"The course of true love never did run smooth." ~ William Shakespeare
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Kailani Hummel, an innocent small-town genderfluid teenager, gets sucked into a world that seems like only they can navigate in an attempt to save everyone they love. Will Qu...
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September 1st, 2005
"So... are you, like, a fag?" Puck asked.
"Dude." Finn elbowed his friend with a sharp look. "Why would you ask that?"
Kailani looked up in surprise when Finn slid the bowl of unsalted popcorn across the counter with a deeply puzzled look. They watched their step-brother fumble with a buttery bag of kernels and shove it incorrectly into the microwave.
Finn hadn't ever stuck up for them before — Kailani or Kurt. The twins figured he was still getting used to sharing a home, father, mother, and family. He hadn't taken to them easily to begin with and preferred hanging out with Puck. At least recently, Finn had been trying a little harder to talk to the twins without their parents influencing the conversation.
"I...don't think so?" Kailani tilted their head toward her stepmother when Carol walked in from the laundry room. "Carol? Am I a fag?"
"A what?"
Carol gasped and dropped the hamper on the tile floor with a loud thud. She stared at Kailani, not missing the confused flush of the pale child's freckled cheeks when she didn't respond fast enough for the eleven-year-old.
"Am I?" Kailani's voice quieted slightly.
"Who said that to you?" Carol asked, holding a hand over her overall covered heart. "No! No, of course you're not. We don't say words like that."
"Why? People call Kai a fag all the time?" Puck frowned, exchanging a look with Finn. "I mean... Dave's dad said she's a huge faggot for that bow tie and the pigtails. Oh! And the ponytails and boy's clothes too—"
Kailani reached behind where their ash brown hair was pulled up in a Kurt approved ponytail with a headband holding down their fly aways.
"Noah." Carol sent the boy a look. "I know your family uses different words, but we don't use that here. Especially in front of the twins. It's not a nice word."
"What's it mean?" Finn asked.
"It... It means..." Carol glanced at Kailani and felt her heart break at the fallen shoulders of her step-child. "That's just a mean word for someone that isn't like everyone else."
"People think I'm not normal?" Kailani mumbled, looking down at the bowl of popcorn and blinking softly. "Oh."
"You are normal." Carol rushed to stand beside the small middle schooler, kneeling beside them with a soft smile. "You're our normal. We don't need to be anyone else's normal."
