Kit and Kin   by poetheather

 
Takeshi Saito was a quiet student who kept his head down in Ravencrest High School trying to get along. But strange things happen in this small town and the spotlight finds those who would rather hide. So Takeshi finds himself pulled from his happy geek corner to somewhere else, somewhere he is not sure of.

January 24

Once class was over, Dana and Maeko collected their stuff, stood and started to head to their lockers. Dana called out before she left, saying, “See you out front Maeko.”

“You too Dana.” Maeko turned and headed off. She could gather up her other books and meet Cindy and Tracy fairly quickly if she did not run into anyone. And now with the restrictions gone, she was able to use a good bit more of her grace and training to weave a bit more between people on her way to her locker. That made her a lot happier and did speed up the process a good bit.

She reached her locker in record time, having startled only a few freshmen boys with one of her shifts through the crowd. Once there she got the books she would need for homework and left the rest. Looking at them she did wonder if she would even have any time for homework tonight what with Mr. McC coming over and then her parents killing her and disposing her body. It would probably be a full night because of that and she might not be able to get to math. She better bring the book just in case. Her parents might torture her first.

When she reached the front of the school, she saw that Cindy and Tracy were already there. Cindy waved and Maeko smiled in response. It did kind of boggle her mind about how she had gone from one of the lowest rungs of the school’s social ladder to now hanging out with two of the people who were practically at the highest points. True Cindy was higher than Tracy but they were both a good bit higher than Takeshi had been. The whole thing was crazy but she could live with this as it was a nice change of pace. She had to admit that hanging with pretty girls was worlds better than being dumped into garbage cans by psychotic gorillas that was for sure.

“So are you ready for a fun day hanging with the girls?” asked Cindy.

“You know I’m only here under duress, right?” added Tracy.

Cindy sighed and shook her head, “Yes, I know, I blackmailed you into doing this. We have to show solidarity to our new sister in this, her time of need. Don’t you want to help her?”

“Maybe help her get away from you, you crazy coyote.” grumbled Tracy as she looked down at the ground.

“I am looking forward to it. You two don’t have anything planned do you?” asked Maeko, a bit worriedly, looking back and forth between the girls. What was with them? They were not this snippy in class.

Tracy rolled her eyes, shaking her head in disbelief while Cindy lifted a hand to her chest, saying, “Us? Have a plan? You wound us Maeko.”

“Oh gods!” groaned Maeko. “Please don’t embarrass me.”

Cindy just smiled mischievously as Dana was walking up. “Hey! So, I could do with a snack as lunch was a while ago and not very good. Want to go to grab some pizza or something?”

After a brief discussion conducted only with glances and shrugs, the girls all agreed that it sounded like a fine idea and so Maeko was back at the same place twice in two days. Not that she really minded, as the food was good and all, but it was unusual for her. She was looking at the menu, trying to figure out what she wanted to have this time because in all honesty pizza didn’t sound all that good today. With what was going to be coming up later she wanted something that sat in her stomach a little bit lighter.

“Have you figured out what you want?” asked Dana, glancing over from her menu.

Maeko blanked for a moment, unsure how to respond and then looked up from the menu. Maybe she should just talk normally, like she was talking to Maggie? She could do that… right? “I was trying to decide between something pasta or something else. I don’t want anything all that heavy, like pizza.”

“Well, they do have some good pasta dishes. Their bolognaise is really good but if you want different, the puttanesca is also excellent. It’s not the classic version but a bit tricked out with roasted red peppers and a few other things. It’s pretty tasty. Their alfredo is not bad, kind of standard really, but their carbonara is excellent. Does that help?” Maeko tried to not get lost in that smile, so she turned to look at the menu to reference the things that Dana was talking about.

“What are you getting?” she asked, more to keep the conversation going than anything else. She could listen to Dana read the phone book in all honesty. True that might be a bit weird, but she would do it anyway.

“I was thinking of getting the Supreme Calzone. The vegetables really set off the sausage and beef.” replied Dana.

