Tori dropped Rylee off at Kelly’s house, and immediately drove home. The meeting was set for eight, and she’d dropped Rylee off at exactly seven forty-five. She made it home in record time, shoving her key in the front door and pressing her back to it as she closed it.

“Shit,” she said aloud, breathing heavily and doing her best to collect herself before walking to the bedroom. Around Rylee she’d done her best to put up a ‘tough guy’ front, but even she had to admit that right now she was at a complete loss. She was about to meet with Ariel for the first time with Lucille as a mediator. They’d gone through so much to get to this point, to find Ariel, and she knew that she should be excited, but for some reason she felt nothing but apprehension.

Each step toward the bedroom felt like the steps of a condemned woman passing the cells of death row on the way to the electric chair, though in this case, the laptop computer was the instrument of execution. What would she say to someone like Ariel Skye? Rylee had spoken highly of her, and as Tori understood it, Ariel had been instrumental in Rylee’s transition under the nose of her ultra-conservative parents. This girl loved Rylee as much as Tori did, if not more. She would have questions, and more than anything, Tori wanted to make sure that she was ready to answer them.

The laptop was still open and powered on; the Netmeeting application was minimized and with a click, Tori brought it up. On a small notepad beside the computer was an IP address provided by Lucille, which Tori slowly entered. Her finger hovered over the Enter key for a full minute as she tried to get her breathing under control. This morning she’d taken care to apply makeup and brush out her hair. She’d even chosen a nicer blouse than usual, just to avoid looking like a shoe-dwelling hag for this call.

“Why do I care so much?” Tori muttered to herself. But she knew why she cared; this was Ariel Skye, the most important person in Rylee’s life, and there was a chance that this could become confrontational. With no more time to delay, she tapped the Enter key and waited for Netmeeting to connect. The call went through almost immediately with Lucille’s video stream appearing alongside another girl, a younger blonde, perhaps a few years older than Rylee. Her hair was long and straightened, her makeup immaculate just like Rylee’s always was. Well, at least she knew where Rylee had gotten her skill from.

“Hi,” Tori said, unsure of how to actually start the conversation. “I’m, uh…My name is Tori. I…I guess you’re Ariel?”

“I am,” the girl said as Lucille remained silent, watching the increasingly awkward interaction. “Lucille says you have my sister.”

“I…do…well, she’s not here right now, but yes, we have her.” Tori nodded, her nervousness increasing with every passing second. Ariel watched her with cold eyes from a state away, clearly resisting the urge to pose a million questions to Tori right at the start.

“Where is she?” Ariel asked evenly, clearly doing her best to keep emotion out of her voice.

“She’s at school,” Tori told her. “It, um…today was her first day back.”

“She’s going to college?” Ariel looked worried; there was little doubt she knew about Rylee’s social issues, not to mention how difficult it would be for a trans girl.

“We, um…we sent her to high school.” Tori regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth, but what else was there to say?

“You what?!” Ariel demanded, her eyes growing wide as both rage and panic began to manifest in her quickly changing expression. “You can’t do that! She’s eighteen now, and…and oh my god, you know she’s autistic and trans, right?!”

“She’s aware,” Lucille cut in, quelling Ariel’s mounting panic. “We’ve discussed it.”

“Then…” Ariel looked from left to right, her image freezing briefly as she did so. “How could you do that to her? Those kids will eat her alive! Are you trying to get her killed or something?!”
“We worked out a protection plan for her,” Tori explained quickly. “We, um…we were able to anticipate any troubles she might have and…basically, Mom and I have friends with a daughter in her grade and she’s just going to stick with that friend group. It should keep her safe and unnoticed.”

“And if it doesn’t?!” Ariel demanded. “You can’t keep track of her at school!”

“I make her text me every half hour, though in school I’m having her do it in between periods,” Tori explained, then took a deep breath before continuing. “Look, Ariel…I…I know that you’ve known Rylee for longer than me, obviously, but we…we know what we’re doing here. My mom is a social worker; Lucille trusts her. We were able to identify Rylee’s disabilities early on and we were able to address them. Some stuff she knows about, but a lot of stuff we do behind the scenes to make sure she’s comfortable and safe. Her safety is our number one priority.”

