The Dead Pixel Society

© 2026 Zoe Taylor

“Trouser role,” Kris said without missing a beat.

After what was quite possibly the best night’s sleep Aria had ever had, she found herself jolted awake to the sounds of chainsaws and heavy machinery the next morning. She sat bolt upright and groggily looked around. Kris was sitting on her bed looking at her tablet again, with no sign of Elaine.

“So last night wasn’t a dream,” Aria said quietly. Kris laughed.

“Nope. Elaine wishes it was though. She’s down in the infirmary. I’ll let her tell you what happened if she’s comfortable with it, but uh, just gonna say you’re not the only one that found,” Kris paused at the sound of another chainsaw being fired up just below them, albeit four floors down, “That jarring. They’re delivering catering down in the common room if you’re hungry though.”

“Oh, it’s not those nasty, runny eggs is it?” Aria groaned."The catering last night was to die for, but those cafeteria people can’t scramble an egg to save their lives.”

“Nah,” Kris said, “It’s McDonalds from the Student Union. We’re stuck due to the storm damage.”

“How bad is it? My text from Sara said the north quad was trashed. Did anyone get seriously hurt?”

Kris shook her head."Just a few like you who got caught out in the nastier hail. How are you feeling by the way?”

Better,” Aria yawned."Except I wish I’d slept in my noise cancelling headphones now.”

“Yeah, me too,” Elaine groaned from the doorway."Amber says it’s just a bruise, but to take it easy for a couple of days.” She had a reusable ice pack pressed against her wrist."Kris tell you what happened?”

“Nope,” Kris answered for her, grinning."I figured I’d let you embarrass yourself.”

“You’re too kind,” Elaine sighed."I’m seventeen years old, an elite athlete, and a fencer no less, and I fell out of my fucking bed,” she grumped, plopping on her bed.

Aria, rather than laughing, gave her a sympathetic smile."That almost happened to me the other week when my asshole neighbor the next dorm over decided 7am was a perfect time to blast Metallica at full volume through his new 20” speakers, right by my bedroom wall.”

Elaine did laugh at that."Ouch. Don’t your floor advisors enforce noise ordinances over there? Jeez, Becky’d come down hard on anybody pulling that crap on our floor, if Madison didn’t get to them first.”

“Only after midnight or before 7,” Aria sighed."It’s kind of my fault for being up so late working the catwalks.”

“Bullshit,” Elaine said, and then coughed."Pardon my American. But, you’re gaslighting yourself again babe."

“Again?” Aria asked."I didn’t realize I was doing it a first time.”

Elaine laughed as she got up, nursing the ice pack against her wrist, and walked over to sit beside her."You’ve been doing it all night. Every time someone looks at you, you flinch back like you’re going to be slapped. Look I get it, you’re in a weird situation, and you’ve been living a... What’s Heather call it?” Elaine looked at Kris.

“Trouser role,” Kris said without missing a beat.

“Right, a trouser role - you know, where a female plays a male character in a play. But you’re our guest, and nobody, not even the Queen Bee can do anything to take that away from you. You’ve already proven to us that you belong here. Now, you just have to let everyone else see that too.”

“Take it from someone whose entire identity is pretending to be a psycho manic pixie dream girl,” Kris said, “Acting like a girl is fucking exhausting. You ain’t acting, Aria.”

Aria turned to look at Kris. After a full 9 hours of sleep, a hot shower, and, well, the last 24 hours, but especially the last 12, Aria was finally thinking clearly enough to realize what Kris had been hinting at all along.

“Oh... Oh shit. Kris I am so sorry.”

Kris smiled wide and shook his head."Don’t be. I’d trade places with you in a heartbeat if I could, but even if I wanted to, it’s not in the cards for me. Not until I’m 18 anyway. I can start the T-juice the second I’m out from under my helicopter asshole parents and got this place behind me with a cherry recco for an ivy league school. Until then,” Kris switched to the voice he used to drive boys wild, “I’m just your average ordinary every day manic pixel dream girl!” He even gave a lyrical, practiced bubbly giggle.

Elaine laughed and shook her head."At least me being gay doesn’t change anything. I focus on being an athlete because that’s my passion. I feel bad for both of you - I really do.”

“Wait so,” Aria said, “You’re gay, Kris is trans like me, is, like, everyone in this school hiding something?”

“Well, not everyone,” Elaine shrugged, getting up to walk back over to sit on her own bed again, and moving the ice pack up to her shoulder."Lyra’s pretty open about being a transgirl."

“Lyra,” Aria said, blinking."Lyra Short. The gorgeous goddess mezzo soprano who would live in the music room if she could. She’s trans too?”

“Yup,” Kris said casually."At first I fucking hated her because I thought she was a sellout. But the more I thought about it,” he shrugged, “The more I realized she just did the math, and realized she didn’t have the luxury of waiting like I do.”

“Anyway,” Elaine said, “You two should go get breakfast while it’s still hot. They’ve got mcmuffins and breakfast burritos downstairs. Might be some biscuits and gravy platters left too.”

