Tomboy chapter 1

The bell rang, and soon kids were running about on the playground and blacktop.  Cooper walked slowly amongst everybody else.  Cooper, at this point quite young, was a dog, probably some shepherd breed.  He had white medium-long length shaggy hair, and some black patches on his ears, tail, and eyes.  He was cheerfully optimistic, always with a smile on his face, which seemed to almost illuminate his jade green eyes.

He looked around the playground, looking for somebody that he knew.  There were kids hanging around on the playground and running around, but nobody looked familiar.  He started to walk out to the field to sit against the fence and watch the others play.

“Go long!”  the voice shouted.  “Hey!  Cooper!”  it said again.

“Huh?”  Cooper said, turning around.  It was Doc, his best friend.  Doc was a rabbit, a darkish-gray color with some tan patches in his ears and hair, which he said he got from his mom.  He had some kind of red ball in his hand, cocked back to throw.   “Oh, okay!”  Cooper said, starting to run.  Doc hurled the ball and it flew high over the field and started to come down.  “I got it!” he yelled.  Cooper’s dog side had pretty much taken over by now, as his vision was enclosing on the ball, with his tongue hanging out.

“Cooper, look out!” Doc yelled as the ball fell right down into range, and Cooper jumped up, and right before he was about to catch it-

He ran into somebody, sending the person to the ground and Cooper twisting around clumsily over them.  Cooper was dazed for a second, watching the ball bounce on the field on his back in upside-down vision, and then Doc yelled “Cooper!”  and he snapped out of it.  He got up right away and looked at the person he ran into.  He was face-first into the ground.

“Oh my god!  I’m so sorry!  I didn‘t see you!”  Cooper said, blushing, offering the boy a hand.  The boy got up a little bit, looked at Cooper’s hand, and then looked at Cooper questionably.  He got up on his own.    “Look, I-

“Yeah, I get it.”  he said, dusting himself off.  

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”  His voice sounded a little strange, almost like a…

“Hey, you’re a girl.”  Cooper said, pointing at the girl.  She paused and looked up at him again.

“You got a problem with that?”  She had such an intimidating calm to her voice that a wave of uneasiness came over Cooper.

“What?  No, I…it’s j…heh heh…I-I…”  he babbled on.  She blinked, and he stopped.  “No.”  he croaked out.  She stared at him in slight confusion, and then continued dusting herself off.  She was a fox, tan-orange in color with dark brown hair and muddy brown eyes.  White fur covered her muzzle, and spread down her throat, behind a gray t-shirt.  “it’s just that…you don’t, um, look like a…a girl.  With those uh…bag-I mean uh…loose clothes, you look, you know…” he said, with nervousness squeezing his chest tighter.  She stared at him again, this time with a little annoyance on her face.  “…like a…boy.”  he said softly.  Her eyes widened, and this time it looked like she was interested.  Now Cooper was starting to feel weird.  “So, like, are you a tomboy?”

“A tom what?” she said, her face crunching back into slight confusion again.

“A tomboy.  You’re a girl, but you dress and act like a boy.”  he said, his enthusiasm returning again.

“Um…I guess so…

“Cool!”  Cooper shouted, making the tomboy jump a little bit.  He jutted his hand out.   “My name is David.  But everyone calls me Cooper!”  The tomboy looked down at the hand, and then meekly grabbed it.  

“My name is Mary.”  

“Nice to meet you, Mary!”  Cooper said, shaking her hand vigorously.  “Say…you don’t mind if I call you Tomboy, do you?”  

“No, I don’t mind.”  Cooper smiled a wide, toothy smile, and a wan smile started spreading on Tomboy’s face.           

The school bell stopped, and then starting ringing again.  Then it stopped, and started ringing again.  This started getting faster and faster until Tomboy closed her eyes, and then the school bell faded into the distinct sound of her alarm clock.  She shifted around in bed without opening her eyes, and kicked the alarm off the night stand, and it stopped ringing.  She relaxed again, trying to fool herself into thinking that she was still asleep, when it went off again.  She opened her eyes and lurched over to the side of the bed, where the numbers on the alarm clock were an out-of-focus green blur.  She reached down and picked it up, bringing it closer until the blur shape shifted into readable numbers.  She pressed the sleep button on the top with her finger, and then slammed it back down on the night stand.  She realized she was past the point of no return for going back to sleep, so she groaned and got up.  The soft golden sunlight coming in through the Venetian blinds over her window cast a series of glowing stripes across her body as she stood up and yawned, standing on her toes and extending her tail out as far as it could go.  She rubbed her eyes open and picked her glasses up off the night stand on put them on, the room suddenly turning into crisp, high-definition reality.  She glanced down at the floor to see, to her horror, a small blue falcon plushie lying on the ground.  

“Falco!”  she cried, scooping him up and setting him back down on the bed.  Then, she realized that there were about six other plushies on the ground that were on her chest and sprang off when she got up.  She picked them all back up in a panic and set them down on the bed.  She checked around Falco to see if he had, by some small chance, gotten smudged on the floor.  He was fine, but she was still worried.  She laid him down and pulled the covers up to his chest.  
“Now, don’t you ever scare me like that again, okay?”  she asked it, being answered by the blank and somewhat stupid stare from it’s black eyes to the ceiling.  