Ariel stopped talking and appeared to be deep in thought, chewing her lip and then placing her chin on her knuckles as she studied Tori. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she spoke again.

“How exactly did she come to be with you?” Ariel asked. Tori took pause herself as she tried to remind herself that while she was being interrogated by a child, it was Rylee’s sister; she had every right to be suspicious.

“I don’t know how much Lucille told you…” Tori trailed off, waiting for Lucille to interject.

“I didn’t get a chance to talk to her much,” Lucille said apologetically. “Like I said, we’ve got a lot going on over here.”

“Right,” Tori nodded, then took another deep breath. “Ariel, I…I don’t have a good way to say this, at all. She went through some things before she…before she got to me. I don’t know all of it, I’m sorry I don’t, but I know she was…sold…”

“Sold?” Ariel shook her head, her voice suddenly beginning to shake. “What do you mean sold?”

“I mean she…she met some people that she found online and they…oh god, Ariel, I’m so sorry -- they used her, sexually. She got away somehow, I don’t know how, but the poor thing…she didn’t know what to do or how to function in the real world, so she started breaking into houses and stealing food. I don’t know how long she was doing it, but I caught her in my house about four months ago and I just…okay, this is going to sound awful; I just didn’t let her leave.”

“You held her prisoner?!”

“In a manner of speaking,” Tori said quickly. “Look, she was so thin, her feet were swollen, her face was bruised like someone hit her. She was so afraid, and timid, and…I couldn’t let her go out there, but I couldn’t take her to a shelter or call the police.”

“Because she’s trans,” Ariel said – a statement rather than a question.

“Okay, this is embarrassing,” Tori admitted. “I didn’t know she was trans for the first three months. I know it sounds stupid, but she’s good, really, really good. She has the voice and the behavior down to a science. That’s why I have no problem sending her to school, she passes like a football.”

“And when you found out she was trans?”

“I loved her just the same, hell, maybe even more,” Tori said. “But it also helped me to understand how vulnerable she really was. Your sister needs to be protected and we’re doing the best we can. She’s a little headstrong, but it’s nothing we can’t deal with.”

“Who exactly is we?” Ariel demanded, even though her glare had softened considerably.

“Well, me, obviously,” Tori laughed a little. “And my mom, she’s a social worker. And my best friend, Fiona, she’s in nursing school. If you can believe it, they figured out that Rylee was trans way before I did and they just…didn’t tell me.”

“Why wouldn’t they tell you that?” Ariel furrowed her brow. “That…seems important?”

“They were always hovering,” Tori explained. “They knew I would figure it out eventually, but my mom would sit her down and do therapy with her, and Fiona took care of her doctor stuff. They just left me to love her and take care of her. I guess the logic was that she’d been robbed of enough of her autonomy and if she wanted to hang onto this one last secret, she should be able to. Ariel, her entire life was laid bare, she has no secrets left. I want her to be her own person, but so much shit has happened to her and our lives are just intertwined now. I am trying, but it’s taking time. I love her, I’m glad she’s here, but this situation isn’t normal and we have to handle it in a really unique way.”

“But you didn’t let her leave,” Ariel said it again. “You kept her…like a prisoner.”

“Okay, god dammit, Ariel,” Tori said, barely managing to keep her temper under control. “If I let her go, she would be homeless still and probably would have been killed by now. If I’d taken her to the police, she would have been put in a cell with men. If I took her to social services? A group home, with men. A homeless shelter? Men again. There’s no help for someone like her. I did the best I could because the system is bullshit, and I knew it was bullshit even before I knew she was trans. She’s happy, she laughs, she plays video games, she reads, she has friends and most of all, god dammit, she gets to be herself.”

“I’m sorry,” Ariel said; Tori watched her closely now, seeing the signs of both exhaustion and hopelessness on her face. This was someone who had gone through years of hell, and then two more of them looking for the sister she loved; of course she’d be a bit suspicious. “I…I’ve waited for so long and…I’m just emotional. I shouldn’t be taking it out on you, especially if Lucille says you’re alright.”

“I would be the same way.” Tori smiled at her. “But she’s safe, she’s happy, and she’s Rylee.”

