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Danny's house got rezoned when he was in the eighth grade. They let him finish middle school with the same kids he'd gone to elementary school with, but he had to go to Rydell for high school. His mom makes him wear girl clothes for his first day. Danny didn't even put up a fight, which should have been her first sign that it wasn't going to fly. He stops at the gas station on his way to school and changes into boy clothes in the bathroom.
That summer, he had cut his hair himself while his parents were out of town. It was oddly satisfying to chuck the ponytail into the garbage can. Now, Danny slicks it back like the boys on his old bus would. It suits him better than long hair ever did, and that was the first time in Danny's life that he ever felt like his appearance belonged to him.
His parents didn't like it though. For a while, they tried to convince him to grow it out, and then they tried hiding all the clippers, scissors, and razors so he would have to. Danny didn't even think twice about giving himself a choppy, uneven haircut with a pair of kid scissors he found in his elementary school pencil pouch that Mom had missed. He'd rather people see him as a boy with a bad haircut, an awkward boy, an ugly boy, than any kind of girl. His mother was mortified enough to take him to the barber.
Freshman year at Rydell was when Danny met Kenickie. Kenickie was on his third attempt at the ninth grade, but it wasn't a badge of shame like you would have thought it'd be. While the rest of them were fourteen going on fifteen, Kenickie had been sixteen for a couple months. He had what they all wanted--a driver's license.
Kenickie taught Danny how to smoke and pick up girls and drive stick. Danny's dad wasn't around much, and he certainly wasn't the type to teach guy stuff to someone he considered his daughter. Kenickie was perfect to fill in, old enough to know more and young enough to let Danny be the leader. Danny taught Kenickie how to do ninth grade algebra, and they both failed gym. They went to summer school together, and after class they'd smoke and whistle at girls.
Sophomore year was even better. Danny didn't have to take gym class anymore, and he'd finally figured out a schedule that let him use the bathroom when no one else as around. His periods were still hell, but that was a small part of how the T Birds came to be.
Danny was in the nurse's office, throwing up and ignoring the nurse's attempts to make him call his mother and go home. Doody and Sonny were hungover and trying to get some aspirin. "What's the matter with you?" Sonny asked while the nurse went to get a cup of water for Danny. Danny had seen them both around the school before. They were a grade above him and Kenickie though, so they'd never had any classes together.
"I saw your fugly face and-" Danny paused mid-insult and scrambled for the garbage can. He'd been too nauseous to eat all day, and all that came up was bile. Sonny and Doody winced in sympathy.
Kenickie found Putzie a few weeks later. He was a sophomore too, so they had a couple classes together. They had to drift into Sonny and Doody at the Frosty Palace or behind the gym smoking instead of going to class. They skipped together sometimes and carpooled to detention when they got caught. It quickly became clear that they all liked cars, so they signed up to take shop together. The T Bird jackets were made that winter.
Danny, Kenickie, and Putzie all passed their sophomore year. Sonny and Doody were juniors again, so they were all in the same grade now. Sonny and Doody didn't seem to bothered by failing, and Sonny said cheerfully that they could all graduate together now. One weekend, Kenickie got in a fist fight with one of the Scorpions, and their rivalry was cemented. Putzie and Danny were the only two T Birds who didn't have their licenses yet, but none of them owned a car. They all got along well with the shop teacher, and Kenickie, Sonny, Doody, and Putzie's attendance gradually improved. Danny did his best too, but once a month he could only be found in the nurse's office or at home.
The nurse had started to notice that he was in her office throwing up for a week every month when Danny was a sophomore, so he did his best not to go to her anymore. He took over the counter painkillers like clockwork and kept chewing gum on him so his breath wouldn't smell like puke. On the worst days, he wouldn't come to school at all.
One day, Kenickie found him sitting behind the gym, hunkered over, shaking and smoking. Danny had been sitting there for the better part of two hours, but he saw stars every time he tried to stand up. When Danny refused to come to shop--the only class he actually liked--Kenickie brought Mrs. Murdock to him. She thought he had appendicitis, so Kenickie drove him to the emergency clinic down the road.