She stepped into the bathroom and started taking her clothes off.  She looked in the mirror and realized that her fur was an absolute mess.  Cowlicks were popping up on her elbows and shoulders, and her hair was tangled into a tumbleweed.  She picked at it a bit and then resumed undressing, stepping in the shower and letting the hot water burn her fatigue away.  


Cooper sat on the bath tub floor, lost in deep thought while the water was turning cold on him.  He appeared deeply troubled by something.  Every day he had to face this inner drama, and every day, before he went to school, he confronted himself in the mirror, and told himself he would do it.  He’d been planning it for almost a year now.  He practiced it in front of the mirror, he knew exactly what to say in almost every single scenario that he could get into with her.  After all this planning and all the times he wussied out of it in the past, he swore, today would be the day.  Today he would tell her.  He stood up and got a handful of shampoo from the dispenser on the wall.  


Tomboy rubbed the lather up and down her arms, making a field of spikes as her hand came up to her shoulder and a smooth, slender fox arm when it came down to her hand.  She started thinking about the dream again.  What if she hadn’t met Cooper on that day?  Would she be the same?  Cooper seems to be the only one who understands her, and seems to prefer her being a tomboy over being a regular girl.  


Cooper watched as the last of the white swirled down the drain and he stepped out.  He closed his eyes and shook himself off rapidly, the water spattering in drops in every direction on the bathroom walls, and leaving him dry.  Then he heard a knock on the door.  

“David?  Are you shaking yourself off again?  You know you’re not supposed to do that.”

“Sorry.”  Cooper said simply, looking sheepishly at the hundreds of tiny water droplets running down the walls and mirror.  Yeah, he knew he wasn’t supposed to do that, but he loved being a dog and how was he supposed to show it without shaking himself off and catching things in his mouth?


Mary scrubbed herself thoroughly with the towel, looking at her back in the mirror to check that her two black stripes were nice and symmetrical.  She wrapped a towel around herself and walked back to her room.  She opened her dresser, which had only one shirt in it, a gray t-shirt with dark gray patches on the shoulders.  

“Damn.  Why does this shirt always seem to be the only clean one?”  Regrettably, she picked it up and put it on.  
She walked out fully dressed with her back pack on.  She immediately stepped on a crumpled t-shirt on the hallway floor.  “Mikey, pick up your crap!”  she said through the closed door next to hers, and then kicking it towards the door.  When she reached the kitchen she realized what time it was, picked up some slices of bacon out of the refrigerator, grabbed her skate board, and ran out the door.  


Cooper rode on the bus, looking out the window as the scenery zoomed by.  
“I’ll tell her today.”  he reassured himself.  


Tomboy sat down in her first period class and almost immediately flopped down, asleep.  Embarrassed, she sat down in her second period class, telling herself that she wouldn’t sleep.  She kept repeating the phrase in her head, until she almost became hypnotized by it, and fell asleep again.  


Cooper waited in his third period class for Tomboy to walk in, this was the only class he had with her.  She walked in, kind of unenthusiastic.  He stiffened up, grabbing his tail, which fought his hand, trying to wag rapidly.  She sat down in the desk next to his.  

“H-hey Tomboy…”  he said.  She walked, her tail dangling down limply by her ankles until she sat down, hunched over.  She didn’t respond to him.  He looked down at his lap, with a note on top of it.  The note he spent last night writing, containing the feelings he had kept secret ever since he was a little kid.  His face heated up as he forcibly picked it up, trying to not make it look like he was hiding something.  He started debating in his head whether or not to show it to her.  He stared at the words “Tomboy” written on top, and started to hand it to her.  He snapped out of the moment, and quickly realized what he was doing and pulled it back onto his lap.  What was he thinking?  He couldn’t tell her what he thought.  But he’s going to.  It’s just…it just needs to be the right moment.  He nodded, agreeing with himself not to show it to her.  He started paying attention to the teacher again, and his hands moved all on their own, grabbing the note off his lap and reaching out towards Tomboy.  “What am I doing!?”  he screamed at himself in his head.  His thoughts were moving quick enough to make it seem like his reaching was in slow motion.  He couldn’t act against it, he could just watch.  He shut his eyes tight because he couldn’t bear to watch himself giving this to Tomboy, as his arm extended all the way.  There was no response.  He peeked with one eye to see his note still clutched in his hand over the aisle between them, and Tomboy asleep at her desk.  He stared in surprise.  

“MR. Cooper.”  said the teacher.  Cooper looked at him in just as much surprise as he was looking at Tomboy with.  “Passing notes, are we?”  he said.  Giggles arose from the class.  Cooper meekly brought his hand back to the desk, a wave of embarrassment coming over him.  Then, the note got snatched out of his hand when he wasn’t looking.  “Well, let’s just see what couldn’t wait until after class.”  The teacher said, with the note in his hand.  

“No, no.  I need that!”  Cooper said, reaching up for it as the teacher brought it back up out of his grip.  