“Um…” Ariel wiped an emergent tear with the side of her palm, dragging her hand across her face and letting out a sniff. “What is she like? Do you have any pictures?”

“I do, actually.” Tori nodded and smiled. “I took a picture yesterday in her back to school outfit. Do you want to see it?”

“Yes!” Ariel suddenly perked up, eyes wide. “Oh my god, yes, here, let me put my e-mail address in the chat.”

Tori waited for the e-mail address to appear, then copied it into Outlook along with the picture of Rylee in her back to school outfit along with a few other shots of her and clicked send.

“Did you get them?” Tori asked, but she got her answer when Ariel’s face lit up, then transformed into utter shock as she mouthed ‘oh my god.’

“She looks like that?” Ariel’s eyes were wide. “We got her looking pretty good, but this…”

“She’s great at makeup, and her hair is gorgeous; you can see we made her a brunette.”

“Does…she have a broken arm?” Ariel frowned, and Tori’s heart fell into her throat as she remembered the incident at Chell’s shed just a few weeks ago.

“Oof, yeah,” Tori said apologetically. “She…did something dumb.”

“Well, her bones break easily.” Ariel shrugged and then chuckled as if recalling a distant memory. “She broke her other arm twice on the playground at school. The first time was on a jungle gym…or rather off the jungle gym because she just fell off. Then the slide.”

“She broke her arm on a slide?”

“Yeah!” Ariel suddenly laughed. “When she was like eight, it was like…a slide with curved edges, right? She was sliding down and tried to ride on the side instead of in the middle like a normal person and…she kind of flew off. It wasn’t a long drop, but damn, that girl needs to drink more milk!”

“Well, it was a little crazier than that,” Tori laughed. “I’d love to fill you in when you get here.”

“When…I get there?”

“Look, Ariel, she has a home here and she’s building a life, but she needs to see you again. I can see it in her eyes, she’s happy but there’s a piece missing. Look, you’re welcome any time, you can fly into Dayton and we’ll pick you up.”

“Okay, okay,” Ariel said quickly. “Um…I need to take time off of work. I think I have some PTO saved up, I just need to talk to my boss. Maybe like…in two weeks?”

“Whenever you can,” Tori said. “But in between, maybe she can video chat with you?”

“Yes! Yes, of course!” Ariel beamed. “And she’s…okay to stay there? It’s not an inconvenience, is it?”

“She, um…” Tori pursed her lips, trying to think of a way to phrase it, but Lucille did it for her.

“She can’t leave,” Lucille said simply. Ariel frowned, her eyes darted from left to right as her confusion grew.

“What…do you mean she can’t leave?” Ariel shook her head and frowned again. “You mean you won’t let her?”

“She…was given a choice,” Tori said slowly as she chose her words carefully. “Look, Ariel, she’s in bad shape. She has no concept of how to be social, she can barely read--”

“Barely read?” Ariel repeated, her tone rising. “She loves reading!”

“As I understand it,” Lucille cut in, “she can read, but she can’t retain the information. It’s trauma-related.”

“Basically, she’s been through so much shit she’s forgetting basic life skills,” Tori said solemnly. “That, on top of the fact that your parents--”

“You don’t need to lecture me about them.” Ariel dismissed her with a hand wave. “They barely taught her anything other than yard work or helping Dad in the pole barn with bullshit. Like that ‘57 Chevy he bought from that guy in Woodcrest; Rylee just spent ages out there handing him tools.”

“Okay, so on top of all that,” Tori said. “Her trauma is making it difficult for her to cope. So we gave her a choice; she could either be a roommate and we’d help her when we had time, or…she could be treated as a child. She would lose most of her freedoms, like going out, using the Internet, watching certain movies, even talking to people that I don’t approve of. We pushed her in the ‘roommate’ direction, but she picked option two.”

“I don’t understand,” Ariel leaned forward, frowning into the webcam. “Why would she pick that?”

“Because she knew we could save her,” Tori said simply. “We can show her the life skills that she wasn’t taught, and we’ve already started working on her sensory issues. It’s going to be a long road, but I need you to understand that I will not let her out of our agreement unless Mom and I both think she’s ready.”

