The First Thing You Need To Know About Robin Stanley...

...is that he is nothing like Kurt Cobain.

During most of his high school career, he certainly wanted to be like Kurt Cobain. He dressed almost exactly like the lead singer of Nirvana, and his CD collection was filled with his favorite grunge artists. However, no matter how hard he tried, Robin could never be his idol, and knowing Cobain's fate, that was probably a good thing.

I met Robin for the first time on a warm August day during the first seventh period class of my junior year. We were both in the same guitar class, and to be honest, I wasn't quite sure why I had decided to take guitar in the first place, since my primary instrument was the best, but it was always good to pick up a second instrument, and the guitar seemed easy enough.

On the way to class, I passed by my younger sister, Melissa. She was chatting with a large group of her fellow students, and despite her status as a freshman, she had already found friends. I awkwardly waved to her, but she ignored me completely. I then looked around for Abby, but it seemed that our schedules were completely opposite that year. The only reason that I had bothered to take AP English was because Abby was taking it, but yet, we still had it in different periods. I could already tell that junior year was going to be lonely.

I opened the door to the music room, and found fifteen other students seated around the room. I looked around, but I didn't recognize a single one of them. I almost sat down next to a blonde haired girl with a face caked in makeup, but the person closest to the chalkboard seemed more interesting to me.

I couldn't even tell whether the student was a boy or a girl, but they were wearing a flannel jacket over a Soundgarden T-shirt, worn out jeans, and boots. Their hair was dark brown and short, but somewhat shaggy. The classmate was almost certainly a freshman - they couldn't have been older than Melissa. Their striking gray eyes were staring right into mine, just as unsure what to make of me as I was unsure of what to make of them. It made sense. There were only two black students in all of Garfield High School - myself and Melissa - and while our fellow students were not particularly racist, they often did not know how to interact with us.

"What's your name?" the mysterious classmate said, breaking the awkward silence between us.

"Bianca Madison," I said. "What's yours?"

"Bianca," the classmate repeated. "That's a nice name. I'm Robin Stanley." I groaned. Not even the student's name would help me clear up the gender confusion. "I know what you're thinking. I'm a boy, and I'm sixteen years old. Believe it or not, I'm not a middle schooler."

"You don't look like a boy," I said, making an even bigger fool of myself in front of Robin.

"I'm transgender, but I'd rather not dwell on that," Robin said. He reached for his cup of coffee and took a sip of it. "Not quite as strong as I like it, but not too bad. Dilara always does a nice job on my coffee."

As Robin evaluated his coffee, I searched for a new subject to talk about. "Were you mad when Soundgarden broke up?" I asked, looking at his T-shirt.

"I cried almost as much as I did when Kurt Cobain died," Robin said, making it clear that I should have never brought that up in the first place.

The teacher began to speak, sparing me any further awkwardness with Robin. "Hello class," she said. "My name is Mrs. Yates, and I will be teaching your guitar class. To start the day off, let's go around the classroom and have everyone introduce themselves. Everyone will state their name, grade, and one fun fact. I'll start. I'm Mrs. Yates, I'm your teacher, and one fun fact about me is that I went to Woodstock when I was a teenager."

Everyone introduced themselves, and to be honest, I wasn't really listening. After the semester was over, I probably wouldn't see any of these people again. Robin nudged me when it was my turn, and I said, "I'm Bianca, I'm a junior, and I love watching old movies." I then nudged Robin, who was paying about as much attention as I was.

"I'm Robin, I'm also a junior, and when I grow up, I want to be in a band called The Wallbangers," Robin said.

"Why would you name your band The Wallbangers?" I whispered to Robin.

"Why wouldn't I name my band The Wallbangers?" Robin asked. "It's a great name."

"It is pretty cool," I admitted.

Once everyone had made their introductions, Mrs. Yates gave us our guitars. All of us had cheap, identical acoustic guitars. When Robin got his guitar, he started playing immediately. I don't quite remember what exactly he played, but his fingers were flying across the guitar as he furiously strummed, trying to turn the low-end instrument into something far better.

Mrs. Yates started explaining how to play a few simple chords, but I quickly got confused. Most of the chords weren't even close to their bass guitar equivalents, so when my C chord sounded absolutely nothing like what the rest of the class was playing, I turned to Robin for help.

"You have the wrong fingering," he told me. "You don't even need to use four fingers for this one, Bianca."

"What's the right fingering then?" I asked as I dropped my left hand.

Robin came a little closer and showed me how he was fingering the chord on his guitar. "You should have your first finger on the first fret of the B string, your second finger on the second fret of the D string, and your third finger on the third fret of the A string," he told me.

