Announcement CW for this chapter, things get heavy: Dysphoria, outing, cyberbullying, transphobia I walked up to school feeling a little exhausted. SO much had happened in like, three days, and we were all expected to just go back to doing pre-calculus? C'mon.

  The administration was insistent, though, so we all marched through the front doors the next day. As I walked up to the senior floor, I felt the know in my stomach grow tighter and tighter. How the heck was I supposed to act all normal when I knew Matt's secret? Should I just ignore him? Try to talk to him, be all buddy buddy? Would that be weird?

  Oh well, I thought, at least I have another day to figure out what to--

  "Hey there, Alex." Matt said. He was leaning against a wall right next to the top of the stairs and grinning at me. I jumped in surprise.

  "Matt!" I said. "I thought you were still suspended."

  "Got an email yesterday." He expined. "Apparently the school thinks that there's already been too much disruption to my schedule, so they're gonna come up with something else."

  "Wait, does that mean-"

  Matt nodded down the hall. I turned and saw Scott Winter at his locker, looking a bit less smug than usual. He looked at us. Matt smiled and waved. Scott scoffed and walked away from us down the hall.

  "I wouldn't act all smug, Matt." I said. "You, uh, didn't exactly come out on top st time."

  "Agreed," Matt said, standing up and starting to walk away, "but I will next time."

  I watched Matt walk away as I thought of something to say. I wanted to get him to cool off, but I couldn't let him know that I knew he was some kind of monster, but I had no idea how to deal with friend stuff like this, and why did this have to be so hard?

  Well, I had to say something now, so screw it.

  "Hey, Matt." I said.

  Matt turned around, and I realized that I still couldn't think of something to say. Ok then, keep it basic.

  "Look, why not just...leave it be?" I said. "Like, Scott's a jerk and all, but maybe you should just let bygones be bygones and chill."

  Matt just grinned.

  "Don't worry, Alex." He said. "Scott's never gonna mess with anyone ever again."

  "Hey, whoa, Matt, are you about to tell me not to come to school tomorrow?"

  Matt ughed.

  "God, no." He said. "But just trust me, ok? It'll all work out."

  As Matt turned and walked away from me, I couldn't help but feel worried.

  ***

  Thing was, the rest of the week went by fine. The weekend came and went without any incidents, Matt-reted or otherwise, and the most I did as Brightmoon was stop a car accident. Me and Matt didn't talk much, but I kept my eye on him whenever I could at school. It was nice to have some sense of normalcy again. That is until what happened the Tuesday after my conversation with Matt.

  Csses progressed normally for the first couple of periods. I shared third period with Matt, and so I got the chance to keep an eye on him as our teacher lectured. He looked normal, diligently taking notes and paying attention to the lecture. Unfortunately I didn't share another css with him until seventh period, so once the bell rang and we had to go out into the crowded hallway I lost track of him.

  However, as I sat there thirty minutes into fourth period Government, I noticed something strange. As our teacher droned on, People began to whisper, and show each other something on their phones. Some ughed, others hissed for the others to stop ughing.

  There was a girl two seats over from me that I recognized; Maria Powers, the girl I saved at the Bonfire before school started. She sat there wearing her bomber jacket over a weird bck t-shirt that just had a bunch of white squiggly lines running down it (I assumed it was for a band I didn't know considering the Nirvana shirt she was wearing when I saved her). She got a notification on her phone, and when she pulled it out to see what's what, her eyes went wide. She stood up, causing everyone in css to turn and look at her.

  "Uh, may I go to the bathroom?" she asked.

  The teacher gave her permission while reminding her there was no need to be so dramatic, and she got out of css like a bat out of heck. Css progressed as normal, but she didn't come back during the st ten minutes before the bell rang.

  Once again everyone filed out into the hall. As I walked around, I saw more people looking at their phones, ughing and snickering at whatever was going around. This was clearly more than some new meme or TikTok, but no one had thought to send whatever it was my way.

