Jefferson Davis High School was very democratic. Jefferson Davis high school was also highly hierarchic and status focused. This may sound strange but was true. Parents, money (well mostly), skin hue, gender had very little importance. What mattered was which clique(s) you were in. Some cliques were higher status than others. Cheerleaders, jocks&jockettes, the beautiful girls, the rugged handsome and mysterious boys, the popular girls/boys all were high status cliques. Oh, I forgot, nerds&nerdettes were definitely in this group as well.
French club, drama club, the don’t-cares, bullies, Spanish club, school politicians, LGBTQs as well many other other groups filled out the next level. At the bottom there were the cliques actively trying to fry their brains like the druggies, ballet freaks and German club.
Being in one clique wasn’t exclusive. A rugged handsome and mysterious boy could very well be in the drama club as well as a cheerleader (no skirtwearing). A lesbian could also find herself as a nerdette and one of the beautiful girls. Mostly status was evaluated on the highest rated clique and standing within the clique. A prominent nerd interacting with a prominent jock was an everyday occurrence.
Then there was Josh and me. We didn’t fit in anywhere. We had no special interest that qualified us membership of cliques like French club or ballet freaks. In middle school we considered ourselves nerds but apparently we weren’t nerdy enough. The same for sports. Fairly good but not good enough. We cared about lessons so the don’t-give-a-damns shunned us. We didn’t do drugs. We ranked low on the beauty scales. Josh was cute. Too bad he wasn’t a rugged handsome mysterious boy. Me? I’m ugly. No, that’s not right. The correct term is disfigured. My face never recovered from the fire.
Anyway, we didn’t fit in in any clique. An Indian would have named us Dalits, casteless untouchables. We really were untouchables since we didn’t belong to any clique. Even the bullies shunned us as below their attention. Being outcast didn’t really bother us. We had our friendship and we weren’t interested in playing all those power games. Sour grapes? Well, perhaps a little.
So the entire freshman year we existed as some kind of ghosts in the school. That changed at the beginning of our sophomore year.
Anne was arguably the girl with the highest status in school. Arguably since she and Mary were in fierce competition. They were rivals in many fields. All of a sudden Anne started showing an interest in Josh. She included him in some minor ways despite him being clique-less. Then she started to nudge him to change his clothing. I must admit that the softer image suited Josh. To be honest I had suspected that Josh had a strong feminine side that he had suppressed. Josh kept up his friendship with me but he spent more and more time with those in the higher status groups and less with me. Even less as he became engaged in many of the activities of the high-status cliques. The only one fighting the ascent of Josh was Mary. She did what she could to demean Josh and keep him out. Not surprising since Anne supported Josh. Anne had opened many doors and Josh became ever more cute, or even possibly beautiful. I struggled to keep my connection with Josh. I even decided to get into the school status system. The best I reasonable could achieve was French Club. Je suis, tu es, il est .. I made it. So now I at least had some “official” status in school and it was not that strange that we hung out.
The turning point was when Anne gave Josh a skirt and fluttering her eyelashes asked him to wear it to school. That was also the day when the quarterback asked him for a date. Josh made a very beautiful girl. I wasn’t surprised. I had seen the girl in him for a long time. I was surprised by the QB asking her out though.
Josh blossomed as a girl. She became the QB’s girlfriend. The only strange thing was that Anne had absolutely forbidden her to change her name. Josh it was and Josh it remained. Apart from that she was girlier than most girls and more popular than most girls, and the football team’s darling.
Why all this came to be became apparent just before Christmas. Anne and Mary started an argument that they probably had intended to be private but they had forgotten to close a door.
Mary: “You cheated! The bet was to turn the nobody boy Josh popular. The nobody BOY popular!”
Anne: “Then you should have specified that. Look here what we agreed on. It clearly states making Josh Walker popular before Christmas. Nothing against turning him into a girl. She is popular. I win!”
Let’s not get into what happened later but they were both sent to the principal. That conversation also explained why Anne had refused to let Josh change his name.
You’d have expected Josh to lose his popularity after that. Especially since she wasn’t helped by Anne any longer. As things turned out Josh’s popularity increased if anything. I still was Josh’s friend but now just one of many. That hurt. I liked her. I mean really LIKED her. Every time I saw her with the QB I felt like a dagger thrust into me.
Early Spring semester I saw Josh and the QB sitting in the cafeteria. They looked like they were having a serious discussion. At the end the QB hugged her strongly but didn’t kiss her. That was not standard operational procedure.
To my surprise Josh then came over to me. I decided to come clean. My conscience wouldn’t leave me alone for a minute. Pesky things consciences.
“Josh, I have to confess something very bad. I’m the one responsible for you being a girl. I tricked you. Or rather I connived and plotted to make you a girl. The girl I saw in you years ago.”
“Why? And how did you do that?”
“I made a deal with Mary. It was because of me that Mary made that bet.”
“How did you convince her to do that?
“At first I tried to bribe her.”
“With what?
“The entire content of my “car account””
Josh looked surprised and appalled. Not strange since the “car account” was an obsession of mine. I had squirrelled away money to that for years depriving myself of many treats. Josh had pulled my leg about that many, many times.
“As it turned out I didn’t have to pay her. She just thought the idea was so funny that she went with it without my money. She thought that Anne would fail. Not to make you into a girl. That was the obvious path, but to make you a popular girl. So did I. I counted on that.”
“WHY did you do all this.?”
“I believed that the girl in you had to be released. The girl I love.”
“But how would all this make me love you?”
“I had expected Anne to try to make you popular and when she failed I’d be there for you. Your “savior””
“That is appalling, despicable, beneath contempt. I’m at a loss for words. What you did was lower than the slithering of a snake. And besides how could you imagine such an idiotic and complicated plan could even have a snowball’s chance in Hell to succeed?”
“No need to find the right words. I have already said them all to myself many times AND the scheme was a total failure as you rightly point out was the inevitable outcome. You’ve got the QB as a boyfriend.”
“Despite how despicable you are it’s all a bit touching as well. Too bad you never had a chance. Boy or girl I found out that I only like girls. I will come out as a lesbian tomorrow. I just broke up with the QB. He took it very well. I like you, despicable as you are, I like you a lot. But I can have no romantic interest in you. You are a boy.”
“So it’s not because my disfigured face or that I’m a creep?”
“What you did was creepy all right but I sort of understand you and we have been friends for a long time. And your face? No, that has never bothered me. It’s just that you are a boy. … Peter why are you smiling like that? I just told you that there will never be a romance between us since you are a boy.”
“Oh, I was afraid you’d reject me for something I couldn’t do anything about!”
It took Josh a couple of seconds and then the most beautiful smile spread over her face.