Chapter One: One of the Guys

My name is Elizabeta Héderváry, but I go by Eliz. Ever since birth I found myself to act, look, and even think like a boy. I suppose it was because all my life I've been raised by my dad and have only played with my male cousins. My father never objected to me cutting my hair shorter or wearing boy's clothing, but I was never allowed to swim in shorts...

We had just moved to a new neighborhood when I was six years old. The reason was so I could be closer to school when I began kindergarten; I was pretty excited to go too. I had gotten all of my supplies together with my dad helping me.

"Okay kiddo; are you ready for your first day?"

"Yeah! Let's go!"

I was only a couple blocks away from the school, but my father insisted on walking me the first day. I didn't mind, he wanted to meet the teacher anyway.

The school was big, and I mean BIG. It was a three-story building with a smaller one-story building to the side. I got excited and started to run to the front door as fast as I could.

"Eliz! Wait up! Don't get too far ahead!"

I stopped and waited for my old father to catch up, okay he wasn't that old, but he acted like it sometimes. I got impatient and started to walk before he caught up with me.

"Hurry up dad! Class is gonna start soon and I don't wanna miss it!"

I could hear him huffing behind me, so I decided to give him a break and wait at the front door until he reached me.

"Okay, okay, let's head in now."

I nodded and opened the door leading into a long hallway filled with lockers and students walking around. It was the first day of school so lots of parents were walking around too. It was pretty crowded, and since I was pretty short I could easily get mixed into the ongoing crowd. My father must have known that I was feeling kind of uneasy about walking into the mixture of kids and adults, so he lifted me up onto his shoulders and walked around the moving obstacles. I was taller than everyone at that moment, and it felt good! I looked down at the little kids as they watched me on my dad's shoulders, and all I could think was, "I am going to like it here."

My classroom was located at the end of the hallway in room 2-B. A bunch of kids and adults had already arrived as well. It was a pretty big room with little tables and chairs facing a chalkboard to one side, and a small indoor playground to the other side. A colourful carpet with the alphabet and numbers on it was spread across the floor, but what really caught my eye was a toy box filled with toy trucks and action figures.

"Hey dad, let me down! I wanna go check out the toys over there!"

"Okay kiddo, just stay out of trouble."

He took me off his shoulders and before placing me back on the floor, he spun around a couple times for fun. We were both laughing and had caught the attention of some of my new classmates.

As soon as I hit the floor I made my way to the toy box. It was painted blue and covered with stickers of cars and superhero's. I dug around until I found a cool yellow truck. It was pretty big, so I had to lift it with both hands and use my strength, but I got it.

"Whoa! This is such a cool truck!"

I began to play with it on the floor when a kid came up to me with white air and unusual red eyes. He stood over me and just watched as I played with the truck; I ignored him.

"Hey! Give me that truck!"

I looked up at the boy and saw he was holding his hand out waiting for me to give him the truck. So I stood up and asked him:

"Why should I?"

He took his hand back and smirked.

"Because I am the awesome Gilbert! And I want that truck!"

This guy had an attitude, and I didn't like it. I stepped closer to him and found I was an inch or two taller.

"Well too bad, because I'm playing with it!"

I crossed my arms and stood my ground. He looked at me as if it was the first time he heard someone tell him no, and that showed he must be a spoiled brat.

"Well, as I am so awesome, I am taking it anyway!"

He pushed me, making me fall to my side, and started playing with the truck. I stood up, brushed myself off, then pushed him right back.

"I said I was playing with it!"

Gilbert looked up as I walked away with the truck and began to play with it in a different location. I chose to sit next to the playground, hoping he would leave me alone. I was wrong, for he came around and pushed me again, then stole the truck away.

"Ha ha ha! See how awesome I am? I get whatever I want!"

He went back to the toy box and played with it again. I was getting tired of this, so I decided to end this once and for all. I walked up and tapped his shoulder, making him turn around to look at me.

"I said I was playing with it first!"

And with that being said, I punched him right in the nose, making him fall back and cry out loud. A bunch of kids looked over to us and stared at me as I walked away with the truck in my hands, leaving Gilbert on the floor holding his bleeding nose.

The situation did not go unnoticed. Gilbert's mom and dad came up to him and when he told them who it was that hit him, they instantly went to my father and started yelling at him about 'controlling your child' and stuff like that. I went over to them and told Gilbert's parents that he started it, but they ignored me completely... even though I was the one at fault! I looked over at Gilbert who was walking out of the room to go and get his nose checked out, and he looked back at me. I gave him an evil glare and he looked away... I think I just made my first enemy...

"Eliz, you can't go around punching people. It is not like when you hang out with your cousins, because then the parents get angry at me."

