Chapter Text
BANG!
"Eeek--?!"
It's only by a miracle that Len remembers not to scream at the top of his lungs. His heart's hammering as he spins around, fully expecting to find himself face-to-face with a ghost, an angry message from God, or, worst of all, a teacher.
You can't blame him for being scared, right? He chose to get changed in the school's prayer room for a reason, and that reason was: no one ever went there. The prayer room was a cramped little space, being just big enough for a few pews and a statue of the Virgin Mary and no larger. Unfortunately, its own small size worked against it. The devout preferred the larger on-campus chapel over the tiny room, while the less-than-devoted had no reason to even notice the room's existence. The darkened room only ever saw people when a janitor or a volunteer dusted off the statue.
Len had figured, "oh, changing in front of the Virgin Mary statue might be awkward and kinda creepy, but it's better than changing around a bunch of undressed girls or getting kicked out of the boys' change room!"
If he knew it had been haunted, he might have reconsidered, though...!
His brain's fighting between fight and flight, frantically running the calculations on how fast he can get a shirt on and run to the gym and escape vs. his chances of successfully punching a ghost in the face, when--
"A-ah!"
Instead of a ghost, Len locks eyes with a girl.
Her eyes are wide and frightened behind her rounded glasses, mouth falling open in a silent scream. She's crouching on the floor, partially hidden by a pile of books and a pew. Her long pigtails spill across the floor, seeming to curl towards a fallen book like accusatory fingers.
If Len was thinking clearly, he'd piece it together. The girl chose this place for a secret reading nook for the same reason he picked it for his change room. He had dismissed the pile of books in the corner as just a stack of Bibles and missed her, until she accidentally knocked a book over...
But he's not thinking clearly, and it's not even because a complete stranger's caught him in boxers and a binder.
No, when he picks up her book, there's only one thing on his mind. The thought only grows stronger the longer he looks, until he forces his gaze away and all but thrusts the book back at her.
'Jesus Christ... Her thighs are fucking sinful...!'
(There are several reasons Len doesn't use the girls changing room, and being a transgender boy is only one of them.)