Girl Who Cried Wolf

Painting Rainbows

"Sam has glorious hair," Tillie said, three episodes in an amount of fangirling that made Tracey and Kassandra leave the room, Tillie and Tyla had gotten comfortable on the couch. Tillie leaning over, practically on Tyla, and Tyla's arm around Tillie.

Purely for comfort. Nothing more. Shut up.

"Who do you think is hotter, Sam or Dean?" Tyla asked. It was the question everyone asked, and Tillie was straight, she reminded herself. So this would be Tillie's kind of question, even if it wasn't Tyla's.

"Honestly, neither. I think Charlie's the hottest," Tillie said like it was nothing but Tyla almost screamed.

"Wait. Don't mess with my head, are you-"

"Gay?"

"Yeah,"

"Don't tell my parents?" Tillie asked, leaving in closer to talk quieter.

"'Course."

"I drank too much tap water," Tillie whispered and then Tyla actually did scream a little bit but you can't blame her, this was a I-didn't-know-she-was-gay-but-YES moment.

"Oh hell yeah!" Tyla celebrated, and Tillie giggled.

"What? You too?" Tillie asked.

"Oh yeah, I drink way too much tap water," Tyla said, and they laughed. And as their laughter morphed to lazy smiles, Tyla realized their position. At some point during their conversation they had gone from a casual lean into each other to Tillie in between Tyla's legs, and practically laying on her. But Tyla didn't mind. And Tillie was gay.

But then the front door opened and Tillie shot up. Tyla slowly following her.

"Clotilde!" A woman screamed, jumping back into the arms of a man. "You scared me. I thought you were staying at your partners house?" Tyla guessed these were Tillie's parents, and on top of that, guessed that Tillie must be a nickname for Clotilde.

"We decided to come here actually, I didn't mean to scare you. This is my partner, Tyla Burton," Tillie said, introduced her and Tyla put on her politest smile.

"Nice to meet you Mrs. and Mr. Newton," Tyla said sweetly.

"Nice to meet you too dear," Mrs. Newton said. "Tyla is a strange name."

"Yeah," Tyla said. She got the comment often. She really wanted to say that Clotilde was a strange name too but didn't out of fear of being impolite and getting kicked out or offending Tillie. "I hope it's ok that we're here. I had to bring over my younger siblings," Tyla said and if on cue Tracey and Kassandra walked in to see who had entered the house.

"Oh, do we have to leave?" Kassandra asked, looking from Tillie's parents, to Tillie, then Tyla in question.

"No, no. You two can stay," Mr. Newton said, although his voice was strained. As if he didn't like the idea of more than one or two teens in his house. "What are your names?"

"I'm Tracey and this is my younger sister, Kassandra," Tracey introduced. Mrs. Newton smiled and hugged both of them awkwardly. But she didn't seem to know that it was awkward.

"Do we need to call your parents and let them know you'll be staying?" Mrs. Newton asked and the four teens all tensed up. The silence went on for too long, so Tyla broke it before someone told the Newton's the truth.

"Oh, no. We already told them. They're working late tonight so I have to watch Tracey and Kassandra," Tyla lied quickly and too easily.

"Perfect. I see you already had dinner, so we're all set for bed. Tyla, you can stay in Clotilde's room and Tracey and Kassandra can stay in the guest bedroom. Clotilde, can you show them their rooms and tell them about our routines?" Mrs. Newton said so sweetly Tyla wanted to throw up. She was relieved when Tillie nodded and the four teens grabbed their backpacks and followed Tillie up the stairs.

"Here's the guest bedroom," Tillie said opening a door, "if you need anything, Tyla and I will be in that room," Tillie pointed directly across the hall to show the door that Tillie had opened earlier to show Tyla her art.

Tracey and Kassandra nodded and they said their goodnights before retreating into their temporary room. Tyla followed Tillie into her room and waited until the door was closed to ask the question she was dying to ask.

"Your parents make you go to sleep at 8?" Tyla asked and Tillie shook her head and lifted her backpack into the air.

"9. I have to study for an hour," Tillie said taking a seat at her desk and Tyla groaned.

"Told you, you were the type to study for an hour every night," Tyla teased but her teasing didn't stop Tillie from getting all her textbooks and binders out of her backpack.

"More like my parents are the type. But I think I can put it off because we have to do those health worksheets, and actually turn the baby on," Tillie said. and again Tyla groaned.

"That's not much better," Tyla complained but got her health binder out. Personally Tyla thought the project was stupid, but they make juniors take it to get students to stay abstinent or whatever so they don't become teen parents.

"What time did Mrs. Garcia say we needed to turn on the baby?" Tyla asked plopping herself down on Tillie's bed.

"8-9, apparently she wants us to suffer our first hours with the baby while we're trying to sleep." Tillie swirled around in her chair until she was facing Tyla. "What's our baby's name?"

"Does the baby need a name?" Tyla countered, looking at the tiny plastic baby sitting on Tyla's backpack and when she looked back up at Tillie, she was holding up a green paper that looked an awful lot like a birth certificate. "I don't know, name her Jojo for all I care."

Tillie grinned and spun back around furiously writing before handing the birth certificate to Tyla.

Name: Jojo Newton-Burton

Parents: Clotilde Newton & Tyla Burton

Date of Birth: May 22nd, 2018

"Wow," Tyla said, wiping away a fake tear. "We did such a good job. Who gave birth to Jojo?"

"I think it's you," Tillie said and Tyla shook her head like crazy.

"Aw, hell no," Tyla protested causing Tillie to laugh.

"You did put Jojo together," Tillie wiggled her eyebrows and Tyla groaned, unable to argue with that.

"Fine. But I'm grumpy about it," Tyla gave in and handed Tillie Jojo's birth certificate back. Tyla grabbed Jojo and turned her upside down, trying to remember how she managed to get the whole inside of the baby to meet up with the on switch. But it didn't, so Tyla ended up having to unscrew the battery compartment and stick the screw up there to hit the button. "I didn't do a very good job, apparently."

The instant Jojo was on, she started crying. "Fun," Tillie said.

"What does she want?" Tyla asked, holding the baby out at arms length. Trying to figure it out.

"I don't know? Hungry?" Tillie suggested and together they scrambled through their backpacks searching for the bottle with the sensor to get Jojo to SHUT UP.

They found it five minutes later and shoved it in her mouth and she went quiet other than small noises that mimicked a baby drinking.

"I hate this."