“I gotta figure out what I’m going to wear for the next couple of days too,” Aria said, “If I’m going to be stuck here.”

“I use gender neutral powder spray deodorant if that helps,” Kris said, and picked up a thin, blue can from off his nightstand, tossing it to Aria.

“Oh,” Aria said, “Thank you.”

Because Elaine’s bed was directly under the window, and she kept the Venesian blinds drawn Aria hadn’t actually seen how bad the damage was until they got near the elevator. She stopped, walking to the window overlooking the campus because a security light had been bent at a 45 degree angle toward it. Had it fallen just a few feet further it would have smashed right through the window one floor below.

A crew wearing different colored hard hats had presently secured it with a cherry picker truck’s bucket while they worked to set it upright, and others were using chainsaws to carve up fallen trees. Some sheet metal was twisted up around another tree, and there was even debris not belonging to the school, like a pup tent fully assembled and supported by its internal skeletal frame, lying on its side near the admin offices off in the distance.

“They’re saying it’s straight line winds,” Madison spoke up behind Aria. She quietly walked up beside her, staring out."I say that’s bullshit. Straight line winds don’t twist a fucking piece of sheet metal around a tree like it’s a pretzel. This is September. This shit isn’t supposed to happen right now,” she sighed, turning to walk away before Aria could say anything.

She was giving off too much main character energy for Aria to really want to interrupt her, anyway. Maybe she was spending too much time around Heather and the other theater geeks, but, the thought ‘The best spear carriers know when to say nothing at all’ crossed her mind for some reason, as she waited for the next elevator so she and Kris, who had just caught up with her after changing shirts, could head down to breakfast.

As the doors opened onto the common room, Aria heard a girl from another floor say something to the effect of “Was there really a boy spending the night in our dorms last night?”

She froze, trying her best to remember what Elaine had literally JUST told her, but she couldn’t help it. She had to hear the response.

“No way. I didn’t see any boys last night,” the other girl said.

“See?” Kris hissed in her ear, bumping his shoulder against hers lightly and flashing a knowing smirk.

Breakfast by all rights should have been a scrimmage of first come first served. The boys’ dorm probably would’ve had guys dogpiling these servers and taking as much as possible for themselves, claiming it was for ‘their friends’. Here, if someone got two McDonalds bags, Aria noticed, they really WERE getting something for a friend who was either busy getting themselves or the food delivery person’s drink, or both.

“Snag me a burrito?” Kris asked."I’mma get our drinks,” he said, as if to punctuate that point further. Aria buried her hands in her pockets, approaching the caterers. More gossip about the alleged boy in the dorms floated up around her, mostly in quiet whispers, but she never caught anyone shooting her the side eye.

Her hair wasn’t THAT long, just in that kind of in-between phase of ‘hadn’t cut it since February’ that it was only just starting to reach the nape of her neck, bangs long enough she could tuck them back behind her ears and out of her eyes.

She knew it wasn’t scholar standard, and she gave zero craps, rat’s tails, or, most importantly, fucks.

“May I get two breakfast burritos please, for my dorm mate and me? Aria asked. The woman standing next to the warming station handed her two bags without hesitation.

“Sure you don’t want anything else?” she asked. Aria noticed the donuts sitting in boxes near the warming station."Kris didn’t say anything except a burrito, but... May I get a bear claw please?”

Aria joined Kris a few seconds later. He was laughing.

“What?” Aria asked. Kris just grinned, trading a McDonalds bag for a McCafé mocha.

“Amy from 3A asked if I knew who the cute girl in the hoodie was. I told her you’re Aria, visiting the campus to see if you want to attend. She said to tell you she’s really sorry you had to see it like this and hopes it doesn’t ‘deter you from considering Clarity Prep.’”

They both burst out laughing, though Aria’s laughter died in her throat as she turned around to find Madison staring at her. It wasn’t the hard glare she expected, but something more analytical and thoughtful. Madison casually picked up her phone, while someone in her entourage was vapidly going on a mile a minute about something unimportant.

Madison: [weary face]
Madison: You need to work on your cover story if you want to survive past the storm Aria
Madison: Just saying [kiss mark]

If Kris noticed, he didn’t say anything, as Aria set down her donut, licked her fingers clean, and typed back a quick reply.

Lewis: Hey thanks I’ll work on it. Let me know if you think of anything better
Because it wasn’t my idea I’m just trying to survive right now

Madison stared at Aria for longer than she probably intended to. Aria overheard someone in the entourage say something like “Oh, the new girl? Yeah she’s on 4 with us while she’s visiting or, whatever. She’s mid but she seems okay I guess.”

Madison: do you hear this crap I have to listen to it constantly [weary face]
Madison: Sorry I’ve got nothing but you can borrow a few of my skirts? [devil face emoji]

Aria bit back a laugh and put down her phone. Kris just rolled his eyes finally."You two are so fucking weird,” he said jokingly."Want to try and see if you can sneak into your dorm after brekkie?”

Aria glanced back at Madison one last time. She wasn’t staring anymore."Yeah, I’m curious how bad it is over there. I heard it’s straight line winds, so maybe the dorm’s still intact.”