“And…when will she be ready, exactly?”

“I don’t know,” Tori admitted. “I’m hoping that school helps, and we’re working on things at home. Look, no offense to your family--”

“None taken.”

“But Rylee was neglected and given severe childhood PTSD. We have to cut through it all, and we have to find her, wherever she is in there.”

“I just…have one more question,” Ariel said. “Why?”

“I’m going to give you the answer I’d never give her,” Tori said after an awkward silence. “She’s hurt, but so am I. We’re both broken and maybe by fixing her, I can fix myself. And moreover, Ariel, she’s a beautiful girl. She’s kind, she’s compassionate, loving, curious. She…didn’t deserve what she got. She didn’t. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure she’s alright.”

“Just be careful,” Ariel warned. “That’s my little sister.”

“Yeah,” Tori said, nodding. “Mine too.”

---

“Over here, Rylee.” Kelly gently took the sleeve of Rylee’s jacket and maneuvered her across the sidewalk toward the steps of the school; if Rylee hadn’t been wearing makeup, all color would have drained from her face by now. The sidewalk in front of the school was packed with more people than Rylee was comfortable with, most of them teenagers younger than her. Though, as Rylee had been reminded of countless times, she looked like a kid herself. Kelly stopped her at the far right of the steps; a group of students in red-and-white letter jackets brushed past. One boy, a brown-haired kid the size of a linebacker, did a double take at her as he ascended the stairs; Rylee cringed. “We’re going to meet Carrie Ann here,” Kelly explained.

“Does she know?” Rylee asked quickly, suddenly staring at Kelly in anticipation of an answer. Kelly didn’t respond right away; she seemed to be looking through the crowd, occasionally standing on her tippy toes to see above the sea of students as they either gravitated toward groups or headed up the stairs toward the bank of doors.

“Know what?” Kelly was clearly distracted with her visual search of the grounds.

“Um…about…me?” Rylee barely managed to squeak the words out of her mouth. Kelly looked at her quickly and then looked away.

“Oh, no,” Kelly said quickly.

“Who all knows?” Rylee could feel the flow of her blood pressure increasing with every passing second as Kelly seemed to regard the topic with complete indifference.

“Um….” Kelly took a step away from Rylee, mounting the first of the concrete steps to see over the crowd. “Sorry, what was the question?”

“Who else knows about me? You know…about me?” Rylee asked, looking up at Kelly, who had abandoned the steps and stood on the low wall next to them as she continued her search in greater detail.

“Oh that?” Kelly said, looking down in surprise. “No one, just me.”

Rylee breathed a sigh of relief at the realization that no one else knew she was trans. As she looked around, from student to student, she realized barely any of them were giving her a second glance; she was passing well.

“You won’t tell anyone, right?” Rylee called up to her.

“Would you stop worrying?” Kelly said, looking down, finally. “You look fine, no one’s going to guess, and I’m not going to tell. Hey! Carrie Ann!”

“Kelly!” A blonde girl with a pixie cut waved to them, making a brisk walk from the far side of the stairs. She smiled broadly as she reached them, giving Kelly a quick hug and then greeting Rylee. “You must be Rylee!”

“Oh, um, you’ve heard of me?” Rylee said sheepishly, resisting the urge to begin kneading her hands.

“Well, duh!” Carrie Ann laughed. “Hey, come on, we’ve gotta go in, class is starting in like ten.”

“We were waiting for you.” Kelly shook her head as she joined Carrie Ann in walking up the steps with Rylee in tow. “What took you so long?”

“We got a new cat,” she explained. “I spent half an hour lint-rolling my outfit.”

“No one told you to wear that dress.” Kelly pointed to Carrie Ann’s light blue sundress. “You could have changed. That thing is a hair magnet.”

“Screw you, I’m fabulous.” Carrie Ann rolled her eyes. “So, Rylee, you just moved here, right?”

“Uh…yes, yeah, I mean, yeah, I did,” Rylee said nervously, working hard to keep her octaves high enough to pass for a feminine voice.

“Where did you come from?” Carrie Ann slowed down, allowing Rylee to walk between them.

