MINNETONKA, Minn. — Last Thursday, Cobalt Sovereign had to go to the bathroom at Hopkins High School.
"I was attempting to use the restroom and actually didn't get to until an hour later at the hospital," she said.
The hospital where she stayed for two days to repair serious injuries received after being assaulted while leaving the bathroom.
"In the bathroom, he had looked over the stall directly where I was attempting to use the bathroom, and that is where he initially called me a faggot in the first place," Sovereign described.
The student who allegedly called her that slur repeated it several times.
"I left the bathroom and got it in myself to confront the kid, verbally," Cobalt said. "He had no reason to have anything against me, I've never talked to him, never done anything negative to him. And I was insulted and then eventually hit in the jaw."
Minnetonka police are now investigating the attack as a possible hate crime.
Cobalt's mother said video shown to them by police Wednesday confirmed Cobalt's story.
"I saw just what she described, she comes out of the bathroom, and there's these three kids," Ashley Sovereign said. "They are clearly getting to her and around her, and then one of them hit her while she's just standing there, hit her very hard."
"I was hit in the jaw and at the time one of my teeth exploded, pieces in my mouth," Cobalt said. "My jaw was broken in two places ... molar, just shattered."
There were more than just physical injuries.
"Mentally I did have a few nightmares after the events," she said.
Before the attack, Cobalt said she wasn't necessarily scared to use the bathroom.
"Less scared, more just incredibly uncomfortable," she said. "It makes me incredibly uncomfortable to be in the men's bathroom."
And yet she takes on that discomfort because of the world we live in. While Hopkins does have gender-inclusive bathrooms, Cobalt said they are usually taken or out of the way, and she had to go where she had to go.
"I would rather be uncomfortable than make other people uncomfortable by using the women's bathroom," she said.
Hundreds gathered outside Hopkins High School on Wednesday to show support for Cobalt.
And as for her mom, discomfort is just a fact of life, as a trans parent; and it resides right next to unabashed joy and gratitude to be Cobalt's trans parent.
"Just so lucky. We're really all lucky. Everybody is lucky who knows her," Ashley said. "It might be hard for the world to have a trans kid, but it's not not hard for me."
It will be up to the county attorney to decide on possible charges. Meanwhile, Hopkins High School confirmed the student accused of hitting Cobalt faced immediate discipline. School policy is to suspend a student in a fight. Wednesday was the final day of classes for students for the school year.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help Cobalt with her medical expenses.