“Cooper Kelton?” My homeroom teacher called out my name and I slowly raised my hand and said, “Here”. Being new was hard enough, worse if you had a dude’s name. A boy sitting with some of his other friends instantly called out.

“That chick had guy’s name,” his buddies started laughing with him as if it were soooo funny. I just ignored them and flipped through my notebook mindlessly, trying to look busy. The classroom door flung open and the vice principle, who I had already met because of my “behavior issues” at my old school, stood there with another girl. Her chestnut brown hair was in a pony tail on top of her head. She had a notebook, just like mine, only pink in her hands. The only empty desk was beside me. The vice principle just pointed my way, flashed me a smile, and then shut the door a little too hard behind the girl.

“You must be the other new girl, Carter Vincent?” The homeroom teacher scanned her list for the girl’s name. She only nodded and hurried over to her seat beside me.

“Ugh,” she said mostly to herself. I glanced over at her and her eyes met mine. “I hate my name, it’s a guy name.”

“Join the club,” I mumbled. She gave me confused look and I sighed and said “Cooper Kelton.”

“Woah, yours is worse than mine.” She smiled at me, and then stuck her hand out. I shook it, because I’m guessing what she wanted me to do. “Are you the trouble maker they were talking about in the office?”

I smiled to myself and nodded. She laughed and continued.

“They made a bet you would be on a plan in less than 2 weeks. How rude,” she opened her notebook up to a fresh page, but did nothing more.

After class I went to my locker, saying bye to Carter first. Lucky me, my locker happened to end up next to Allen’s the boy who yelled out in class.

“So, Cooper,” he said holding out the O’s in my name. “Were you like a dude before then, like, switched?” He was grinning like a king would.

“No,” I said putting away my new textbooks my homeroom teacher had given me.

“Hey, Nora! Marcus!” He waved to some people walking by. “This chick used to be a dude!” He yelled it so loud everyone stopped and looked at me.

“Shut up,” I hissed. He was a foot taller than me, but I knew I could take him.

“Wesley! She’s a HE!” He kept yelling grinning more at my anger.

“Stop it!” I said louder.

“Hey …” He didn’t get to finish. I knee-d him in the groin then twisted his shoulder back against the locker. He screamed like a girl and lay on the ground groaning loudly.

“Well, well, well, Ms. Kelton. I see you’ll be staying here for a while.” Mr. Vender, the vice principle showed me my “cubicle” in the ISS room. It was small and cramped, just a desk and a chair. The ISS teacher’s name was Mr. Grosby. He had thick glasses and a receding gray hair line.

“You’re the first one!” He said like it was a good thing. The vice principle left and I sat in my cubicle alone. I had nothing to do. I turned and sat backwards in my chair facing Mr. Grosby.

“Would you like a book to read?” He asked pointing at a book shelf of torn up old books passed down from other teachers.

“No, I hate reading.” I said, and at that moment the door opened and a teacher enter the room. She wore heavy amount of perfume and she walked right over to me.

“Cooper, I am your CA and Social Studies teacher. We are doing this word search in class today, so work on it in here.” She left briskly, like she might get sick or dirty if she stayed to long. I looked over at Mr. Grosby and he was sleeping in his desk chair. I sighed and started studying the room I planned on being in the rest of the year.