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A girl superhero. An alien girl. A normo-girl. A weird girl. A girl. A girl. A girl . A girl .
That’s Skylar Storm. Or, at least, that’s what they call Skylar Storm. And Skylar never understood why. Why were heroes like Tecton, the Crusher, Captain Atomic, Blue Tornado just considered superheroes, but Skylar always has to have the word ‘girl’ attached to her title.
Before Skylar’s incident with the Annihilator, she never had to stick around Earth long enough to have that word seep into her skin, infect her mind, and immobilize her as it does now. She hated this word and she couldn’t even come up with a proper reason why. In Caldera, she was never called a girl- when you come from a planet that doesn’t sexually reproduce, there’s no reason for these classifications of people- and she wonders whether or not that plays a role in these feelings she has now. If she were more familiar with the world, would this even be a problem? She can’t answer that, so there’s no point in wasting her time juggling the question in her head. She does it nonetheless.
Kaz and Oliver have a friend that’s a girl. Jordan, that’s what her name was. Did she hate being called a girl too? Only one way to find out.
After having proven herself to Jordan during that G&G event at The Domain, Jordan and Skylar had grown rather close- hanging out once every week outside of school, outside of Mighty Med- and Skylar loved it. While Jordan was painting her nails black at her bedroom desk, Skylar lying down scrolling through her phone on Jordan’s carpet, her thoughts regarding that dreadful word started to swim around in her brain once again. She turned her head to look at Jordan, her face hyper focused on her fingernails as she carefully applied the polish.
“Why do you like wearing nail polish?” Skylar blurted out once Jordan closed the small nail polish bottle. The blonde whipped her head to look back at the alien, golden curls bouncing before settling to frame her face like they were before. She hummed as she thought about the question before she settled on shrugging her shoulders as a response.
“I dunno, I’ve just always painted my nails. I think they look cooler black,” she looked down at the wet paint on her hands, “My hands feel naked without it.” Skylar pursed her lips as she thought about what that meant for her. After a moment of silence, Jordan grabbed her box of nail polish and sat down next to the brunette.
“What’s your favorite color?”
“Uh…” Skylar looked over the large array of colors in the box. No. This wasn’t right. Was it?
“Isn’t this a little girly for your taste?” Jordan tilted her head and grimaced after hearing that comment leave Skylar’s lips.
“Uh, no? Back when Kaz and I were together, he always painted his nails so we’d match.” Kaz isn’t a girl. And he had painted nails. Which was a girl thing. Wasn’t it?
And as if Jordan could read Skylar’s mind she broke the silence to say, “It’s just a little color, Connie, chill out.” She grabbed a little vial filled with glittery neon purple paint and grabbed one of Skylar’s hands before she could budge.
After 15 minutes or so of silent nail painting, Skylar pulled her hands away to look over her newly decorated nails. They were so… pretty. “You’re so weird.” Jordan laughed at Skylar’s blown away expression. “I’m assuming you like them?” She tucked away the nail polish and placed the box back on her desk. Skylar nodded her head without looking away from her hands.
“Good… you don’t have to pretend to be tough to be my friend, y’know that right?” Skylar looked up to find Jordan’s face twitching slightly. The girl sighed and rubbed her temple. “I get that I’m very tomboy-ish and… mean, but, seriously, if that’s not your thing, I rather you be as ‘girly’ as you want-”
“I’m not a girl.” Skylar blurted out without thinking. Jordan’s face froze and, for a little bit, it felt like the rest of the world did as well. Jordan moved the hand that was massaging her head and placed it on the floor, next to her leg. Slowly, she began to nod as if her body needed to move somewhat to fully process the information she was just given.
“That’s cool. Uh, are you… a boy?” Skylar thought about it for a second. Kaz and Oliver were boys. They seemed pretty comfortable being the way they are. Boyish. A boy superhero. An alien boy. A normo-boy. A weird boy. A boy. A boy. A boy . A boy .
No, definitely not. Skylar shook her head no.
“Okay, okay. You’re not a girl and you’re not a boy.” Jordan looked off into space thinking about what to ask next. “Have you ever heard of the term non-binary?” She shook her head no again.
Jordan moved to grab Skylar’s phone that was discarded beside them and typed for a little before turning the phone around to present it to the alien in front of her. Skylar gripped the small device and scrolled through the search engine finding more and more articles with the word plastered everywhere. Personal cases, research papers, news articles. Non-binary. A gender term that regarded people who didn’t fit into the two other categories that Skylar had to make herself familiar with. It meant being both a boy and girl, it meant being neither, it meant being something else, it meant being all of these combined. It meant Skylar didn’t have to be a girl. It meant Skylar could just be Skylar. A superhero. An alien. A normo. Without any strings attached.
She hadn’t even realized the tears welling up in her eyes until she felt Jordan’s hand massaging her shoulder comfortingly. Without hesitation Skylar moved to hug Jordan tightly, finding her throat to be much too tight to say ‘thank you’. But it didn’t matter, Jordan got the message, hugging Skylar back just as tight.