“That does sound good.” Maeko did have to admit that it did sound good but the pasta dishes were really tempting.

“Well, you get what you want and we can share, because I really do like their pasta as well.” Dana’s offer sounded really nice.

Maeko nodded, not sure if this was really happening. “That sounds good. I think I’ll try the puttanesca. That sounds interesting. I’ve never had anything like that before. What are you guys getting?”

“Were splitting a pizza.” replied Tracy.

Maeko realized that girls having this sort of appetite might be considered a bit on the strange side, but then again there was the fact that they were all weres of one type or another that really made things a bit different. All of them had to have larger than normal appetites. Thankfully, her eating habits would not stand out much with this crowd but maybe it would when around other people. She would have to watch it a bit more when she was around Maggie.

“So what are we going to do today?” asked Dana curiously.

“Same thing we do every day, try to take over the world!” snarked Cindy with a slight giggle.

Tracy and Maeko both rolled their eyes at that. Was Cindy actually for real? Maeko asked, “No really, what’s the plan?”

Cindy shrugged. “I don’t know. I figure we can just kind of wander around, window shop, and talk.”

Dana smiled. “That sounds good.”

Tracy seemed a bit resigned to that, clearly not pleased with that option. “I almost invited Mary to come with us but she said she didn’t want to go shopping with Ravencrest Barbie.”

Cindy snickered at that as Maeko nodded her head. “I’m good with that, though I can’t be out for too long. I figure when I turn my phone back on my Aunt’s going to scream at me.”

“Why?” Tracy asked before anyone else could.

Maeko was well aware that she couldn’t explain the real story to any of them, because she was not really sure they would understand. And besides, did she actually want Dana to know she had been a guy? “Something with the Vice Principal.”

The three girls all nodded their heads in understanding. Clearly they had all had moments with the Vice Principal. Cindy said, “Yeah, Mr. McC is a bit… well creepifying at times. I’m not really comfortable around him.”

Tracy shrugged. “He really seems to hate me. But that’s nothing new.”

Dana sighed. “That’s true. He’s not very approachable for an administrator is he.”

The other three snickered at that.

Maeko smiled. “Yeah, so he ended up talking to my Aunt today so I’m gonna be in trouble when I check in. I don’t want to do it now but I can’t make it too late or I’m gonna catch even more hell.”

Cindy gave her a speculative look, as if trying to work out a potential deeper level to the whole thing. “I think I’m following you. Let me think about it before we do too much.”

The food did not take too long to get there. It was still as good as it had always had been but the new dish she tried was a lot better than she had expected. She was certainly not disappointed with her meal. Dana had really made a great suggestion. As the conversation was going well and Maeko was relaxing more and more around Dana, Cindy looked up and said, “Oh hey, there’s Carson. Come on Tracy, come help me go bother him.”

The other girl rolled her eyes but went along with her, scooting out of the booth before following Cindy towards her cousin. Maeko was a bit panicked by this. She was being left alone with Dana, without either of the other two to help keep her brain from stalling out because Dana might smile or something. What was she supposed to do now? She wasn’t exactly sure if she would be able to keep the conversation going between the two of them. It was taking real effort not to go into a full blown panic attack over this.

Dana smiled at her and asked, “So did you still want some of my calzone?”

Maeko smiled back, glad that she was off the hook for keeping the conversation going on this one. “Sure. That did sound good and it smells really tasty. Want a bite of the puttanesca?”

“Please. That sounds really good.”

The girls each got bite sized portions on their forks and there was a little bit of hand shuffling as if they were unsure if they were going to feed each other or just hand the forks over. That got them laughing over the whole thing and then moaning appreciatively over the taste of the food. “That is a really good calzone.”

“I know. Didn’t I tell you?”

“You did. I also really like this pasta. Thank you for the suggestion. It is really wonderful. The interplay of flavors is great.” gushed Maeko.

Dana smiled and looked down at her plate, suddenly seeming a touch shy, “So I never did hear why you are stuck here in our little slice of tundra.”