  I checked my phone just to be sure. I didn't really do social media, so I didn't have many notifications. I did have an email from the school though. I clicked on it just to see what it was, and I stopped in the middle of the hallway when I saw the subject line.

  Scott Winter Has a Secret...

  I scrolled down and began to feel very confused.

  There were images attached to the email, and they were of Scott, except he was wearing a dress.

  Not just that, though. While the face was very recognizably Scott's, it looked like he was wearing makeup that helped round out his face a little, giving him a more feminine appearance. He had a wig on too, one that gave him long blonde hair that went down to the middle of his back. The dress he was wearing was a deep blue, revealing shaved arms and legs. There were a few images, each one with him in a different pose but all seemingly taken in the same room, one with dark bck walls and band posters pstered everywhere, which formed a sort of contrast between Scoot and his surroundings. One image was a close up of him winking at the camera with a slight smile on his face. Another was a body shot where he was looking down shyly while tucking a strand of hair behind his ear.

  There were a few things that struck me about these images. One, this clearly wasn't like, dressing up in drag as a joke. The makeup and dress were way too subtle for something like that. Two, Matt had to be connected to this in some way. And three...

  I think these pictures were the only time that I'd ever seen Scott Winter smile.

  ***

  This was bad.

  This was so catastrophically bad.

  Scott could feel the eyes on him as he walked down the hallway. He'd gotten the email. Of course he did. He knew why they were staring. He could hear every chuckle and feel every eye boring into him. There was only one person who could help him right now.

  He spotted her leaning against a locker staring at her phone. She looked up as he was walking towards her, and he could clearly see how worried she was.

  "Scott, I'm so sorry." Maria said. She held out her arms like she was gonna hug him, but Scott held up a hand and stopped her.

  "Sorry, it's just...I don't want you to get caught up in this." He said.

  "Scott, I just want you to know that I--"

  "I know it's not your fault." Scott said. "I know that you deleted those. Someone must've gotten to my copies of it."

  "Who could've done it?" Maria said. "We were so careful."

  "I have an idea who." Scott said.

  Scott looked out over the hall and saw Matt Stone, that prick, walking down the hall with a grin. It was so obvious that he'd done this. Scott didn't know how, but Matt was the only one with an axe to grind and the know-how to pull this off.

  Maria must've sensed the rage burning him up inside, because Scott felt her hand on his shoulder.

  "Scott, don't." she said. "You can't afford to go and beat someone up again, they'll kick you out."

  "Good!" Scott said. "Means I won't be stuck in here with a bunch of people who know I'm--"

  "Scott..."

  Scott sighed. "Ok, fine, but my dad..."

  "Yeah, I know." She said. "We'll figure this out. What css do you have next?" she asked.

  "Football practice."

  "...oh."

  ***

  I ran into Matt in the hall. I walked up to him and grabbed his shoulder and spun him around.

  "Matt, what were you thinking?" I said.

  "I don't know what you're talking about." Matt said.

  "You know exactly what I'm talking about." I said, jabbing my finger into his shoulder for emphasis. "Only one person would want to humiliate Scott like this and know how to do it."

  "Even if I did," Matt said, grinning even more, "shouldn't people be grateful?"

  "What?"

  "Scott's never gonna be able to bully anyone again." Matt said. "Who'll take him seriously after this? Heck, he may just quit school and do us all a favor."

  "What about his parents, man?" I said. "You didn't think about what they'll do to him if this gets out? You didn't even think once about his safety?"

  "Why would I care?"

  I was genuinely speechless at this. I wanted to say he was only acting like this because of whatever turned him into a monster. I wanted to hope that he'd never do this if it wasn't for some evil spell. But what I realized was that there was no difference between how Matt was acting right now and how he was acting before. I think that if I put a button in front of Matt before all of this and told him it'd post pictures of Scott Winter in girl clothes to everyone at our school, and no one would know he pressed it...

  I think he'd press it.

  "You suck." I said.

  "What was that?" Matt said.

  I heard the bell for css ring. I didn't care.

