Eiko, the shy and timid Golden chapter 2
#2 of Eiko
Chapter 2: Team spirit
Two weeks had passed since Eiko started her new school life. So far no unfortunate incidents had occurred, and as far as Eiko was concerned she was passing perfectly fine as a girl even though her voice every now and then cracked momentarily. She and Kayla had definitely bonded and spent basically every second at school together wherever humanly (furrily?) possible, and Eiko had already told Kayla the truth about her gender situation. Meanwhile the time to join any of the clubs had rolled about, and Eiko wasn't entirely sure on whether or not she should join. She really wanted to join the soccer team, both because she loved the sport, but also because Kayla had decided to join and she'd never really taken part in team activities before and she was thrilled to do so. Anxiety was hovering in her mind, however, and the very thought of having to deal with a locker room situation was terrifying.
Eiko was sitting with her arms crossed on the desk and her head resting on top of them, sighing deeply every few seconds. Kayla sat next to her and looked at her with a concerned, but also excited expression. ''Come on! Let's go! The try outs are in like, uh, twenty minutes!'' Kayla urged Eiko and poked her upper arm repeatedly. ''You can do it!'' The puppy groaned and shook a bit, as if trying to get rid of a fly. ''I can't do it, Kayla...'' she mumbled and sighed deeply again. ''What if they find out and kick me off the team anyway? Worse, what if they find out and the other girls tell people?'' This time it was Kayla's turn to sigh deeply, and she did it as theatrically as possible. ''We don't know that unless we try, girl! Besides, I am going and I want you there. Come for my sake at least? Who knows? What if they find out and all accept you as part of the team still?'' she said in her usual cheery tone of voice. Eiko turned her head slightly so she could peek up at Kayla with one eye, and then blew her bangs out of her face. ''I guess you're right...'' she said in another mumbly tone, then slowly sat and up and stretched her arms up above her head, followed by a bored yawn. ''Yeah, alright, let's go.''
Excitedly Kayla bounced off her chair in her usual catlike manner and grabbed her bag, barely able to contain herself as she waited for Eiko to do the same. They both took off to their lockers to grab their gym clothes and then headed for the soccer field.
So far they'd only had P.E twice since the semester began, and both times had Eiko changed in the bathroom. Luckily for her had the hour been placed at the end of the day, so she could get away with showering at home. It seemed none of the girls in her class had so far suspected anything, and Eiko was content with that. As she and Kayla reached and entered the locker room at the soccer field, she quickly realized that her luck had changed though. There wasn't really any chance to occupy a bathroom that long, since there were a lot of girls and only one bathroom, not to mention she'd need to shower after since there were still afternoon classes. She could only hope that her attempt at tucking her junk away had been successful enough to get by when she changed into her gym clothes, and tried her best to not think about what she'd do after the try outs.
The soccer field was pretty cold despite it being early september. The sun was completely covered and it was pretty windy, making it hard to stand still while waiting for the coach. Eiko and Kayla were standing a distance away from the others, slightly jumping and moving to keep themselves warm. She looked at the other girls and realized they all seemed a bit scattered, which was odd to her. For some reason she'd figured there'd be one or two big groups of friends, but it didn't seem to be the case. Most of them were in pairs or groups of three, and that made Eiko feel a whole lot better because that meant if someone turned on her, it'd never be more than two or three, or at least so she hoped. Finally the coach walked onto the field, holding a net of balls over her shoulder. She walked up to the scattered group of girls and dropped the net by her side, before blowing her whistle, gaining the attention of all the girls. ''Listen up! Sorry I'm late. Welcome to the try outs!'' she said and smiled brightly while she glanced back and forth over the girls in front of her. ''I see we have most of the girls from last years teams, but also a few fresh faces,'' her eyes were mostly glancing in the direction of Kayla and Eiko. ''For those of you who don't know me, I'm Mia Rosethorn, Coach Rosethorn to you girls,'' she said and began doing a headcount with one of her fingers. Eiko was fidgeting a bit in the back of the group, nervous because it was a new teacher she hadn't met yet, but also nervous she wouldn't make it into the team. She'd never really done much soccer before, after all. ''Fifteen! Okay, seems like we're fewer this year than last year. For you girls that's good, because you're all automatically in the team if you want to be. Not as good for the team as that means we have less substitutes.'' Kayla nudged Eiko's side and grinned, and Eiko smiled back at her. That was some relief, both being admitted without a try out. Coach Rosethorn opened the net by her feet and spread the balls around the close vicinity, then told everyone to pair and up and start doing some passes. Apparently they still had to show what they could do, so the coach would know on what level they all were at. Obviously Kayla and Eiko grabbed a ball for themselves and stood a bit out on the side, used to being outsiders, then started passing between each other. As it seemed, they both had a nack for it. They got a good rhythm and a decent accuracy with their passes, and it didn't go unnoticed by the coach who praised them both, but especially Eiko. ''Not too bad. Have you played before?'' Eiko shook her head. ''No? Well, welcome to the team! What's your name?'' The puppy nervously looked at the coach and almost focused a bit too much on not letting her voice get ahead of her. ''E-eiko Luna, coach.'' The coach stood there for a second, thinking, then she clearly remembered something and nodded. She stepped in a bit closer to Eiko and lowered her voice slightly, to make sure the other girls wouldn't hear anything, ''I've heard about you, and I have no problems with girls in your situation. But if I find out you are doing something not as girly in the locker rooms I won't hesitate to kick you off the team, alright?'' At first Eiko couldn't believe her ears. She was being threatened by the coach? Or was it a simple warning? She tried to process the information, then nodded. Obviously she would get nothing good out of talking back, no matter what the coach meant. ''Okay, coach Rosethorn,'' she said respectfully and sighed with relief as the coach seemed content and back off with a nod to attend to the other pairs of girls. Kayla tried to get Eiko to tell her what she'd been told, but Eiko insisted on waiting until later.
