Protesting, and trying desperately to pull away, Dylan felt himself drawn out of the girl's toilet, down the hall and toward the lost and found. Where, to his horror, Kyla began to sort through until she found a couple hair-slides, a pretty bow that would pin in his (now obviously her, but only to Dylan) hair and after moments thought, a brush, which Kyla commented, "Shan't be using mine."
As Xuan held Dylan in place, Kyla gently pulled the brush through Dylan's hair, commenting as she did, "Your hair is much longer than we originally thought. Is it because you dress in girl's underwear and pee sitting down like a girl," and then she and Xuan began to giggle.
Embarrassed, wishing that it would all just end and that she could get away to think and figure out how this had happened and how to undo it, Dylan felt the prickle of a couple tears form in her eyes.
Giggling more, Kyla finished her work on Dylan's hair and as she fixed the box to the top of Dylan's head, she adjusted the hair she was combing, placed the hair-slides in place and without a second thought, dumped the brush back into the box, telling Dylan and Xuan, "Come on, girls. We will be later for Ballet."
Listening to both Kyla and Xuan giggling more, Dylan felt Xuan's grip loosen just a bit and struggling forward, surprising both girls, Dylan pushed Xuan back as she pushed past Kyla, not caring if they fell and where hurt, only wanting to get away.
Dashing down the hall, hating the way she ran, thinking she moved like a girl, despising the way her hair...which was now midway down her back and clipped into a ponytail...slapped against her back, listening only to the clicking of the shoes on the floor, Dylan silently hoped that Kyla and Xuan had gone to Ballet class instead of giving chase.
Without warning, a hand clamped down on her shoulder and female voice called out, "India!"
Unable to go anywhere, Dylan looked up at the second grade teacher, who simply told her, "You know that you are not supposed to running in the hallways. What are you doing here still. School let out fifteen minutes ago."
Unable to answer Mrs Browback, Dylan looked down, wondering why she had been addressed as India. Next to her, Mrs Browback started walking, pulling Dylan/India along, all the while saying, "You know the rules. Unless you have an extra-curricular activity, you can not be in the school after three. Do you have an after-school activity?"
Scared, unsure how to answer, feeling the sting of tears...mostly because of how she looked at the fact that this teacher was treating her like a girl, as well as calling her a girl's name...Dylan/India finally answered, "I had to go to the bathroom really, really badly. And I was running back to my locker because I was afraid I would miss the bus," hating that the words and speech patterns even sounded like a little girl's.
Mrs Browback nodded at this, but didn't say anything until they came to a stop. Looking up, Dylan/India noted that they had stopped in front of a locker.
As she reached for the locker, something inside of her telling her it was her locker, Mrs Browback told her, "I'll let you off with a warning. But only this one time. I do not want to catch you running in the hallways again, India."
And still the teacher did not leave, even as Dylan/India opened the locker and withdrew a pink and white backpack with Hello Kitty on it and a reversible white jacket with a light-purple lining.
Pulling on the jacket, she listened as Mrs Browback explained, "I think you might have missed your bus. Follow me to the main office and I'll call your mother," and turning, the teacher began to walk down the hallway, back the way they had just come.
Unsure what to do, Dylan/India pulled her backpack over her shoulders and after a moment, started to follow Mrs Browback. Mentally she went over all that had happened today, wondering how it was possible for a ten year old boy to turn into a seven year old girl, but not coming up with a single answer.