French Cup: A Neighborhood Story

Chapter 67: -Kazuya- There's 55 Gallons of It

"Yeah, I mean, drag names don't have to be special. Nikki, you named yourself after Madonna's character in Who's That Girl, right-"

Nikki's face descended into horror. "Oh my god, Miyuki! I told you never to tell anybody that!"

Miyuki gave him a slow, sneaky cat-eyed smile as she stuck her red icing laden finger into her mouth for the billionth time. She smacked her equally red lips in the pleasure of it. "Well, you do like Madonna. Who doesn't?"

Hanako pointed at me from across the room and Chidori gave me a surprised look as she took out another tray of support ribbon shaped cookies from the oven. 

"Excuse me, what?" Nikki gasped at me as his horrified face descended even worse.

I wiped my forehead with my wrist. It was getting hot in here, even without his third degree. "That's beside the point." Next to me sitting on a stool, Gyeong-Wan was smiling, amused by this conversation. No doubt he'd never seen Who's That Girl, either. I wasn't the only one. "We were talking about Gyeong-Wan's drag name. Let's get back to that."

"Fine, fine. Ugh, you're coming over after this to watch Who's That Girl. You don't even know the origin of me. I can't believe it. We've known each other how many years-"

"Nikki." I giggled as I carefully iced another cookie in red, really paying attention. 

These cookies were incredibly important to me. Ever since French Cup opened, our mentor Lady Elizabeth had implemented one day per December to fundraise specifically for HIV/AIDS charities as part of her month long devotion to World AIDS Day, which is December 1st. Nikki and I had chosen today to do it, since a lot of people would be coming for the last drag bingo before New Year's. Today, people could buy these cookies for however much they wanted to donate to the charity of our choice. On a normal day, they could still donate in the form of putting money in a jar and they also knew that a certain percentage of our profits went to these charities as well, but today was a targeted effort.

 These cookies shaped like AIDS support ribbons were extremely dear to my heart. Lady Elizabeth had designed them herself years ago, and it was still the same recipe and cookie cut-out from back then. I kept these two things as if they were religious objects. And they were, as far as French Cup was concerned. In support as well, most people coming today would be dressed in red. We were, too.

Every one of us in this room had been mentored by Lady Elizabeth except for Gyeong-Wan. She was more like a mother figure to us. Especially to Miyuki, she'd become a stand in mother, teaching her everything there was to know about being transgender. For Chidori, she'd helped her figure out her drag king persona by causing her to look within herself. And for the rest of us, she taught us what being a drag queen and being queer was all about. Most of all, she'd taught us about kindness and perseverance, dignity and strength. About facing the world with a smile and standing up for more, running at it with a challenge and a giant yell, big stick in hand to attack back. 

It hurt me that Gyeong-Wan couldn't know her. But, if I thought about it more, by knowing all of us he was getting to know her. There was a part of her still in every one of us in the lessons that she'd taught. 

Nikki went on talking to Miyuki and I didn't pay attention, because Gyeong-Wan was staring at the newly iced cookie in front of him. The icing was still wet. Before I could count to two, he had his wallet out and placed a five hundred yen coin on the metal table with a rattling noise. He picked it up gingerly by the sides. 

This noise brought the attention of everyone else. He didn't even notice them as he bit into the cookie and closed his eyes. It wasn't only a sugar cookie this time. It had some light cinnamon inside as well, making it resemble a snickerdoodle. He made a slumping motion as he tasted it, way too good to sit up straight. It made me giggle, which caused him to smile.