☆.*｡･ﾟ task ten → pride float.
so much of sawyer’s life had been drowned in negativity. from the moment he was aware of the fact that he wasn’t like the other kids, he knew he had reason to be afraid. he thought he had nowhere to turn, that he never would, that people would hate him if they ever found out who he was. and, in a way, that younger version of sawyer who’d gone by a different name was right. people did hate him when they found out. they hated him enough to tell everyone they knew, to turn him into a laughing stock, to paint a target onto his back when he wasn’t looking. he was forcibly outed when he was just about to turn sixteen — what should have been one of the best years of his life was made the worst, and though he still let it get him down sometimes, this pride was about something else.
this pride was about how far he’d come, about how he truly was the person he’d always wanted to be now. sure, he looked the part of the boy he always felt he was, but more than anything, he was happy. he was happy, proud, queer, and he wasn’t scared. he’d shout his pride from the rooftops of cape hazel if he could.
art and design wasn’t his forte, but that wouldn’t stop him from trying his hardest to create a float to show off all of who he was. covered in the colours of the rainbow and the blue, pink and white of the transgender pride flag, sawyer created a mess of a drawing, a large van covered in all the words and slurs he’d ever heard spat at him crossed out and replaced with the words he truly felt described him now. adorned with “proud”, “queer”, “happy”, “vibrant”, “kind” and any other positive words sawyer could think of, his float was ready to be made into a reality. if only he could reach into the page and hold those words in his mind and his chest forever.