“North Carolina?” Rylee delivered the line with an upward inflection that nearly made it sound as if she were questioning her own statement. Kelly chuckled quietly.

“Wow, that’s, uh…really far away,” Carrie Ann noted. “What brings you out here?”

“I just…moved in with my sister.” Rylee gave her a practiced explanation that wasn’t quite a lie. Tori was her sister now, after all.

“Well that’s neat,” Carrie Ann said as they moved past the doors and into the lobby. “You’ve got a ‘cool older sister,’ huh?”

“Yeah, I do,” Rylee grinned, though her voice still felt shaky.

The lobby was nearly as Rylee remembered it from the first time she and Tori had stopped by to register for classes, but now it was stuffed full of students. Her eyes darted from left to right, and even upward as she followed the path of the stairs to the second level of the school.

Kenton Ridge was split into two levels, and the lobby played host to the two massive stairs that served as a primary access to the second floor. The stairs faced away from one another and were connected at the bottom by a platform; Rylee was still amazed – her old school in Woodhaven looked nothing like this. In addition to the students, a white and red ‘Welcome Back’ banner was strung up across the second level, a spectacle that nearly drew Rylee toward the stairs, but Kelly gently pulled her back on track.

“Thanks,” Rylee said at nearly a whisper; Kelly gave no response. Being on the autism spectrum came with a wide range of ‘quirks’ for her, one of which was an apparent inability to navigate a space without keeping contact with the wall or at least touching objects as she passed by them. Kelly kept a loose grip on her sleeve and prevented her from straying too far.

“Okay, Rylee, you have English II first period.” Kelly handed her a printout of her schedule and pointed to Carrie Ann. “You’ll have to go with her, I’ve got biology.”

“Wait, what?” Rylee began to panic at the idea of Kelly leaving her behind. Who even was Carrie Ann?

“Hey! It’ll be fine!” Carrie Ann smiled as she took Rylee’s arm and Kelly wandered off into the crowd. “Are you good at English? I need to copy notes from someone.”

“Um….” Rylee said nervously as she followed Carrie Ann’s lead down the hallway.

“Okay, we have like ten minutes,” Carrie Ann announced as she dragged Rylee down the hall. “I’ve gotta go to the bathroom.”

Rylee’s heart nearly exploded on the spot; one of the conditions for enrolling in school was that she use the staff bathroom and while she didn’t care much for this place, Tori wanted her to succeed, and that was enough motivation. Still, she couldn’t stop Carrie Ann from taking a sharp right turn and pushing through a heavy wooden door. The next thing Rylee knew, they were standing dead center of the girls bathroom; a row of stalls stood to her left, and a line of sinks to her right. There were three other girls in here, all busying themselves with makeup or handwashing. Rylee froze in place, certain that she was going to die, or be found out, or both at the same time.

“Smell me,” Carrie Ann said, turning around.

“Excuse me?” Rylee squeaked as she swiveled her head looking for somewhere to hide. One of the stalls would probably work.

“Look, we got this new cat,” Carrie Ann explained. “Mr. Fuzzles. He’s cute, but he pees on everything. I bought this dress last week and I really wanted to wear it today, but I left it on the floor. What if he peed on it, and I end up smelling like cat pee all day? Smell me. Now.”

“Uh…uh….” Rylee began to panic, and Carrie Ann asked again. Finally, Rylee managed to lean forward and take a whiff.

“Well?” Carrie Ann demanded. “Do you smell anything?”

“I…I don’t know,” Rylee admitted. “Um…I can’t…really…”

“Hey!” Carrie Ann waved to the other side of the bathroom, flagging down one of the girls. “Hey, do I smell like cat pee?”

“Let me check,” a tall redhead said, making her way over to them. Rylee scooted out of the way, eyes wide as the other two girls wrapped up at the sink and headed over. “Hmm. I can’t really tell.”

“Here, let me,” a black-haired girl said, leaning in and sniffing. “I don’t smell cat pee--”

“Oh, thank god!” Carrie Ann breathed a huge sigh of relief.

“--but it is musty. Did you forget to put it in the dryer after you washed it?”

“I didn’t wash it!” Carrie Ann said, panicked. “I just bought it!”

