❝𝖭𝖮 𝖪𝖨𝖣𝖲 𝖠𝖫𝖫𝖮𝖶𝖤𝖣❞ 𝗀. 𝗐𝖾𝖺𝗌𝗅𝖾𝗒

PROLOGUE: the exact moment.

To understand the perspective in this Kennedy Walker story, it is important to focus on the reasons why it all began. Perhaps one could go back to the summer of 1997, when Marcus and Amanda Walker discover the news that they are soon to be parents. <<If it's a girl, Patricia is a pretty name,>> Amanda chattered back and forth with a wide smile on her face. It had taken her a while to get pregnant, so the thought of a mini-her running around the house was something to look forward to. <<If it's a boy, I'll let you choose. I'm not naming her after my father. <<Kennedy. If it's a boy, he'll be called Kennedy>>.

Strange way to remember a Democratic president from a guy like Marcus Walker: a Republican through and through, with Christianity as his banner and who had not stopped muttering <<God help our soul>> when Barack Obama had been declared the first African-American president of the United States of America. "A dark day for this country," he grumbled, unaware of the double meaning of his words.

In her third month of pregnancy, Amanda had already done everything she could to make it a girl. There was a blog on the internet that said if she ate watermelon often and put her legs up, the foetus would develop in such a way that it would be a girl. Marcus just watched as his wife drowned herself on fruit and put on a show to laugh at in their king sized bed, not commenting on the nonsense because it seemed like a no-brainer. In the fifth month they discovered that it would be a boy after a brief look at the ultrasound and without paying any attention to the doctor, who tried to tell them over and over again that it was a foot and not a virile member. And so, in the ninth month, on time as clockwork, Kennedy Walker came into the world, in the spring of 1998, but not in the way both parents had hoped.

"What? What is this? They said it was a boy months ago," asked Amanda, confused by the new discovery and with her eyes partially closed in exhaustion.

"Didn't you do the ultrasound scans again in the next few months?" one of the midwives questioned as she held the little girl, who was bawling her head off.

"Of course we did, what do you take us for?" Marcus spat, taking off his delivery room hygiene cap. A nurse held out her daughter-son rolled up in a white blankie with a funny little cap on her head, and as soon as the child touched her father's arms, she stopped crying, as if she had felt belonging. So, despite the tone of voice, Marcus Walker hugged the baby and said, "Her name will be Kennedy anyway," and Amanda, who was sleepier than a groundhog, made an unintelligible sound, as if in agreement.

Well, maybe going back to that moment is too soon.

Fast forward fifteen years later, year up year down, Kennedy was an exceptional student. She often surprised her teachers, knowing details and information that even they hadn't been able to answer. Asked 'how do you know that?', Kennedy would shrug and reply that she spent a lot of time on the internet. The teachers would again look at her with superiority, because it is clear that reading an encyclopaedia is much more productive than learning via the internet.

Soon she had opportunities everywhere. She was on the high school cheerleading squad, and by the time she was about to turn sixteen, the first of the offers to get a full scholarship to study at an Ivy League university came her way. By then she was already having doubts about her sexuality, and it didn't seem normal to her to stare at her friends while they changed in the locker room, and to find the football players who tried to pick them up immature and childish. She began to feel out of place, but far from looking for disappointment, she only shared the good news with her parents.

Then came an event that changed her life forever, something that would become a black mark on her record and cause her to lose those scholarships.

Kennedy doesn't like to talk about it until she feels comfortable with someone, so it's probably best to leave this part for later.