I moved my fingers and showed him the chord. "Is this right?" I asked.

"Strum it and see what it sounds like," Robin said. I did so, and it sounded much more pleasant. "That's better. Try the G chord now."

My G chord was almost as bad as my C chord, and Robin had plenty of adjustments to make. After that, he helped me transition between the two chords. "This is so much easier on the bass," I said.

"You'll get better with practice," Robin said.

"How long have you been playing guitar?" I asked.

"Since I was eleven," Robin said. "I wish this school had an advanced class. I would take that instead, but this is the only guitar class there is."

"So you're stuck helping me," I said.

"Yes, but it's not so bad," Robin said. "You're learning quickly. I tried teaching my little sister how to play, but she wouldn't listen to me. Then again, she's two years old. She doesn't listen to anyone." Robin chuckled just as the bell rang. "I'll see you tomorrow, Bianca," he said. He smiled briefly and then started walking to his next class.

"Bye Robin," I said. I pulled out my schedule and saw that my eighth period class was Physics, which was on the other side of the building. I would have to sprint if I wanted to get to class on time. I ran down to the science labs, but I found that none of my friends were in that class either.

Eighth and ninth periods passed without anything notable happening. After school, however, I had a Student Council meeting. Finally, I would be able to see Abby.

I found the room where the meeting was being held. Mr. Oswald, the teacher in charge of Student Council, was waiting in the front of the room while all of the students filed in. Abby was near the front of the room, and I immediately took the seat next to her. "Bianca!" she exclaimed. "How are you? Did anything exciting happen today?"

"Not really," I said.

"You have to be kidding," Abby said. "Something interesting always happens on the first day of school."

"Not this year," I said. "Did anything interesting happen to you?"

"Kyle Spencer asked me out," Abby said.

"I didn't know you liked him," I said. I could picture Kyle in my head, and he wasn't exactly the most attractive guy on the planet. Then again, I also couldn't remember a time when he had ever been mean to anyone, which made him better than most of the boys at Garfield High School.

"He's a sweet guy, and he's not too ugly, so I said yes," Abby said. "Our first date is this weekend."

"That's great, Abby," I said. "I'm very happy for you."

Abby grinned, and she was practically bouncing with excitement. "I haven't gone on a date since last year," Abby said. "This is going to be so much fun!"

I decided not to bring up the fact that I had never gone on a date in my entire high school career. I didn't have a chance to respond anyways, since Mr. Oswald started talking about the Student Council Presidential Elections. Abby was already freaking out, which was understandable, since the year before, she had made the grand mistake of simultaneously running for President, Secretary, and Treasurer. She was elected both President and Treasurer, which was absolutely exhausting for her. As the Vice President, I often had to do her work for her.

This year, Abby was only going to run for President, and I would be her Vice President once again. Elections weren't until the next week, but all of the candidates had to do a brief speech about why they should be elected. Abby's rather eloquent speech was primarily about her plans for a bake sale to fund prom and cafeteria food improvements, which were demands that nearly everyone could agree on. My speech was much less eloquent, but I spent a lot of time agreeing with Abby. We were unofficial running mates, after all.

After the meeting, Abby spoke with me again as we meandered through the parking lot, trying to find our cars. "I was thinking that you should get a boyfriend so we can go on double dates."

"It would be nice to have a boyfriend, but I don't have anyone in mind," I told her.

"Did you meet any boys today that you found interesting?" Abby asked.

"There's this guy named Robin in my guitar class," I said. "He's certainly interesting."

"There you go," Abby said. "You should ask him out."

"No way," I said. "I'm not interested in him like that. Honestly, he's just really weird."

"Is he weird in a good way or weird in a bad way?" Abby asked.

"He's like a wannabe Kurt Cobain," I answered.

"I see," Abby said. "Does he realize that grunge hasn't been cool since we were in middle school?"

"I don't think he does," I said. "He can play the guitar really well though."

"Musical talent is always an attractive quality in a man, or anyone in general," Abby noted. "I still think you should ask him out. You two would be such a cute couple."

"I don't want to date him, Abby," I said.

Abby finally found her car and opened the door. "Fine, but I still think you two would be adorable together," she said as she got into the driver's seat. "See you later, Bianca."

"Bye Abby," I said. I waved and then left to find my own car. As I drove home, I considered what Abby had said. I knew that I wasn't attracted to Robin at all. He wasn't even close my type. However, Abby did have a point. Musical talent was a very attractive quality in a man.