I told my dad what happened before he continued and I think he understood. He patted my head and told me that even though Gilbert was acting like a jerk, I shouldn't punch people in the nose. I also apologized to the teacher for causing a ruckus in her classroom, she understood what happened and talked with my dad a while longer. I think everything got sorted out, but for the rest of the day the teacher had her eye on me.

My dad had gone back home and told me he would be back at three o'clock to pick me up. I promised him I wouldn't punch anyone else; just to make sure he wouldn't worry about me.

Gilbert came back to class with a tissue in his nose to stop the bleeding. I ignored him and took my seat in one of the chairs, then waited for the teacher's instructions. He took a seat at one of the closer tables.

"Good morning class! My name is Ms. Anna, and I will be your teacher for this year. How about we go around the classroom and everyone can come up and write their name on the board. Let's start off with you."

She pointed to a boy sitting at one of the closer tables where Gilbert sat next to him. He had slick blonde hair and light blue eyes.

"Would you please come up and write your name on the chalkboard?"

He stood up and took the chalk from Ms. Anna, then wrote his name.

"My name is Ludwig..."

"Hello Ludwig, what do you like to do?"

He stood and pondered for a moment, then answered:

"I like to eat wurst..."

He sat back down and the teacher called on Gilbert next.

"My name is Gilbert, and I like being awesome!"

The teacher smiled and took the chalk, then continued calling up students until she reached me, being the last one. I stood up and wrote 'Eliz' on the chalkboard.

"My name is Eliz, and I like to ride horses."

Suddenly from the front row, Gilbert began to laugh out loud.

"Riding horses is for girls! Kesesesese!"

What an annoying laugh! I glared at Gilbert and even though every part of my body was begging me to rush over and pummel him, I remembered what I promised my dad. I just held my breath and went back to my seat. The teacher scolded Gilbert about being mean to other students, but I don't think one word entered his head. He looked back at me and just did that smirk; I looked right back at him and kept staring until the teacher began the lesson on counting.

The bell rang and we were told it was time for recess, which was a part of the day where we go outside for ten to fifteen minutes and play with each other, but before that we would eat our snacks. I had not put my bag in our assigned cubby holes because I forgot after all the commotion this morning. I reached into my bag and pulled out a small lunch kit containing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple, and a juice box. Apparently we would be having lunch later, so I was going to save my sandwich for then and eat my apple now. I was interrupted by the blonde haired kid who spoke first, Ludwig.

"Hi Eliz. I'm sorry about my brother; he can be kind of a jerk sometimes, but he really is okay."

I looked at him in confusion and then asked who his brother was.

"Oh, it's Gilbert..."

At that moment I looked at Ludwig's face and then looked over at Gilbert who was eating a banana. I saw a pretty close resemblance.

"You are the first person who has spoken to him like that, you must be pretty tough."

"Nah, I was just giving him a piece of my mind, but yeah; I am pretty tough, see!"

I pulled back my sleeve and showed him my muscles. He looked at me for a moment then showed me his, and then we both laughed. We chatted for the rest of snack time, and then said goodbye when we went outside. He went to go and hang out with his brother while I went to play with a soccer ball.

I wanted to play a game, but everyone was busy already, except for one boy who was lying under a tree, asleep.

"Hey! Why are you sleeping?"

He was from my class, and I think his name was Heracles.

"Hmm? Oh, I'm tired..."

He closed his eyes again and tried to go back to sleep, but I wanted someone to play with.

"Hey! Do you want to play soccer with me?"

He opened one eye and looked at me, then sat up and yawned.

"No, I want to sleep..."

"Don't you get enough sleep at night time?"

He nodded then slumped back down. I decided to sit with him and talk for a bit, to find out why he was tired.

"If you get enough sleep at night, how come you need to sleep in the day?"

Without opening his eyes, he said:

"Because, I like to sleep..."

Heracles was no fun, so I said goodbye and went to find someone else to play with.
I walked around and found a kid talking to someone by the slide, but when I went over to him, I saw no one around. Weird...

"Hey, do you want to play soccer with me?"

The kid had blonde hair with one out of place hair piece sticking up, and glasses.

"Okay! Can my brother play too?"

"Sure...where is he?"

The boy put his arm around no one and said he was right next to him. I took a minute to find someone was next to him, but he was transparent and holding a white plush bear.

"Whoa! You can turn invisible? Cool! What are your names again?"

I noticed the boys looked the same, and I could only tell them apart from their cloths and hairstyles.

"My name is Alfred, and I am a hero!"

The transparent boy looked at me and whispered his name, but I couldn't hear him.

"Sorry, he's a bit shy. This is Matthew, my little brother."