The rest of the hour went by real quick. They were forced to pair up with other girls for other exercises, but it went really well and Eiko was happy that she'd made friends. Even though she and Kayla got along with the others, they both stayed behind for a bit after the others left for the locker room so Eiko would be able to shower in peace after the other girls were done in there, plus it gave them a chance to catch up on the coach's little ''peptalk'' from earlier. When they finally got into the locker room it seemed they were properly alone so Eiko could relax. She was still quite embarrassed about changing around Kayla, which Kayla obviously found hilariously cute.
''Stop being so shy!'' ''It's... It's just not right, Kayla!'' ''Why? We're both girls!'' Kayla was quite serious for once, even though she was laughing at the obvious blush beneath the golden fur on Eiko's face. ''I don't care how you look down there, and I sure don't care if you see me naked either.'' The last bit was already quite clear, given that the feline was standing in her nude in front of Eiko. ''It's not that simple! What if... What if things...'' ''What if things what?'' Kayla asked impatiently. Eiko let out a deep sigh. ''...move...'' ''Cute!'' Kayla grinned and shrugged. ''I don't care! Come on, you've got to learn sometime, and you couldn't be safer than being here alone with me!'' She started to sound a bit frustrated, even if just a little bit on her voice.
''Kayla...'' Eiko felt her heart beating fast. The situation was definitely not one she was comfortable with at all, although her friend had a point. She needed to get out of her comfort zone and embrace that was a girl, meaning that she should safely be able to change and shower around her best friend, also a girl. ''Fine.'' Eiko pulled off her panties, revealing herself entirely to her best friend, who was trying to not look too giddyish. Just as her panties reached the floor however, the bathroom door opened and out came one of the other girls from the team, who just stopped dead and stared at Eiko. All of her. It was silent for almost a minute and Eiko had just frozen. She could feel tears well up in her eyes as her whole world came crumbling down around her, with a million bad scenarios playing out in her head all at once. ''Are... are you a boy?'' the girl, Erica, asked, sounding both unsure and confused in her voice. Eiko couldn't answer. Her chest was hurting and she could barely breath as the panic attack kicked in more and more rapidly. Luckily Kayla stepped in front of Eiko and looked at Erica. ''She's a girl. What's between her legs doesn't change that,'' Kayla said as matter-of-factly as she could and didn't break eye contact with Erica even once. Silence filled the air again and tears had started running down Eiko's cheeks, making her fur damp. Kayla and Erica kept eyelock for a while longer, and it wasn't until Eiko's legs gave up underneath her, making her fall to her knees. Kayla was the first to look away and quickly got down to check on Eiko, helping her up on one of the benches along the sides of the room. The new girl looked at them for a few more seconds, before inching closer until she too was standing over Eiko, gently touching her shoulder. ''Don't worry. You're clearly a girl,'' Erica said, gathering from the situation just how much her question had affected Eiko and made the assumption that she was transgender, not that it was a very difficult assumption to make. ''My cousin is trans too,'' she told her in as gentle a voice as possible. ''Your secret is safe with me. I'm Erica.''
In the end it all worked out. Erica and Kayla both stayed with Eiko until her panic seemed to have calmed down, and made sure she didn't fall or faint in the shower. The rest of the day was a bit slow, as the anxiety from the locker room incident lingered for most of the afternoon. Later on Eiko found out that Erica was a year above her, and had been on the soccer team the year before. As far as Kayla could tell the other students seemed to get along fine with Erica, meaning that Eiko should've been able to relax a bit. At the end of the day though, Eiko was happy. Something scary had happened, but it had worked out fine and she'd made a new friend and she had been accepted onto the soccer team. Her first two weeks as a girl in school and she had only had a panic attack once, and even that situation had resolved itself well. She was happy and she was hoping it'd stay that way.
That's it for this chapter guys! Stay tuned for chapter three. Please leave me any feedback in the comments, and keep the hate to yourselves ?