Project Equality

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Elysia

"Get the schedule," I shouted to Jen, arranging blankets for people to sit on. It was the first Friday of September, and the first meeting of the new version of Club. I don't know why I was in charge of things, but I was freaking the fuck out. It was terrifying, and for all that was about to go down, I wasn't ready. I felt like nothing was right, nothing was ready.

"I have it," Jen replied, holding a clipboard and a manager style headset. I didn't think that actually connected to anything, but I didn't ask. With Jenna, it could've been anyone from her moms to the President talking in her ear.

"Lisa, take pictures," I called.

"I've got my baby ready," she called back, holding up her camera.

"Hey, babe," came a soft voice in my ear, arms around my waist. "Relax. It's going to be wonderful."

"Lau, this is the first day of the rest of our lives. Do you see it? Do you feel it? We can't get this wrong," I stressed.

"Whatever will happen today will happen. We have every day after today to make it right. Everyone who wants to come will love being here, because you guys make it impossible not to love," she assured me. "We do have elections afterwards for those of us who have been here a few more times, though . . ."

"And?" I asked.

"You're going to be the new Club president, don't you know?"

I sighed. "I don't know. Why not Jenna or Hazel or Ami? Why me?"

"Because you're passionate and you have vision for this group."

I tried to relax, but people started arriving, and the panic built right back up.

"We recognize most of them," came Lynn's voice. "We've always known Jacob, Andrea, and Viktor, and you remember Sidney, right? It's going to be fine- Uh-oh."

"What?" I asked, jumping a little.

"Aubrey's here. I don't know how to feel about her yet, so I usually hide under things when I see her around. It's pretty bad, I know. I've just never gone from confessing my love to a straight girl to finding out she was pretty gay and into me, two years later. You'll be good, Ely. Have fun, smile a little. You're gorgeous." She proceeded to hide behind her tall boyfriend.

I jumped up onto the tiny platform that Jenna had fashioned for us, looking at the growing group before me. "Hey, everyone!"

Attention turned to me, and people began to sit around the platform, listening to whatever I would have to say. I motioned to the other six to come up and join me, and we all squeezed onto the tiny stage.

"Well, damn. I didn't think this one through very well," I realized, Lynn accidentally elbowing me in the chest. "Right, well, hi, I'm Ely."

"I'm Ami!"

"I'm Jenna."

"I'm Lynn."

"I'm Hazel."

"I'm Lisa."

"And I am May."

"I'd share our origin story, but I wasn't here as long as others, so I'll hand that over to Ami." I gestured to her, and she made her way to the front.

"In the sixth grade, I wanted friends - real friends - so I walked up to May and asked if she wanted to make a Club with me. She did, so we were friends. It only was a day or so before we found Lisa, though, and thus we began to grow. We started hanging out all of the time, had a group chat, and were best friends before you knew it. In the seventh grade, we became friends with Lynn, and that was when we started learning about ourselves. Lynn has always been super confident and flirty, and her openness about being pan helped us all to learn about sexuality and gender, and we though we were all falling under a similar category of genderfluid. Low and behold, the Genderfluid Club was born."