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“Floyd, do you know where my extensions are?” Jade looked around the lounge. “I can’t seem to find it anywhere.”
“It’s in my room!” Floyd yelled to his—. “Whatcha feeling today?”
“I'm your sister!”
“Cool. Now hurry up!” Floyd yelled at his sister. “I actually wanna attend classes today! Music is supposed to be great today!”
“That is nice to hear.” Jade walked back into the lounge. With her extensions fully clipped in, her turquoise hair went to her mid-back. Instead of her usual uniform pants, she opted for a nice black pencil skirt with black stockings. “I am ready to go. Azul, are you ready?”
“As I'll ever be.” Azul walked up to the twins. “You look nice Jade. Your new skirt fits you quite well. How should I address you?”
“Flattery will get you somewhere.” Jade teased Azul and was out of the door quickly. “She/her.”
Jade was expecting to just have a normal day. She woke up in a good mood that she wanted to persist. Her first class went off without a hitch.
It was the second one when people started asking questions. She had sat in her seat only to be approached by Kalim.
“Jade? Is that you?”
“In the flesh.~” Jade stared at him. “Is it not obvious?”
“Well, I mean…” Kalim was obviously struggling to find the words. “How do you want me to refer to you? I'm sorry if that’s like—”
“She/her. I am not offended. You are much more respectful of it than other humans I've met.” Jade pulled out her notebook and began writing. “Are you going to sit next to me?”
“Can I?” Kalim got weirdly nervous.
“Of course. I do not see the harm.”
Jade noticed how Kalim threw the occasional glance at her throughout the class. She even noticed how Kalim seemed to be following her throughout the day.
The rest of the school day was normal, though. A perk of being her was that anyone who wanted to judge her was much too scared to. She only hoped they didn’t think she was someone new. She was still Jade.
She clocked in at Monstro Lounge and changed into a lighter gray pencil skirt. After some deliberation, she decided to go bare-legged.
When she walked out, she was surprised to see no one there. If her memory served her right, this was supposed to be a busy hour. There was only one table occupied. She decided she might as well deal with them.
“Hello. I will be your server for tonight.” She got a small smile on her face. “Oh, hello everyone.”
“Hey Jade!” Kalim happily waved.
“Kalim, you weren’t kidding…” Ruggie looked at Jade closely. “Hi Jade.”
“Ruggie. It is rude to stare.” Riddle scolded as he avoided Jade's eyes.
“Yeah…” Silver was distracted by something Jade couldn’t see. “Be respectful.”
“It is fine.” Jade pulled out her notepad. “What would you all like?”
“Oh, we're not here to order.” Kalim scooted over and patted the spot next to him. “Sit with us! We wanna talk to you.”
“Oh.” Jade didn’t know where this was heading. She was a bit embarrassed to admit she was worried. She didn’t let that show, however, and took a seat. “What is troubling you?”
“Nothing!” Kalim nearly cut her off.
Jade was confused.
“How do I approach this?” Kalim whispered to himself before facing Jade. “So…um…what are you, like, gender-wise? Wait, no!”
Ruggie groaned into his hands. “I knew this was a bad idea. Why did we let Kalim do the talking?”
“We didn’t do anything." Silver flicked Ruggie's forehead. “You and Kalim decided you wanted to do this and dragged me and Riddle with you. I said we should plan out a question and talk to her after hours.”
Riddle just blushed in embarrassment with his head in his hands.
“I’m so sorry!” Kalim frantically apologized. “I didn’t mean to say it like that! I'm so—”
“PFT! Ha ha ha ha!” Jade laughed so hard her cheeks began to hurt. “You four are absolutely delightful! It is fine. I can explain it to you, no hassle.”
“You don’t have to!” Kalim kept overcorrecting. “If you don’t want to explain yourself, you don’t have to!”
