Finn is sitting on a chair in front of a mirror looking at himself. His friend Lia is behind him doing his hair. "So why does Ellie's teacher want to see you? Or should I say, mom?" Finn sees her smile after she says that. "Ellie punched a kid." Finn sighs. Lia barks out a laugh. She puffs out his hair like how his mom wears her hair. He has beautiful curly red shoulder-length hair.
When Lia is done with his hair she walks away to her closet. She pulls out a knee-length pastel pink dress that was bell sleeves. "This is going to look amazing on you," Lia says with a fox-like smile. She always looks like a fox, something about her radiates sneaky. Finn gets up and takes the dress from her. Lia turns her back to look at what makeup she wants Finn to wear. Finn takes off the robe Lia gave him. He steps into the dress and pulls it up. He spins around in it. 'Wow, now I know why girls wear dresses.' He thinks. Lia turns around and squeaks in awe. "You look better than any girl I have ever seen in a dress like that." Finn blushes and takes a seat in front of the mirror again.
Lia does his make-up as she hums a tune. "What song is that?" I ask. "Freak by Doja Cat." She says. She goes back to humming. After she is done with Finn's make-up she puts in some diamond earrings. Finn got his ears pierced when he was little, but he rarely wears earrings. Lia tells Finn she's done. She walks to where her shoes and purses are. Finn gets up and goes through his one bag. Lia decides on a cream pair of heeled boots and a cream shoulder purse. Finn takes the purse and puts some of his stuff in it. Like cookies, house keys, money, and other random things he thinks he might need. He slips on the boots and hugs Lia goodbye, and he is off.
He walks throws to Ellie's school. People stare at him, maybe they know he's a boy. He shakes his head and moves forward. He reaches the school and walks in. He finds Ellie's classroom and walks in. "Ms. Evans, I'm glad you could join us." The teacher says. Finn walks over to his sister Ellie and sits on the chair by her. He looks across the table to see a fat red-faced man. He must be the boy who Ellie punched father. "We are here today to talk about how Eleanor punched Noah here." Finn flinches at how the teacher says Ellie's full first name. Ellie hates being called Eleanor because that's what their mom named her. And she hates their mother. Not like Finn can disagree with her.
"Ms. Evans, do you have anything to say?" The teacher asks. "I think my daughter is in the right," Finn says. He doesn't have to make his voice higher than it is, because his voice is already quite high. "Ha, the hell she was!" Noah's father yells. He sees Ellie flinch at the yelling by him. "Your son was clearly harassing my daughter," Finn says trying not to raise his voice. "How so? He just said what needed to be said. Your daughter needs to be put in her place." The red-faced man says. Ahh, this is how he wants to play this. Finn tries to stay calm. He clenches his teeth and puts on a fake smile he has perfected over the years.
"Mr. Smith, how is telling my daughter that she can't play baseball because she's a girl, 'putting her in her place'? And are you forgetting the other times your son has done mean things to her? He cut her ponytail off last week and told her that she is nothing better than a toy to be used by the boys." Finn remembers Ellies storming into the apartment crying with her hair cut real short and uneven. Lia was about to go a bet whoever did that to her into a bloody pulp. Lia cut her hair so that it is even now.
The teacher just watched how Finn and Mr.Smith respond to each other. "She didn't do anything when he did those things to her. Anyone would get feed up with having being told those things every day, just because she's a girl. If anyone needs to be accountable, it's Mr.Smith. Noah would never have said those things if he didn't hear it somewhere. And by Mr. Smiths' actions, I can tell he does not treat women right. How is your mom by the way Noah, still got that bruise on her face?" Finn asks. Noah stays quiet, fearing if he said anything, his father would punish him. "I have heard both sides of the story. Noah is going to have detention for a week. And I advise you to stop saying stuff to make your son think that." The teacher says.
Mr. Smith gets up from his chair and swings his fist and Finn's face. Right before it reaches his face, Finn catches his arm and digs his nails into Mr. Smiths' skin. "Now now Mr.Smith, let's be civil. The kids are in front of us." Finn says with another fake smile. Mr. Smith grunts and pulls his arm away from Finn's grasp. He walks over to his son and grabs him. He stomps out of the room, pulling his son behind him. "I'm sorry Ms.Evans, you and Eleanor may go." The teacher says.
Finn gets up and Ellie grabs his hand, they walk out of the classroom. "You want to go somewhere?" Finn asks Ellie. With his free hand, he gets the cookies from his purse and hands them to Ellie. "Can we go see the puppies?" She asks. Finn nods his head. They start to walk towards the downtown area. "You did a good job. I don't think anyone would have thought you were my brother." Ellie says. She opens the bag and pops a cookie in her mouth. "Thanks, Lia helped me. You also did a good job, standing up for yourself." Ellie smiles up at Finn.