It took the better part of five months for Danny to get a diagnosis. The whole thing was humiliating, male doctors sneering at him and his short hair and boy's clothes and uterus. They wouldn't use his pronouns, and they treated Danny like a dumb kid for getting dehydrated throwing up every month. Finally, he got a decent doctor who trusted that he wasn't just being a baby about his period. Endometriosis wasn't exactly what a seventeen year old boy wanted to hear, but now it was a challenge with a name for Danny to deal with. He made it abundantly clear to every doctor he spoke to that he cared about being functional, not fertile. If he missed too much more school, he'd fail the grade and be the only one of his friends that wasn't graduating next year. It took another several months to figure out all his dosages, but they finally got it worked out. Hormones, pain meds, heating pads, nausea meds, and a doctor's note to cover his frequent absences.
Danny didn't tell the guys anything more specific than that he had been sick and it was handled now. They didn't pry, so Danny didn't have to get a precise reason. Rizzo was the only person who found out. They were making out at Danny's house while his dad was working and his mom was out of town. Rizzo must have been going through his stuff while Danny was in the bathroom, because he came back to find her holding a pill bottle.
"Whose is this?" she asked, not bothering to explain herself. Danny opened his mouth, but for once he couldn't think of anything to say. "These are for girls, Danny."
"No they're not," he denied. "Just... people with girl parts." Rizzo stared at him, disbelieving. "Look at he label, Riz. D. Zuko. They're mine."
"You're mom's not a D. Zuko? No sisters?" Rizzo sounded almost hopeful, but Danny shook his head.
"My mom's first name is Michelle, and I've only got brothers."
Rizzo as frowning. "Remember how I used to get sick and miss school all the time?" Danny said, trying to keep his voice calm.
"I thought you were just ditching," Rizzo said quietly. Danny shook his head again.
"Nah. Well, sometimes I was ditching, but not most of the time," he said. "I've got endometriosis. The tissue that's supposed to be inside of my uterus grows outside. It hurts a lot and makes me sick that time of the month."
"So you're a girl?"
"Nah, nah," Danny said. "I'm just- I- I'm Danny, Riz. I'm a T Bird. I'm a guy."
"I'm going home," Rizzo said, settting the pill bottle on Danny's dresser and brushing past him on her way out of his room.
"Don't tell anyone," Danny called, following her. "Please."
Rizzo paused withher back to him. "Fine," she said, and then the door slammed.
That summer, Danny's parents split up. They sent him to stay with his aunt at the beach while they squared off the details. Danny liked the beach alright, but his aunt worked a lot of hours and he didn't have any friends there. He couldn't really make any, because most people stayed for a week and then went home. In the end, he decided that was probably for the best. It wasn't easy to pass while swimming, although he'd finally figured out something workable.
Three weeks later, he met Sandy.
Or, more accurately, he met Alexander. Alexander had long hair and fine features, but was still in swim trunks. They went swimming and drank lemonade and made sappy eyes at each other for a few days before Alexander looked over at Danny nervously and started talking.
"Danny... I like you a lot. You're a really great guy, and I don't want to start liking you anymore than I do now without telling you something."
"What's that?" Danny asked.
"I... I prefer Sandy. And girl pronouns."
"Alright," Danny said. Sandy didn't seem to realize he was fine with it.
"It's not a big deal or weird or anything," she said. "I'm a girl, but people haven't always realized that. I just told my parents a couple months ago. I didn't even want to come to the beach, but they needed me to stay with my cousins while they finalize the move."
"Sandy, it's all good," Danny said. "If we're being completely honest here, Danny hasn't always been short for Daniel."
It took a second for recognition to dawn on her features. It easily explained a few little quirks about Danny. His lack of facial hair, the way he spoke, how he always wore a shirt at the beach. "Oh, Danny," Sandy said, and she flung her arms around him.