“Eww!” a new girl said from the doorway; Rylee spun around as three more girls entered. “You don’t wash clothes after you get them?”

“No one’s worn them yet!” Carrie Ann argued. “Why should I wash it right after I get it?”

“You don’t know where it’s been!” a fourth girl shrieked. “Oh my gosh!”

“She does smell kind of musty,” a fifth girl with a ponytail and a track suit spoke up.

Rylee was frozen in place as the girls milled around, discussing amongst themselves how they might solve the mysterious musty smell. She didn’t hear most of it, but she did find herself stumbling backward, feeling lightheaded as the black-haired girl ran to grab one of her friends from the hallway. Two more girls walked in, each one confirming the musty smell. One girl suggested perfume, another suggested spray deodorant, and past that, Rylee had no idea. All of the voices seemed to run together, an inescapable wall of sound around her as she looked toward the exit.

“Okay, okay!” the red-headed girl said, reaching into her purse and pulling out a can of spray deodorant. “Just close your eyes, I’m gonna spray you!”

“Oh my god!” Carrie Ann squealed. The redhead aimed and fired, blasting Carrie Ann with a wall of scent. One of the girls laughed while a few others moved in to check her scent again. The group cheered as the girl gave a thumbs up. Rylee began to feel lightheaded and started to push her way through the growing crowd. If she’d ever wondered what girls did in the bathroom together, she knew now, and it was not only uninteresting, it was noisy.

“Hey! Rylee!” Carrie Ann called out as Rylee made it halfway to the door. She stumbled over her feet; light headed and dizzy, she turned around and looked at Carrie Ann through increasingly dark vision.

“Oh god,” Rylee said as she lost consciousness.

---

Ariel walked into The Haven at exactly ten forty-five in the morning, still lost in thought over the conversation with Tori. Tori Blackburn. What the hell. Rylee’s pictures were on her phone; one showed her in her back-to-school outfit, another with her on a couch beside a woman in blue scrubs. Was she a nurse? It didn’t matter; the one thing she could really pull from this photo was that Rylee was happy. The look on her face in these pictures said it all. That goofy grin in the back-to-school outfit, the picture on the couch that had caught her in mid-laugh; the expressions she was giving were ones that Ariel had never seen on her before.

“Ugh, I was so awful to her,” Ariel said, thinking of Tori. If this woman could make her sister smile like that, then who was Ariel to question her? “At least you did okay, little sister.”

The Haven was quiet this early in the morning; the bright sunlight was muted by the UV-coating, bathing the lobby in that ominous blue light that was bright enough to see by. Ariel enjoyed the silence as she crossed the room, the only audible interruptions being the clicking of keyboards as Miles and the others answered e-mails and filled out reports.

She walked past the partition and sped by the desks, pausing briefly as she bumped into the water cooler and caused it to wobble. Finally, she came to Sandra’s office. The woman was in there looking half asleep, nearly slumped over her keyboard. Ariel rapped at the door frame with her knuckles before entering and Sandra gave her a nod.

“Good morning, Ariel,” Sandra said as she returned her attention to the screen. “What can I do for you?”

“I, um…have some news,” Ariel said, fighting to contain her excitement. “Someone, um…found my sister.”

Sandra’s fingers went limp at the keyboard as she looked up at Ariel, her expression betraying her utter shock at the statement.

“Are you serious?” Sandra’s eyes went wide. “Ariel, that’s wonderful! Where is she? Is she doing okay?

“She’s…she’s fine,” Ariel exhaled heavily and stepped forward, taking a seat in the chair across from Sandra’s desk. “She’s with…a family, I guess, and they’re taking care of her. I just…I wanted to ask you…I know I don’t have a ton of PTO, but…”

“You want to go see her, right?” Sandra asked. “Where is she?”

“Ohio, apparently.” Ariel shrugged.

“Aren’t you both from North Carolina?” Sandra frowned. “How on Earth did she get to Ohio?”

“I…I don’t know,” Ariel admitted. “I just know someone found her and took her in. I talked to her this morning; it’s a woman named Tori. She’s letting her be…herself, Rylee, I mean. It’s better than I could have hoped for.”

