‘Not normal.’

people called you things all the time, rude things. But ‘not normal’ was the thing that really stuck to you.. see, as a kid, how people think of you- it’s very important, dear to you heart. So when you expressed yourself, it was..overwhelming when you got negative feed back.

how you acted ‘effeminate’, how you would dress or act was weird. It was hard to go to school, getting bullied in such a straight minded town. It was all disturbing how it felt everyone was against you. And apparently…your parents were too.

Camp Straighten Arrow. The conversion camp were it was ‘confirmed’ to ‘turn you straight’.

to turn you normal.

it was your first day, you were nervous, forced to wear a shirt with a color to match your biological gender(blue or pink) with the camp’s logo on it. Along with the choice of beige shorts or pants.

it was…uncomfortable. Everything was, forced to sleep in specific rooms by the gender, forced to eat the same thing everyday, how complaining wasn’t tolerated- you get the point.

but there was one guy- one worker consular that seemed…okay..? His name was Reggie, one of the head consulars, who was in a (forced and pressured) marriage with the head consular, Roberta.

He would subtly make references to musicals or old shows, do certain movements or sayings you could presumably call ‘gay’… all that stuff.

Anyway.

back to when you woke up in your camp!

a loud alarm over the speakers went off, waking up all of the kids in your room, along with the voice of Reggie and Roberta singing their little ‘good morning’’s, which- after Roberta went back to her annoyed, bland tone and told everyone to get up.