Help!

[maxonennis]

Edit: I found what I wanted. Thanks for your help guys!

[Revast]

I think I would have to see more than one sentence to really decide. As is it just reads like Harbor is forcing some other students mouth into a smile. /shrug

[maxonennis]

He, she, and it are all out of the question. There are no he's or she's in my story, and I can't very well go around calling every and anyone an "it". My main question is can anyone think of something better then what I've been using?

[Miyabi]

Make up a word.  Somehow introduce it into the story and then just use it through the book.  If you do a good job then people will find themselves using the word and you may have a neologism on your hands.

xD

All silliness aside though, making up ONE word to better relay the meaning of the story would be easy enough for a reader to cope with.

[SarahG]

Or forget English altogether and write your novel in another language, one that has gender-neutral personal pronouns.   

[Silk]

The answer is obvious: Learn Latin! Karl will help! (I would, but I've forgotten most of it now.)

Well, I suppose German would work as well.

I think Miyabi's solution is probably the best one. I agree with Revast, I'd have to see it in more than just one sentence to really see how it works, but in that sentence it does look like "the graduate" is referring to another entity.  (Of course, we're also missing the context.)

I'd almost say don't worry about it and just use "its", but if you've got a lot of these characters running about, then yes, having so many non-specific pronouns will get in the way.

[maxonennis]

I found my answer in the far east, on the other side of the world...