"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, 2006
Mackenzie looked up from the paperwork in her hand when she heard the front door randomly slam in the middle of the day. All three children had ridden the bus to school and Judy was at work most of the day, or she would have spent the few extra hours she had out with her wife.
"Babe?" She called from the kitchen, wondering who could be walking into their home without warning. "Jude, is that you? What are you doing home, baby?"
The woman finished filling out the boxes she had started before following the noise. She approached with caution when no one answered besides a few thumps, peering around the front hall until she spotted her youngest daughter kicking her shoes off in distress.
"Woah. Woah. Woah. What the hell are you doing here in the middle of the day?" Mackenzie asked, following Lucy back into the kitchen as she stomped by. "How did you get here? School does not end until three!"
"I have legs." Lucy muttered, traveling toward the fridge. She stopped before reaching it, feeling her jaw clench as she thought of the comments she faced today at school.
"Lucy, you can't skip school." Mackenzie scolded her. "What if something happened to you on the walk home? That's not an easy walk and you pass by creep Simon's house. He's a sexual predator!"
"Why isn't it easy?" Lucy spun around on Mackenzie and scoffed. "Because I'm fat? Screw you!"
"Fat? Why would you ever think you're fat? You..." Mackenzie blinked in surprise. She crossed her arms and shook her head. "Okay, sit your ass down because now we really need to talk. Do not say mean words at me. Teenager or not, I will slap you across this room until you lose whatever words stuck on the tip of your tongue."
Lucy ground her teeth and glared at the woman. She wanted to say more, snark off to her step mother and not let her get the chance to speak to her, but she couldn't. This rebellion stage was stressful enough on her mother and she knew the phone call home and mentions of her arrival to Judy would sent her over the edge after countless times of signing behavior slips from her teachers.
"What has gotten into you lately?" Mackenzie asked, shoving Lucy down into a chair at the kitchen table. "You have been so negative...hateful. You're acting like you just don't care and your Mom and I are concerned. Is this about us fighting for full custody again?"
"No." Lucy muttered, tracing the table runner with her dark nails and refusing to look up at her mother.
"Then what is it? What's on your mind?" Mackenzie lowered down close to the teenager. "What's got you so angry all the time?"
