Sam Monet, French Transfer student (AFAB, NB)

Sam was woken gently as the first rays of sunshine shone in from the window. Their curtains had been left open the day before, intentionally. Sunlight was an amazing alarm clock. Add to that the chirping of the birds on this beautiful late summer day and Sam felt like they could get used to waking up like this. You see, Sam came from a moderately well-off family that lived on the outskirts of Paris. Although the city had its own fair share of nature, it wasn’t nearly this green around there. The only birds you’d hear outside were pigeons, if you were lucky.

Though they lived in Paris, Sam had gotten offered a scholarship by an American University in the Western United States. While they had hesitated at the prospect of living so far from home, the scholarship seemed to be incredibly lucrative. Sam didn’t quite get why they had offered it to them. They weren’t exactly super smart, nor super popular. When they had asked the spokesperson who had mailed them, the woman on the other side of the phone seemed rather evasive, dancing around the answer with various excuses. Whether this was intentional or caused by standard marketing practices of smoke and mirrors to get you to agree, Sam wasn’t sure.

But in the end they accepted and by the end of the summer they flew over there, taking a flight from Paris to New York and then from New York further west, only having to drive another 30 minutes from the airport before arriving at their dorm. The university had offered Sam a spot in their only unisex dorm, which had only opened a few years ago. There were communal bathrooms with separate showers, a communal space with various ways to pass the time such a foosball, darts, some shady arcade machine and a table for board games. When Sam arrived at the airport, the university had sent a car to pick them up. Quite the service, they thought to themselves. Upon arriving, the woman they had spoken to on the phone led them around the mostly empty dorm, eventually arriving at Sam ‘s room. For now they would be the only one, but by the start of semester they would get a roomie assigned.

After the tour, Sam thanked her, and without even properly unpacking fell asleep. They spent the next few days, having about a week before classes were to start, unpacking their luggage and catching up on jet lag. By the Friday before classes they were finally used to the new timezone. It was now Saturday morning and there were lots of things to do. Sam had heard their roomie would arrive in the evening, they also wanted to explore campus a bit so they wouldn’t get lost on their first day and finally an older student would apparently drop by to fill them in some of the extra details about their scholarship. Sam was a bit curious about this, as these details hadn’t really been brought up before, but they reasoned it must not be that impactful then. First they changed out of their PJ’s, which consisted of a tank top and some loose fitting cotton pants.

After mulling it over, Sam began to get dressed. Just as they grabbed the bottom of their tank top, ready to lift it off over their chest, they realised their curtains were still slightly open. Quickly closing them, they felt themselves blush, imagining who could’ve seen them if they hadn’t. The campus outside had gotten pretty busy as everyone was finally arriving. With that taken care of, they lifted their tank top off, unveiling a fairly standard chest, C-cup. Many would consider this an asset but Sam wasn’t always too happy with them. Sometimes they did, when they felt more comfortable with their femininity, however on days like this one where they would rather just cease having a gender entirely they got in the way. This is why they had packed a couple of binders. Picking out a black one to go with their outfit, they gently put it on and added a big black button-up shirt that was a few sizes too big; they were unnoticeable to anyone looking at them. To go with their shirt, they put on some black cuffed jeans, not before slipping on some black boxers. Moving into the bathroom they took a look at their hair. Sam had long blonde locks, cut fairly short on one side whilst much longer on the other. They’d just washed it yesterday and with waking so late they hadn’t time to shower before the person from the university would be here to go over those “extra details” with them.

Briefly running a brush through their hair, they heard a knock on the door and went to open it. As expected it was someone from the university, holding a pamphlet and wearing a blue polo with the university’s logo on it. Still a bit groggy from having recently woken, Sam took a moment to take a deep breath and then opened the door, greeting their guest with their accented english: “Good morning, are you from the université?” The student was a cheery girl, dirty blonde hair curling down to her shoulders. Below her university-issued polo she wore a pair of white shorts. Her overly cheery expression made her whole cheeriness come over fake, but Sam wasn’t about to say that. They were the last person to judge someone on their looks, even though she looked like one of the spoiled brats that used to bully them.

“That’s right. My name’s Melissa, but everyone calls me Meli.”

“I’m…I’m Sam “

Much like Sam ‘s, Meli’s voice carried an accent, some southern accent as far as they could tell, since they didn’t exactly know enough about American accents to make an educated guess. However, these thoughts about the accent were quickly discarded as Sam noted a confused expression on Melissa’s face. Looking down to make sure they didn’t somehow forget to put on pants they tried to snap the girl out of her confused look.

“Were you expecting someone else…?”

Shaking her head, Meli let out a nervous laugh and then shook her head.

“Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting to see you like this, but that’s alright. I suggest you first read this.”

Melissa reached her tanned arm out and handed Sam a pamphlet. Reading the title on the front, they almost fell backwards.

WELCOME TO THE HUMAN SEXUALITY SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM!

At first they looked up at Melissa, to see if she was smiling, but not, she seemed to just be waiting for them to read it. Looking down at the pamphlet, as strange as it was, it seemed to be legitimate, carrying the University’s official logo on good quality material. However what cast some doubt was the fact that front and center on the front of the pamphlet were a naked man and woman, uncovered and smiling. Confused, beet-red and perhaps slightly turned on, Sam looked at Melissa.

“Qu’est- I mean, what is this?”

Melissa’s look of confusion turned to one of worry and then one of awkward realisation. Sam wasn’t sure what it was, but it was clear Melissa had hoped they knew. Looking around the empty hallway for a moment Melissa said:

“C-can I come in? I-I’ll try to explain.”

Sam nodded quietly and let Melissa in. The “Scholarship Advisor '', as it read on the nametag hooked into her blouse, strode in and sat down on the as of yet unclaimed bed. Looking around the room, seemingly out of curiosity, they waited for Sam to sit and then took a deep breath.

“So it seems there may have been a miscommunication when you accepted the scholarship. In exchange for a reduced enrollment fee, you are to take part in a nation-wide program. If you don’t want to go ahead with it, you could talk with the dean, but you’d have to pay full price for enrollment, plus additional fees for the dorm.”