“Ah, ah ah.”  the teacher said, signaling Cooper to sit.  Cooper sat back down. He read the contents to himself with the name “Tomboy“ facing outwards and upside-down.  Cooper looked in sheer panic back and forth between the note and between Tomboy to check if she was still asleep (she was).  

“Sir, I really-
Cooper started, standing up.  

“Sit.” the teacher said simply.  Cooper sat back down.  While he was sitting there, he realized all eyes were on him.  His heart sank in his chest and it felt like his skin was melting off.  The teacher finished reading it and looked with interest back and forth between Cooper and Tomboy.  Cooper reached out for the note again, but the teacher pulled it out of his reach again.  
“You can come pick this up after school if you want to.”  the teacher said.  Cooper looked with remorse down at his desk as the rest of the class laughed at him.  He felt like a balloon with all the air let out of it.  He had trouble paying attention after that.  


Cooper walked into the empty class after school, with the teacher reading a newspaper at the front desk.  Cooper walked up front, not saying anything, until the teacher noticed he was there and lowered the newspaper.  

“You must be here for your note.”  he said.  

“…yeah.”  

“Well, here you go.  I really should be taking this.  But, seeing as how I was like you when I was your age and I thought my teachers were dicks for taking away my notes  when I got caught, I’ll give it back to you.  But only because I don’t want to look like a dick.”

“yes sir.”  

“I’m surprised.  Not very many people pass notes nowadays, what with your crazy internets and your cell phones and pagers and what not…it’s good to see a good old fashioned note once in a while.”  Cooper took his note and walked out.  He looked down on the note and there was a thumb print of sweat stained onto the front.  He pushed the note into his pocket and kept walking out.  


Cooper sat on the top of the half pipe at the empty skate park.  He almost felt like crying from what happened today.  

“Hey Cooper.”  a voice came down from the ground.  

“Tomboy.”  She climbed over the fence and slid down the wooden post with light on the top.  The post’s paint was chipped off and the wood was rotten.  It always felt like it was going to break at any time, but it never did.  

“Someone oughta fix this piece of crap.”  Tomboy said, kicking at the post.  She trotted over to the half pipe, climbed up the ladder, and sat down next to Cooper.  “Whatcha thinking about?”

“Oh, nothing.”  Cooper said trying to hide embarrassment.

“No, you’re thinking of something.  I can tell, you know.”

“No, really.  I’m just looking at the wood on this ramp.”

“Oh.”  Said Tomboy, shifting around and looking for something to talk about.  “You know, I’ve known you since we were little kids…”  Tomboy started.  

“Yeah…?”  Cooper asked, his tail starting to wag in wide, eccentric arcs.

“And I’ve never asked you…”

“…yeah?”

“Do you…okay, this is going to sound weird…”

“No, no.  Just ask me.”

“Do you…have any pets?”  

“Yes, I…wait what?”

“Any pets?  Do you have any?”  

“Pets?  Oh…”  he said, feeling crushed again.  “Yeah, I have a parrot.”  

“You do?  I love birds.”  

“Yeah I know.  I’ve seen the cover of your notebook.”  

“I want to get a bird someday-

-and name it Falco, I know.”  

“Really?  Do I talk about it that much?”

“Yeah, you do.”  

“Oh.  Sorry.”  she said, her tail twitching and then laying down again.

“That’s okay.”  Cooper stared up at the clouds, while Tomboy looked at the patterns in the wood on the half pipe.  

“So, what are you doing later tonight?”  Tomboy asked.  

“Oh, nothing.  I’m probably just going to watch a movie or something at my house.”  

“Sounds cool.  Mind if I come over?”  the words pierced right through Cooper’s chest.  

She wants to come over?  She wants to come over!  He shouted in his mind.  His tail started to wag a little bit and he felt his face light up.
“You…you wanna come over?”  

“Yeah.  There’s nothing wrong with that, is there?”  

“No.  No.”  he said, clearing his throat.  “Nothing wrong at all.”  he said, starting to reach for the note in his pocket.  

“Okay, I have to go.  But I’ll see you later.”  Tomboy said, getting up and climbing down the ladder.  

“Bye Tomboy…”  Cooper said as she reached the ground, climbed up the rickety wooden pole and heard the grind of her skateboard wheels on pavement fade away as she left.  His hand remained on the note.  He closed his eyes.  

“Tomboy,” he said to the blank spot next to him, “I want you to read this.”  He took the note out of his pocket and slid it across the surface and let go.  He waited to give the blank spot time to read it.  “Now-I know this probably seems confusing to you, but…I don’t know how to say this.  The only thing that comes to mind right now is…I…love you, Tomboy.  With all my heart.  I always have, and always will, ever since the day we met.  And every day, I see you and I try to gather enough courage to tell this to you, but I never do.  And whenever I can’t tell you, it makes me love you a little more.  And I’ve been doing this for years.  So…don’t ask questions now.  Please.”  he said, leaning forward into thin air.  His hand slipped on the note and he snapped back into reality, staring at nothing.  “I…I can only hope that you love me the same way.”  Cooper said, sadly taking his note back and putting it in his pocket.
“I’m glad we could have this little talk.”  

A breeze blew dry leaves across the pavement, the only noise in the skate park.