The States

there's nothing wrong with you (it's true)

Oliver figures it out himself, so Mindy is technically the first person he tells.

Mindy bites her lip thoughtfully and squints at him. "Is this why you wanted me to cut your hair?"

He nods.

"Do Corey and Michael know?"

"Not yet."

Mindy's eyebrows furrow. "Do- Am I not supposed to call you Claire anymore?"

He doesn't wince, but it's a close thing. "Please don't?"

Mindy looks guilty and nods firmly. "I won't. I'm sorry." She hesitates. "What do you want to be called then?"

"I don't know yet." He hadn't found a name he wanted to be called forever yet.

Mindy brightens. "Then we'll find one! Oliver too, he knows right?"

He grins. "Yeah."

---------------------------

He picks his name in the library on the hottest day that summer with Mindy and Oliver both grinning at him, and he can't help but smile every time they say his name.

He still hasn't told Corey and Michael, though, and that means he's still suppressing flinches every time someone says Claire, but Mindy seemed to be taking her promise very seriously- she hadn't said it once since then, resorting to tapping him to get his attention around the others. Once, she had thrown a strawberry across the table at him to get his attention, and then he couldn't explain why it made him smile to Micheal.

---------------------------

He has a nightmare that Corey and Michael hate him and Alfred takes his star away and he can't stop crying.

He taps on the wall between his room and Oliver's, hoping for a tap back.

There isn't one, but he should have known it was too late at night for Oliver to be awake-

There's a soft knock on the door, and he pulls the quilt tighter around himself as it opens.

"I heard you crying," Oliver says. He pushes his glasses up as he sits down beside him, stealing some of the blanket.

"I had a nightmare."

Oliver nods and doesn't ask what it was about. Oliver leans his head on his shoulder, and they stay like that until the sunrises.

---------------------------

Telling Cass is less daunting than telling either Corey or Michael, but it's still scary.

"Um, Cass, can- can I tell you something?"

Cass's eyebrows scrunch together in confusion, but she still nods. "I guess?"

He leans up and whispers it into her ear.

Cass blinks. "Oh. Oh."

He picks at his fingernails and waits for her to say something.

Cass smiles at him. "Hey, you're okay, I still love you- I guess you're my brother now and that's- that's okay. It's more than okay." Her nose scrunches up as she struggles for words. "You're still you...just more you? I'm sorry, I'm terrible at this."

He's beaming. "You're great."

Cass ruffles his hair, still smiling.

---------------------------

Cass greets him by ruffling his hair the next day. "I forgot to ask, but what do you want to be called? I mean, are you going to go by a different name or..?"