Maeko groaned and banged her head against the padded cushion of the seat. “Oh man… it’s hella stupid… you probably don’t want to hear it.”

“No please, tell me.” Dana looked at her so sincerely that Maeko felt her resolve begin to slip. How could she say no to Dana about anything?

So Maeko shared with her the cover story, the whole ridiculous drama of it all, though she did add in that she and her ‘girlfriend’ were pretty much broken up over this due to the distance and the drama of the getting caught.

“Were you the only lesbians in town?” asked Dana curiously.

“In our age group? Yeah. There were some adults, but it’s not like they really counted.” commented Maeko.

Dana looked out the window, at the street and the sparse traffic of the town. “That has to be rough, being one of the only lesbians in town.”

Maeko could hear something in her tone. There was more there than just commiseration. “Speaking from experience?”

Dana smirked a bit ruefully. “Yeah. I was hiding this from a lot of people but I got tired of it. You know how it is; trying to keep a secret from the people you care about. But I just couldn’t take it anymore so I pretty much came out. A little while after that the girl I had been seeing and I broke up. Since then, no dates, nothing. I guess the few girls that I know who are interested are a bit too scared of public opinion.”

“People are anti-gay here?” asked Maeko worriedly. This was not a trend she had seen as Takeshi but Dana would have had a more intimate knowledge of the subject since this was her life.

“Some of the families are not exactly big on anything that is not… well by the book normal, whatever the hell that is. They don’t want people to stand out. So of course if anything like two girls or two guys kissing or heavens forbid a transperson were here, that would attract attention and they think that is bad. It’s all such bullshit.” grumbled Dana, as she stabbed her calzone, cutting off another piece with barely restrained anger. “But no, no one in town is actively anti-gay. They’re just disapproving and give you those looks.”

Maeko nodded her head. The more she heard about it from Dana the more that sort of explained things between her mother and her family. If her mother had been coming out and stuff and they told her that she had to look and act ‘normal’… yeah, that would have gone over well. She could not imagine her mother taking that even remotely well. That would surely drive a wedge between her mother and any other family members. And with the Saitos not really caring about that sort of thing… yeah, things were beginning to make more and more sense, pieces falling into place. This was definitely something that would need to be talked about tonight.

“That has to suck.” said Maeko, rather deadpanned.

“Was it not like that in California?” asked Dana.

“No. California is really a different world. Pearson’s Creek is pretty small but it has a good sized GLBT community. Thing is, they’re all older, so no one is really in my age bracket to hang around with. So you have an accepting community there for all the good it does you.” Maeko rolled her eyes, working to help sell the story. She wanted to make sure that this whole cover held together better today, especially since she knew her mothers were going to kill her over Mr. McC.

“That almost sounds better than here.” Dana sighed kind of wistfully. “There are times where I really love this town and times where I really don’t.”

“Isn’t that the way everyone feels about where they growup?” asked Maeko, pointing out something she thought was rather obvious.

“Oh sure… get all logical on me. You know Maeko, it’s been really nice getting to know you.”

“It’s been nice getting to know you too Dana.” Maeko smiled happily. Even if she was going to die when she got home at least she was going to die happy.

Cindy came back over and said, “Hey Chatty Cathy… it is getting kind of late. You guys have talked longer than you probably should have. Maybe you should call your Aunts?”

Maeko pulled out her phone and turned it back on. She noted the time with some dismay and winced at the fifteen missed calls, four of which that were in the last fifteen minutes. This was really not going to be good. “Yeah, thanks Cindy. Bye Dana, see you tomorrow if my Aunts don’t kill me and bury me in the backyard.”

“Bye Maeko. Have a good night! Good luck!”

Maeko got on her coat and headed outside, waving bye. This was not going to be fun but it had to be done. That voice had been insistent and she had felt like she could trust it. All her training had told her that she should follow her instincts and she had and now she was going to pay the price for that. At least she got to sit and talk to Dana before she died. Maybe, just maybe Cindy wasn’t a total pain in the ass.