It felt liberating being able not only to reason out why she felt the way she did, but also find an alternative that made her feel… well, like herself. Only problem now was that it made that word so much more hellish. That night Skylar shared with Jordan, the two had decided to keep this discovery between them until Skylar was ready to share the news. Especially since Skylar didn’t know how to answer all of Jordan’s follow-up questions.
“Do you still wanna be called Connie? Do you still wanna use female pronouns? Do you wanna cut your hair? Do you wanna remake your closet? Include more androgynous outfits?”
So many changes came with finally accepting herself- Themself? Himself? Itself? Skylar wasn’t sure which felt better just yet. Which brought her to where she is now- with Kaz in the Mighty Med breakroom.
“I didn’t know you and Jordan used to be a thing.” Skylar teased while working on her chemistry homework. She looked up just in time to see Kaz’s face turn red before he could cover it up.
“Yeah… I agreed to going out with her because I felt bad.”
“Jordan said you cried when she broke up with you-”
“I DIDN’T CRY, I HAD ALLERGIES!” Skylar burst out into giggles which just resulted in Kaz rolling his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, whatever, at least I’m not totally oblivious to people liking me.”
Skylar’s face scrunched up for a second trying to understand what he meant by that, but she decided it wasn’t worth the brain power either way- it’s Kaz, who cares. “Sure, as if you haven’t realized Jordan still likes you.” She put her schoolwork away into her backpack before getting up from her seat. “WAIT WHAT?” Kaz fell out of his chair and onto his face. Skylar nearly dropped her things after doubling over in laughter.
When Kaz finally got back up, he glared at the alien superhero. “ Pendeja ,” he brushed himself off and found his frown getting deeper when he noticed Skylar’s blank stare. “What? Is that some sort of mean word in Caldera? I didn’t even know Spanish would be on a foreign planet.” He muttered that last sentence to himself.
“No, it’s not. I was just wondering, are there any, I dunno, genderless words in Spanish?” Kaz hummed to himself and twiddled his fingers as he flipped through his inner Spanish dictionary.
“Not really, I don’t think. I mean, masculine terms can be gender-neutral sometimes, but I know not everyone tends to like using that. Some people like referring to themselves as Latine or Latinx.”
“So instead of pendeja , you’d call me pendeje? ” Kaz started humming again which was cut short by Skylar clearing her throat impatiently. “I mean, yeah, maybe, if you don’t identify as a girl- hey, wait a minute, I know what this is about” Kaz smirked and pointed at Skylar knowingly.
“ You wanna learn Spanish! Why didn’t you say so! We can start with common nouns and pronouns-” Skylar shook her head no and quickly cut off the boy in front of her before he went on one of his many tangents. “No- though I love the enthusiasm- I was just wondering for other reasons.” She shrugged her shoulders, moving to leave the room, once again, but Kaz stopped her before she could make it out the door.
“Hold on, I know what’s going on-”
“I highly doubt you do-” Kaz ignored her and continued.
“You didn’t like it when I called you pendeja . You want to be called pendeje ! Or at the very least, not be called feminine terms. Why didn’t you just say that, dude, I don’t wanna make you uncomfortable.” Kaz was surprisingly calm and understanding over this. Maybe it was a topic Jordan and Kaz got familiar with while dating? But why would they? Jordan does seem like an open-minded person, she probably just felt the need to educate Kaz. And just like Jordan had, Kaz was able to answer Skylar’s troubling thoughts.
“When you have 11 siblings, you’re bound to be related to queer kids. My older sister Katie’s gay, and one of the Kaseys is actually trans. They say 1-in-3 kids are bound to be gay.” Kaz tries cracking a joke to make the mood lighthearted. But, wait, 1-in-3 with 12 kids, doesn’t that technically mean-
“This isn’t about me, right now, this is about you. So, go ahead and gimme the whole story from the start. I’m here to listen and be supportive.” Kaz sat down on the couch and pat the open space next to him.
Coming out and coming to terms with themself actually wasn’t as difficult as Skylar had originally thought it’d be. After spending some time infodumping all their pent up feelings to Kaz- the last person they thought they’d have such a deep and intimate conversation with- they realized a little more about themself that they weren’t able to before. And along the way, they found out a little more about Kaz, as well:
“Yeah, I know how confusing all of this might be. To be honest I’m not entirely sure what I am. Girls are cool, but so are guys, and everyone else too..” He reached out to rest his arm around Skylar’s shoulders. “You don’t have to have it all figured out right now, or ever, just let me know when you wanna change something up.”
But with every positive comes another negative. The negative now being school.
Girl restrooms, girl gym uniforms, girl group projects, girl pep rallies, girl this, girl that. As far as Skylar knew, there weren’t any non-binary students at Logan High which makes the whole situation worse. They can’t just ask to be excused from all the institutionalized gendered stuff. Not by themself at least. So…
“Heyyy Horace!” Skylar snuck up behind the chief-of-staff doctor with a sing-songy tone in their speech. Horace hummed in response, not looking away from whatever paperwork he was filling out now. “Do you think you could maybe sign this paper for me?” He looked over to see what they were holding, expecting it to be another straight-A report card.
