1:
Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap.
Without military precision as such, but just orderly enough to signal
to all ahead that one came who was in command of herself, the
footsteps against the tiled floor echoed through the great hall.
Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap.
Even those among the students milling through the hallway who had
seen her entrance already, on the four days of classes before this,
turned to watch her again.
Tap tap tap tap tap tap --
And then she stopped before an obstruction to her pathway.
She still didn't know the name of this particular teacher -- or
possibly administrator, since she'd yet to see the woman in front of
any of the classes. Although they'd met four times before this, the
older woman hadn't volunteered her name, and Calyx wasn't about to
ask. Instead, they usually just stared at each other for a few
moments. Then, the teacher would speak.
"Ms. Empyria," the teacher spoke at that very moment. "Don't you find
that boy's uniform a bit cold in this weather?"
"First of all, it's not a boy's uniform," Calyx explained patiently.
"It's *my* uniform. And since autumn here in Japan is much warmer
than it would be in Averoigne, I'm not at all bothered by the
weather."
The older woman stared at her for a few moments before.finally biting
out a reply. "Fine. Good day to you." She stepped out of Calyx's way
and headed down the corridor the way that the girl had come.
Resuming her march, Calyx felt herself smiling a bit at the teacher's
plight. She did understand her distress, after all. While the Academy
regulations *suggested* that students wear the official uniform for
their sexes, and *encouraged* the faculty to *encourage* that mode of
dress, those very regulations also prohibited any coercion in the
matter of clothing. Clearly, this teacher was accustomed to getting
her way when it came to students, and dealing with someone who
refused to knuckle under was gravely troubling.
However, Ms. Andressen had once told her, to understand all is not to
love all. More likely, it is to hate completely. While Calyx
understood the source of the teacher's frustration, she had little or
any sympathy with it, and felt no urge to alleviate it by, say,
exchanging *her* uniform for a traditional Academy Girl's Uniform
(TM), or even more conventional girl's clothes.
She liked the statement that she made with her boy's jacket and hot
pants; that she asked to be treated neither as a woman nor as a man,
but only as herself -- a unique being, unlike any other who had ever
lived or ever would.
Calyx Empyria was exactly who she wanted to be.
TBC
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