"Hi Alfred and Matthew, my name is Eliz. So let's go and play soccer!"

We all ran to the soccer field and started a small game, each time switching who was goalie and who were the fielders. Matthew was not good at the sport at all, but at least he was trying. Alfred was an awful fielder, because he would never pass the ball! He said he liked being the hero, whatever that meant.

The bell rang and Ms. Anna came out and took everyone back inside for class. I was learning about numbers and how to count up high. By the end of the day I could count up to twenty because I already knew how to count up to ten. The teacher said she was very impressed, and when Gilbert looked back at me, I stuck my tongue out at him. He did the same.

My dad picked me up and I told him how I behaved today, even when Gilbert really got on my nerves.

"Well I'm glad to hear it kiddo. As a reward, how about we go to the ice cream parlor for a treat."

I nodded and began running ahead of my dad. He came running up behind me and lifted me off the ground.

"Not this time! Ha ha ha!"

He swung me around and made airplane sounds as we came around to the ice cream parlor. We came in and he set me down on one of the chairs next to the counter and we made our orders. I got a chocolate milkshake and he got a strawberry milkshake.

"This is the best strawberry milkshake ever!"

"You say that every time you order one!"

He laughed and said it must be getting better every time. I laughed and drank up, when we finished we walked home. On the way I ran into Alfred and his brother... whose name had escaped my mind.

"Hey Alfred!"

He was walking with his mom and dad carrying a bag of groceries. They must have just been at the grocery store.

My dad introduced himself to Alfred's parents while I chatted with Alfred and his brother.

"Hey Eliz, want to play soccer again tomorrow? But this time let's play at lunch so we will have more time to play!"

I agreed and we made a deal to play at lunch, and if we could, we would invite anyone else who wanted to play. I was so excited I barely slept that night.

The next day at lunch hour, Alfred had rounded up almost all the guys from the class, except Heracles who I saw asleep under the tree again. I guess Alfred was pretty popular if he got so many people to play. I looked over and saw the girls playing on the swings with each other, I thought to myself "What girly girls..."

We were split up into two sides, I was captain of one side, and Alfred was the captain of the other. Of course Gilbert was on the other side, I wasn't about to play on the same team as him yet.

The game started and I got hold of the ball first. I ran down the field and passed the ball to Tino, who was not the greatest at soccer either because he fumbled with the ball until he lost track of it and fell over, giving it to the other team. I ran down the field to cut off the kid with the ball, he was pretty big, but I was able to steal it and run back down to the other goal. Sadly I had picked the worst team because they were all either standing around; or too far away to pass to. I decided to keep going and score this goal to show everyone how much of a good soccer player I was.

I was close to the goal and had Alfred's team running up fast behind me. I had to shoot now or else risk losing the ball. I kicked it as hard as I could and the kid playing goalie missed it completely.

"Yes! First goal goes to my team!"

Even though I did all the work, I said my team because there is no 'i' in team, as my father says it.

Walking back to my side, I passed Gilbert. Without noticing, he slipped his foot out and tripped me, then walked away like nothing happened!

"Hey you jerk! What was that for?"

He looked back and smirked.

"What? I didn't do anything, ha ha ha ha! Maybe you're just clumsy!"

I hadn't promised my dad anything today, so I got up and jumped Gilbert, then began to hit him. He hit me back and we rolled around getting beaten up and dirty. I guess one of the girls on the playground saw us fighting and ran to get the teacher, because we were soon sitting outside of the principal's office waiting for our parents to arrive.

Gilbert's parents scolded him and told him it wasn't right to fight and that he wasn't allowed any television for a week. Gilbert looked at me and stuck his tongue out at me; I did the same just as my dad came in.

"I thought you said you weren't going to cause any trouble?"

"No, I said I wasn't going to cause any trouble yesterday. I said nothing about today, and he was asking for it..."

"I don't care, now I have to talk with your teacher and Gilbert's parents; I am not looking forward to it either."

I crossed my arms and sat back. I knew I shouldn't have beaten Gilbert up like that, but he did start it.

"I'm sorry dad..."

He signed then asked me something he considered important.

"Did you win the game?"

I nodded then told him how I carried my entire team to victory, even though it was only one goal...

The rest of my kindergarten year was followed by the same routine. Each day Gilbert and I would continue hating each other until one of us broke the ice and started a fight, whether it was in class or outside. I had also made some friends, like Alfred and Matthew, even Heracles and I became buds. I never spoke with any of the girls though; I found it funny how they would all keep to themselves and the boys would keep to themselves as well. Once I tried to go and say hi to one of the girls. Her name was Bella and she had an older brother, but I found her too girly. She only talked about her dolls and her clothes, which wasn't my kind of thing.