“What’s this about?” he reaches out to grab the paper, failing to do so when Skylar pulls it away from his field of vision. “Oh, it’s nothing, just some school permission slip for parents to sign-”
“Ooo, are you going on some field trip, my dear? Lemme see, I have to make sure to list all your medications and allergies.” He pulled the paper from behind her back with his telekinesis and set it on his clipboard, walking away to fill it out. Skylar, in a panic, ran behind him and tried their best to snatch back the paper which stated all the discoveries they’ve made about themself within the past few weeks that they weren’t ready to share just yet. “Now, now, what is the matter! I’ll remember to return it later, I learned from the last time you had a permission slip.” Ah yes, the field trip to the aquarium that Skylar missed out on thanks to Horace. An incident Skylar never let Horace live down.
“I know, I know, I just-”
“What is this about changing your personal information? Special treatment? Skylar! You have an alias for a reason!” Skylar clenched and unclenched their fist repeatedly by their sides out of frustration. “Horace, please just sign the paper, I really don’t wanna have this conversation now…”
The older superhero turned to look over Skylar’s distressed expression, drumming his pen against the clipboard before turning his gaze back down at the paper. He sighs and scribbles his signature at the bottom of the page after taking a moment to read it. “Here you go, my dear, let me know if you need anything else.” He pats them on the shoulder after returning the permission slip and walks away.
No more problems! Skylar now gets to use the staff restroom, isn’t required to follow gendered protocol, and their teachers were now using the right pronouns to refer to them. Horace has been accepting and helpful ever since the whole permission slip incident, Jordan has been offering more make-over opportunities for Skylar, and Kaz has been the best queer-unlabeled friend you could ever want.
Everything was perfect, all a non-binary alien ex-superhero could want. Yet, Skylar felt like they were possibly forgetting something. What could that be- Oh.
“Skylar, can I speak to you in private?” Oliver came to their side, one night as Skylar was headed to go back to their room in the hospital. Oliver, Skylar hasn’t talked to Oliver. He must’ve heard about Skylar’s new identity. He must be upset. Betrayed. Maybe even disgusted? Oliver grabbed a hold of Skylar’s hand and pulled them to sit down beside him.
“We’ve been friends for a while now and I feel like we’re at a place where we can be… honest with each other.” He knows. He knows. He knows!
“You mean a lot to me, Skylar, you’re brave, smart, strong, compassionate, empathetic, amazing. And you’re an amazing friend, and, and…” Skylar lightly placed their hand over Oliver’s mouth. “It’s okay, Oliver, I know what you’re going to say.” The boy’s eyes light up with a mix of fear and excitement. “And I'm sorry.” His brows furrowed.
“I should’ve come to you and let you know how I’ve been feeling. I mean, I pretty much told everyone else before I told you which totally isn’t fair-”
“You what?”
“And you’re one of my best friends- always been so supportive of me while getting used to being a normo on Earth-” And just before Skylar could say anything else, they felt a pair of lips on their own. Frozen, Skylar didn’t know how to respond to the current situation. Nor did they understand why this was even occurring in the first place. After what felt like way longer than a minute passed by, Oliver pulled back with a dreamy look in his eyes which was quickly wiped away once realizing how tense Skylar was.
“...Why’d you do that?”
“Were… were you not confessing your feelings just now?” Confessing their feelings? Why would Skylar be confessing- oh…
“You were trying to confess your feelings for me.”
“And you weren’t.” Oliver scoots further away from them, doubling over to hide his face in his hands.
“I’m so sorry, Oliver, I thought you had heard about me coming out as non-binary and I felt so bad because I completely forgot to loop you in on the whole situation. Everyone else kind of found out out of coincidence, I swear it wasn’t my intention to exclude you. You definitely would’ve been the first to find out.” Skylar bit their lip and leaned back in their seat. “Oliver… you’re… the best guy I’ve met since the Annihilator took my powers- maybe even the best guy I’ve ever met ever- but I don’t want to get your hopes up just because I can’t be your girl -friend.”
Oliver cocked his head over to the magenta based superhero.
“Wait, so you’re telling me, you do feel the same? As in you would be interested in dating me if it weren’t for the fact that you don’t identify as a girl?” Skylar gave him a funny look and slowly nodded. “That’s perfect ‘cause I also don’t identify as a girl!”
“Okay, you’re losing me. What does that have to do with all of this?”
“I’m trans! Back in middle school I transitioned from girl to guy- I don’t care that you’re not a girl!” Oliver paused to rethink what he just said. “I mean, you don’t have to be my girl -friend. You and I can just be… dating. No genders attached.”
Skylar’s face slowly broke into a big grin and, without thinking, they reached out to grab Oliver’s face to kiss him again, properly this time. Oliver’s hand curled around the back of their neck, his fingers intertwining with Skylar’s long brunette waves, as he giggled against the alien’s lips which caused the other to break away from the kiss, giggling as well. Oliver could care less, though, he was dating the most amazing person in the entire universe. He kissed their cheek before resting his head on their shoulder.
The two were silent but content nonetheless. They didn’t need to fill the air with useless words. They were in each other’s arms as their authentic selves.
“Oh… so this is what Kaz meant.”