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Being mixed is never easy because at some point you start to set in on who you are and who you will be only to be reminded you're different. The worst part growing up for Amaia wasn't hearing racism being directed to her, to be honest, she blocks it out and was never old enough to understand what racism was and how people were trying to harm her with their words. The worst part was learning history and having these negative connotations being attached to her ethnicity and being mixed meant double the embarrassment.
Once when she told someone her ethnicity, they told her she was rare because not many people are Mexican and East Indian. Not knowing they were trying to insult her Amaia took being rare as a compliment and getting older came with the cold truth that being rare was an insult.
Amaia didn't grow up in a very diverse community, and by diverse that meant there was no white people in her elementary school. Some would say that's a good thing but that just integrated the idea that whites were above her and those around her. Having such a mentality at a young age fucks up a kid, and it makes them grow up because they have to not only come to terms with the hard truth of society but also act as a translator to the adults who were supposed to be raising her.
Growing up in a mixed world was fucked up for Amaia because she constantly kept changing who she was supposed to be to please people. On the bright side her being a people pleaser meant she strived to being number one in classes and that got her labeled with being smart. That smartness followed her after moving cities but in her naiveness to wanting to fit in at her new middle school she let people take advantage of her smarts.
Amaia allowed her 'friends' to copy off her homework, the work she spends hours on the previous day stressing about needing to finish. All these 'friends' only being around when they needed something from her was lonely and it wasn't good for Amaia's growing self.
Luckily, she caught a break when her seventh year of middle school came around and she was given a math test that when graded gave her the opportunity, along with another handful of same-age students, to take higher math. That is how she met Vanessa and Mara, and from there Amaia learned for the first time during a test what a lesbian was and then later that she can choose where to go to high school and then also how to make new friends even if that's super hard because she's an introvert.
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For the Christmas holiday, Amaia drove with Vanessa to their hometown, while Mara and Luca went to visit his parents down in San Diego. Since it was only a two-hour drive maybe three with terrible traffic Vanessa sat in the driver's seat while Amaia sat in the passenger's seat munching on gummy bears.
"You didn't get Buck a gift?" Vanessa asks in disbelief liking to gossip while she drove
"No," Amaia shyly replies as she eats a red gummy bear head holding the body in her hand "We agreed to because... capitalism?"
"You sure?" Vanessa asks willing to accept that answer if she wasn't weary, "Cause y'all have not been going in the right stages"
"Stages? Where did you get dating stages from?" Amaia questions picking up her water bottle needing to clean her pallet from all the gummy bears
