Where Tears Fall Like Snow

21

-Andy-

"I'm home." I say tossing my bag onto the couch.
"Hi sweetie, I-" She stops at looks at me, "Oh honey... your hair, your beautiful, long hair."
"The 'beautiful' long hair that I hated." I say
"I don't understand." She says, "What are you trying to say?"
"I-"
"Are you trying to be a boy because I didn't raise you to be like that." She says, "I tried so hard to raise you-"
"All these years you tried to raise me like you wanted." I say, "You tried to to raise me well but you didn't because you never asked what I want."
"Honey, I'm just trying to protect you." She says
"From what?" I ask, "From Skye and her moms? From everyone who's fine with how they are?"
"From making a decision you'll regret." She says
"What decision?" I ask, "The only decisions I can think of right now are the ones you've made leading up to this."
"I want to protect you." She says, "That's all I've ever wanted. I love you, Anna."
"Andy." I say, "And if you love me as much as you say, you'll let me be me without being ashamed of it."
"Andy?" She asks, "But Anna is-"
"I know, Anna was a family name and stuff, but I like Andy more."
"So what are you trying to tell me?" She asks, "Are you a boy or a lesbian, what are you?"
"I'm a demiboy." I say, "But I lean more towards the masculine side so I could be
he/him or they/them if you don't want to call me one or the other." She nods slowly.
"I'm your mother, and I always will be. I'm sorry I didn't make you feel comfortable sharing such a big part of your life with me." She says, "I will try as hard as I can to be supportive of you." She hugs me tightly.
"I love you." She whispers in my ear.

"You look happy today." Skye says sitting downs
"I am." I say
"Which means you're either not grounded or happy to be grounded." She says
"I'm not grounded." I say
"Ok, so what happened?" She asks
"I came out to my mom!" I say
"That's amazing! How'd she react?" She says
"She said she'd try to be as supportive as she can." I say, "Which is a start."
"I'm still super proud of you." She says, "Here, have a cookie." She hands me a cookie.
"Doing anything after school?" I ask
"I mean, Alex and Scott are getting out and we're all gonna hang around and watch movies but you can come." She says
"No, it's fine." I say, "I don't want to intrude or anything."
"No, come over." She says, "It wouldn't be a friends movie afternoon with all my friends from school."
"Friend." I joke
"I will take that cookie and I will eat it right in front of you." She says jokingly. I lick the cookie and smirk.
"I'll still eat it." She says
"Gross." I laugh.

-Shelby-

"Are we too early?" Ash asks, "Rain said we were gonna be late."
"No, you're fine." Yammy says, "Lizzie is just making popcorn with Oli."
"So the popcorn might be a little burnt." I joke
"Oli!" We hear Lizzie shout from the kitchen. We all laugh.
"We're here!" Ari calls. She and Alex walk in.
"Hey guys." Rain says, "Good to see you Alex."
"Aye, you too." They say
"Oh, Andy, this is Yammy, Shelby, Ari and Alex." Skye says, "Everyone, this is Andy."
"Hi." We all say.
"Ok, let's get this started." An unenthusiastic voice says.
"And there's River." Ash says

"Ok, does everyone have their bowl of popcorn?" I ask
"Yup." Lauren says
"Ok, who's picking the first movie out of the bowl of movies?" Ari asks
"I say Alex." Skye says. They reach their hand into the bowl and pulls out a piece of paper.
"Everyday." They say. Yammy turns on the movie.
"Andy, I hope you know we'll talk almost the entire movie." Alex says
"Yeah, Alex got us kicked out of a movie theater once or twice... or seventeen times." Ari says
"Hey, half-race squad, you guys are quiet." Ash says
"That's generally what you do when you're watching a movie." Scott says
"Then we do two, very different things at movies." She says. Skye and Andy start laughing.
"Not like that!" They say, "God, Ash is rubbing off on you guys."
"Is anyone else bored of the movie?" Stella asks
"Yeah." Ari says, "Is anyone actually watching this?"
"Nope." Lizzie says. Ari turns off the tv.
"My mom wants me back home." Andy says
"Bye!" Ari says. They walk back in.
"Update, there's hunters out there so I might be here for a little." They say. Everyone stands up and summons their casters."
"Here, come with me." Skye says taking Andy's hand. We run outside, hunters surround the houses.
"Stay behind us." Skye whispers to Andy. Alex turns and swings their sword, blocking a hunter's staff. The hunter stares into Alex's eyes.
"Alex, look away!" Ari says. Quickly, Ari turns block another hunter's staff.
"They're mind controllers." Rain says, "Don't look them in they eye."
"Well, someone snap Alex out of it!" Ash says
"We can't." Ari says, "That's dangerous, we have to wait for them to snap out of it." Donnie whimpers and falls over.
"V..." Ivory says cautiously. Alex snaps out of it and puts a shield around her.
"Violet, don't you dare!" They say. Time freezes.
"Who's doing that?" I ask.
"Me." Andy says. They stand there with their hand out.
"You said you were a dull caster, right?" Skye asks, "Dull casters can't freeze time."
"We can't?" They ask
"No, but can we talk about this when time isn't frozen and our lives aren't at stake." Ivory says. Ari casts out a beam of light, all the hunters disappear. Andy puts down their hand and time starts again.
"So if dull casters can't manipulate time, what kind of caster am I?" They ask