The rest of the summer was great. They spent a lot of time on the beach, but they would also go walk the pier and get ice cream or lemonade. Danny made a joke once that they were probably the oddest looking couple anybody there had ever seen, and Sandy snorted strawberry milkshake laughing. She hadn't been out as long as Danny had, so he tried to help her figure out how to be more confident about passing.
"When did you tell your parents?" Sandy asked while they walked to beach one night. She didn't have to say what she meant. Danny shrugged.
"There wasn't really an exact moment," he said. "When I was a little kid, I always tried to tell people that I was a boy. That got stamped out of me by the time I started elementary school. I cut off my hair in middle school, and I dug my brother's old clothes out of the attic. My house got rezoned, so I started high school with people who'd never met me before. I just introduced myself as Danny, and they called me he."
"And your mom and dad are okay with it?" Sandy asked.
"Not really," Danny said. "They tried to make me grow my hair out, so I cut it with kid scissors. My dad tried taking my clothes a couple times, but I'd just wear what I had on until Kenickie could bring me something else."
"How do you explain that to him?"
"He doesn't really ask questions," Danny said, shrugging. "They're divorcing now; that's why they sent me here. Kenickie just thinks... He knows things at home aren't so good."
The summer ended. The school year started. Danny lettered in track, beat the Scorpions, and graduated. Kenickie and Sonny and Tom that Sandy used to date all got drafted within a year of graduating high school. Lots of boys from Rydell did. Some of them came back, some of them didn't. Kenickie was one of the lucky ones, and Danny was the one to pick him up from the airport.
"Where's Sandy?" Kenickie asked as the drove. He and Danny had exchanged letters of the year he was gone, but it wasn't the same as talking in person.
"We broke up a couple months ago," Danny said.
"No way," Kenickie said, leaning forwards. Danny glanced over at him. A year in Vietnam and Kenickie was still the same wide-eyed guy he'd met in ninth grade gym class. "I thought you guys were forever, man."
"Nah, that was just high school stuff, I guess. Do you want to stop at the Frosty Palace?"
"Do you even have to ask?" Kenickie responded, and Danny laughed. It only took a few minutes for them to get there. Kenickie was a little bothered by how many people he didn't recognize, but plenty of people stopped by their booth to welcome him home.
"What about you and Rizzo?" Danny asked. "How'd that work out?"
Kenickie shook his head. "High school stuff," he said, borrowing Danny's words. "She's down south now. About four months pregnant for real this time. These fries aren't as good as I remember."
"Taste the same to me," Danny said. "Maybe you got a bad batch."
"Yeah, maybe," Kenickie said. "Do you want to go drive around?"
Danny nodded, and they paid quickly before making their way out to the car. They drove around for a couple hours, catching up and killing time. Danny was in college, which Kenickie laughed himself silly about.
"You always were the smart one," he said. "The only class you ever failed was gym, and that was just because you couldn't change in front of other people." Danny stared at him for a second too long, barely managing to stop at a red light in time. "Hey, man, you ain't got nothing to explain to me," Kenickie said amiably. "I know."
"You know," Danny repeated. "You knew all this time?"
"Well, not always," Kenickie shrugged. "I sort of picked up when you were sick. Then Rizzo got drunk and told me."
Danny shook his head and sighed. He almost forgot about it sometimes, except when it came to relationships. When he'd been going with Rizzo, she thought it was weird that he never wanted to do anything more than make out and grab her boobs. That was part of what was so perfect about Sandy. There never had to be any pretending or hiding with her. Of course, she ended up being prude, which was fine, but not ideal for what Danny wanted.
"Hey, man, don't get down about it," Kenickie said. "I've always thought you were one hot dude. If you liked guys, man." Kenickie whistled. Danny raised an eyebrow.
"I do like guys," he said.
Kenickie smiled his same old shit-eating grin. "Remember when we were freshman and I taught you how to kiss the week before you had a date with Beth Wright?" he brought up.
"Yeah," Danny groaned. "She was not nearly as good at it as you led me to expect. Her chest might have been flatter than yours too."
"Well, Zuko," Kenickie said. "I reckon I learned a thing or two in the army that I've still got to teach you. Your place or mine?"