting crossdresser, he was still buying and dressing up in women's clothes.
Then, one day, it happened.
It was earlier than usual, Sonny knew Catherine told him to show up at the same time, but walking around town every day gets boring; he was sure she wouldn't mind if he showed up a little early. Hell, maybe they'd be able to get our studying early and I'd get to go home at a normal hour.
As Sonny walked into room 119, he didn't see Catherine; instead, he saw a guy that looked to be around his age. Short black hair, fair skin, and a slim build. He must have been here to study with Catherine.
"Um, sorry, if I'm interrupting your study time-"
The boy's eyes opened wide and he immediately yelled "Get out"!
As Sonny did what he said, he left the room thinking one thing, that guy sure sounded similar to Catherine.