Use it? Influence it!

Thomas took his bag off his shoulder and dusted off some dust from his jacket before he turned and walked into the teacher's room. There was still need of covering teachers for exams and, luck being what it was, he was still covering Gretchen's courses. He supposed there was a blessing in all of this, he was racking up favors for various people to owe him later, but the surprising thing was that he found himself talking a bit more with Jones. The old man was still a bit aloof around the other teachers but, to him, they had begun to talk a bit more. It was a simple thing, really, Thomas complimented him on the way his hair was looking, blonde hair with some highlights and colors that went down past his shoulders, and Jones had replied, complimenting him on his soft pink sweater. Simple conversation, to be sure, but compared to the past, this was a marvel. Maria almost choked on her coffee when Thomas told her about it but both agreed that it was perhaps best they didn't mention how bizarre it was, not wanting to scare the man back into his shell.

He finished shuffling through the morning notes and papers before he closed the drawer and walked down the hallway towards his classroom, passing and waving at Maria before he entered and settled down at the desk. The class was a buzz with a few morning noises, all of which he usually would grimace at but, this morning, he just shrugged it off as pre-exam jitters and turned his attention to the stack of papers in front of him.

7.) IF YOU WERE A GIRL...WOULD YOU LIKE MAKEUP?

Thomas pondered that during the rest of the morning and at lunch, he found himself looking at the other female teachers (not that there were many, most of the teachers were older men and the few women outside of Maria and another teacher, Jessica, were either past their expiration date or just about there.) Some of the staffers, though, he did notice and there were differing styles and skill-levels among them. He supposed if he were born a girl, his mother would be all on top of the makeup, namely in a bad way, because she believed in a more puritan-view. Women should be prim and proper, not flashy and out there. She would definitely have a conniption if she saw the women today.

Looking at some of the high school girls and listening to some of their comments, he didn't want to go all in on some fancy-boy Youtuber, no matter how good they may look, because a boy's skin and face were different than a girl's one. Plus, as an old-school guy, the idea of boys wearing makeup was just wrong. He chuckled a little at the irony, he was a man thinking about makeup, but the point of the paper was pretty apparent: If he were a girl.

I would love makeup. I would be skilled in using it and making sure I looked great in any situation that called for it. Thomas paused for a moment and then laughed. I would also be one of those girls who had a youtube channel about it. He rolled his eyes and laughed before putting his pen down and went back to the classroom where he took a moment to slip out from his desk his bag and looked for a moment at his face before finishing up with some gloss and then turned back to the stack of papers.

****

Getting back home that evening, to a darkened house, led Thomas to two conclusions. First, Darlene was probably going to be pulling an all-nighter and that would be a pain to have to deal with in the morning. The second, though, was that it gave him time to finish up the latest video he was working on in his spare time. It wasn't much left to do, some basic editing and formatting, but it was also good to be prompt and upload when he could. That and with the latest small package waiting for him on the doorstep, one from a company he had managed to sign on to, it was going to be fun to try and experiment with. Darlene wasn't one who liked to deal with any of that so he just nodded and let her go. He even agreed to making the upstairs bedroom where he did his videos, setting up his computer and camera and a small bed to help create a more relaxing setup. That and he didn't have to worry about the various boxes and packages he got from companies cluttering up the bedroom downstairs.

As he placed his bag down on the table next to the laptop, he turned on the computer and waited for it to boot up before turning his attention to the phone next to him. He smiled as he spotted Jones' text, wishing him luck on the video and flashing a thumbs up. He smiled and replied before turning on the lights to get the right amount in the right spots before he slipped the band over his head to keep his hair out of the way. "Okay, here we go!"

8.) IF YOU WERE A GIRL...WOULD YOU BE SPORTY?