  "I don't know why I'm friends with you anymore, Matt." I said. "All you do is compin about everyone else at this school and how dumb they are, and now you can't even act like a helpless victim, because you just ruined Scott's life. So you know what, I'm done. I want nothing to do with you." I bumped into him with my shoulder as I walked past him to get to css.

  "Alex, wait!" Matt said. I didn't turn around. I walked into css, apologized for being tardy, and then when the teacher wasn't looking I blocked Matt on everything.

  Good riddance.

  ***

  Scott walked down the hall towards the locker room, a pit of dread growing in his stomach with every step. He knew that the guys on the team weren't going to take any of this well. They were gonna be merciless.

  As he turned the corner he saw Coach Broderick standing outside the door to the locker room. He was giving each guy walking into the locker room a very firm look as they walked in. Coach Broderick held up his hand as Scott approached.

  "Scott, need you to wait out here for a sec." Coach said.

  Scott looked down in shame and leaned against the wall next to Coach.

  "Hey, look at me, Winter." Coach said.

  Scott looked up, and instead of seeing a gre of disapproval like he thought he was going to see, he was met with a warmth and and protectiveness that seemed to emanate from Coach like an aura.

  "You're not in trouble or anything." Coach said. "I'm just gonna make sure the team...understands a few things."

  Scott nodded, and felt the pit of dread shrink a little, but he still couldn't bring himself to meet the gaze of any of the other pyers as they walked into the locker room. Then, once the bell had rung, Coach gave him a pat on the shoulder and then walked into the locker room, leaving Scott alone in the hall.

  Scott could hear someone shouting inside the room, even through the thick walls, but he was stuck outside for only a minute or two before Coach Broderick stepped out and waved him in. Scott stepped into the locker room to find the whole team meekly sitting on the bench that ran along the outer wall of the locker room.

  "Team, I want to make sure y'all understand a few things, can you do that for me?" Coach said.

  "Yes, Coach!" the team said in unison.

  "We don't hassle any of our own over something that doesn't involve any of us, right?"

  "Yes, Coach!"

  "We don't go around spreading things that should remain private, correct?"

  "Yes, Coach!"

  "And if any one of you does get caught doing such things, they'll have to deal with me, is that clear?"

  "YES, COACH!"

  "Ok, then suit up and get out there!"

  The rest of the team got up and went to their lockers, hurriedly putting on their football gear.

  "Winter, my office." Coach said.

  Scott nodded and followed him through a nearby door and into the little cubicle that contained Coach Broderick's office. Coach gestured for him to sit in the seat opposite his desk, and Scott obliged.

  "Scott, you've gotten up to your fair share of trouble over the years, and so have a lot of other people on this team." Coach Broderick said. "The principal wanted to kick you off the team because of what happened with the Stone kid, but I said you should stay, and you know why?"

  Scott shook his head no.

  "Because I see incidents like that not as failures on your part, but as a failure on the adults around you, including myself." Coach Broderick said. "Most folks see you do something like that and think 'what should we do to punish him', and not 'what drove that kid to that point?'. I ask the tter question, and thing is I think most people around here know why. I've met your father--"

  Scott looked away.

  "I'm sorry to be blunt, Scott, but there's no point ignoring the elephant in the room." Coach said. "There ain't nobody in this town that doesn't have a story about Mr.Winter making a fool out of himself in one way or another."

  "It's whatever." Scott said. "I py ball, he's happy about it, then I have a bunch a time to myself. It's fine."

  "Scott," Coach said, leaning forward, "that ain't fine. You shouldn't have to worry about what's gonna make your dad happy with you, you should do what makes you happy."

  Scott didn't have anything to say.

  "Look, things have been crazy for you tely, so if you want to sit out the first game--"

  "I'll py."

  "Are you saying that because of--"

  "I'll py."

  Coach nodded. "OK then. But my door's open if you ever want to talk." Coach opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a yellow slip of paper.

  "I got a referral from the principal here." Coach said. "You're to head to her office after css. Now, you ready to head out to the field?"

  Scott took the referral and nodded.

  This was gonna be a long day.