“Kalim, it is fine. In fact, you have given me the opportunity to info dump!” Jade cleared her throat. “For starters, gender and biological sex don’t work the same in the Coral Sea as they do on land, so I have to go with the closest possible definition. Many merfolk shift their biological sex over time naturally, or we don’t have one at all.”
“Fascinating.” Riddle got that look of excitement on his face whenever he learned something new.
“In particular, moray eels can differ very strongly. Some of them shift from male-to-female or vice versa." Jade continued explaining.
“My species of moray eel is actually hermaphroditic. That means I have both male and female reproductive organs.” Jade had to restrain her laughter at their embarrassed faces. “I am technically only male hormonally. Due to that, I and many others like me can naturally flow from gender to gender. If I remember correctly, the closest term here is genderfluid. You can view it as that.”
They all nodded, but Ruggie had another question on his mind. “Where do you…hide it? I saw your eel form and I couldn’t see anything.” He realized what he had asked and covered his mouth.
“Pft! Eel genitalia are internal.” Jade was having so much fun. She loved their reactions and how willing they were to learn. It felt nice to have multiple people listening to her.
“Oh, that must have been a bitch to get used to!” Ruggie said it plainly. He realized by now that Jade didn’t take any offense.
“It was. It was already hard enough to get used to my legs, and I had to get used to that too.” She sighed. “It was awful.”
Riddle raised his hand like he was in class. “I have a question. Does the same apply to Floyd?”
“I heard my name.~” Floyd popped up behind Jade. Ruggie, Riddle, Silver, and Kalim nearly jumped out of their seats.
“Hello, Floyd.” Jade gave an over-the-shoulder wave.
“Hi. Why are you so curious, Goldfishie?” Floyd walked over to Riddle and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Riddle blushed and smiled. “If you are going to be my lover, I need to know. I want to love every facet of you.”
“He he he.~ I have the sweetest boyfriend.” Floyd hugged Riddle tightly. “Mine’s kind of like my moods. It can change at a moment’s notice."
“Yes. Floyd is less expressive than me in this manner, believe it or not."
“As long as I know what I am, I don’t care much for anyone else.” Floyd shrugged.
“Well, what are you feeling right now?” Riddle asked.
Floyd thought for a moment. “Hm…like a girl.”
“Then I have a gorgeous girlfriend.” Riddle was embarrassed, but he pushed through it.
Floyd froze for a second before scooping Riddle into a bridal carry. “See y’all. I'm going on a date!” Riddle struggled at first, but he eventually accepted it and waved goodbye.
“Bye.” Jade waved goodbye to her sister. “Anyway, does that answer your questions? I am much more…” She struggled to find the words, “concrete. I can go long stretches feeling completely one way. I might be a girl for a month or two.”
“Ok.” Kalim nodded. “OK! Thank you for telling us! I just wanted to be sure I could always refer to you correctly.”
Silver agreed. “It’s nice to learn.”
“Yeah…” Ruggie was clearly holding himself back. Suddenly, he screamed. “I can’t take this anymore! Why are you so hot as a girl?!”
“Huh?” She was honestly surprised.
“Thank the seven.” Silver let out a sigh of relief. “I've been trying to not be the one to say it. Jade, you look stunning.”
“Yeah! You look like a supermodel.” Kalim said as he got closer. “It’s not like you were ugly before, quite the opposite, but this is…wow. I haven’t been able to take my eyes off you all day!”
Jade felt her cheeks get a bit hot. Was she seriously blushing?
“And now you’re blushing and you look 10 times cuter! Now I wanna see what you look like blushing in every form.” Kalim pouted.
“You should blush more. It looks great on you.” Silver gave her a lazy smile.
“You are drop-dead gorgeous.” Ruggie looked almost upset about it. “It's so unfair!”
Jade covered her face with her hands to hide her blush spreading across her face. She certainly didn’t expect to be unrelentingly complimented. She also didn’t expect to be complimented the rest of the month.
He especially didn’t expect them to continue complimenting him after he felt like a boy again. Maybe they have just gotten bold.