“What are your plans?” Sandra asked.

“Well, I…want to go see her, obviously. I’d love to bring her back here with me, but I don’t have anywhere for her to stay and there’s no way I could provide for her. She…it’s weird; well, I guess it’s not that weird. I guess she can’t really function as an adult and it’s not surprising, considering…”

“So what will you do? Can she stay there?”

“They say she can, but I’d really like to find a way to get her closer to me,” Ariel said. “I don’t…know how I’m going to do it. We live in a three-bedroom, but my room is small. I could maybe get rid of my queen size bed and swap it out for two twins. That could work, but then there’s the issue of feeding her…”

“Well, Ariel.” Sandra nodded. “If it were under normal circumstances, we’d use Haven’s resources to get you into a bigger apartment, but…”

“But we don’t go out of our way to help trans people.” Ariel rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I got that, even if we don’t say it outright.”

“You know how it works,” Sandra said coldly. “Shelters won’t take them, no one wants to hire them.”

“But they’re people,” Ariel reminded her. “Just like anyone else.”

“Convince our benefactors, and the shelters, and the temp agencies,” Sandra lectured. “It’s just not the right time. Let’s help the people that we can help.”

“LGBT is four letters,” Ariel reminded her. “People only care about the first two.”

“Someday,” Sandra told her, “there’ll be more acceptance and we’ll have more resources to work with, but right now, we do what we can do. Now, as for your sister, what I can do is offer you a raise. Ditch that queen size bed, buy those two twins, stock your apartment with food, do what you have to do. I’ll even give you an advance for a down payment. I know how important this is to you.”

“Wait, what?” Ariel’s eyes went wide; excitement began to well up in her as she considered the new possibilities. With more money she could bring Rylee here. They could be a family again! Holy shit! “How…where would the money come from?”

“The Haven isn’t broke, Ariel,” Sandra reminded her. “We do have grant money. I can’t help your sister directly, but you’re one of my best employees; surely I can help you out a little.”

“I…don’t know what to say…” Ariel stammered. “I…thank…thank you!”

“Just do me a favor,” Sandra said; Ariel nodded profusely. “Give me about a week to get some things in order here; it’ll be complicated, not having a front desk person here. I’ll probably get Miles to do it, but we’ll see.”

“Sandra,” Ariel said, nearly breathless. “Thank you. Thank you so much. You don’t know what this means to me!”

“I do, actually,” Sandra reminded her. “You came here for help a year ago, and I know how long you’ve been searching. But, in all that time you haven’t stopped helping other people. I’ve had the pleasure of watching you grow, Ariel, through your work here. You deserve this, and your sister deserves it. So wait a week, and then go get her, alright?”

Ariel thanked her and returned to her desk; an unquellable excitement welled up within her as she logged into her computer and immediately opened up a web browser to search for apartments. It was happening, it was really happening! Rylee had been found, and she had the means to bring her back with her! Her mind wandered back to the conversation she’d had with Tori over Netmeeting. What was that promise that Rylee had made to her? It didn’t matter; Rylee was her sister, and after everything they’d gone through, this Tori person wasn’t going to stop them from being together.

She couldn’t help but grin as she searched through apartments; one had on-site laundry, another had a pool. There were so many options available to her! She tapped her fingers excitedly on the desk and then leaned back in her chair, cupping the back of her head with her hands and staring at the ceiling. How was she supposed to concentrate on work? She was supposed to make some cold calls today, but Jesus, she was going to see Rylee in a week!

“Shit, I’ll have to take her out of school,” Ariel said aloud. “Shit, can I do that?”

Of course she could do that! Okay, she just needed to breathe! She inhaled, then exhaled, then reached into the right hand drawer, pulling out a plastic water bottle and twisting the cap off. She could barely sit still! Just as she was going to take a drink, the front door bell sounded, and that boy from yesterday walked through. Chris, right?

Ariel took another deep breath and set the water bottle down, stood up and greeted him.

“Hi, Chris, right?” She smiled widely as he stepped forward. “Were you able to get to the shelt--”

Ariel stopped mid-sentence as the boy stepped from the shadows and she beheld a bruise on the left side of his face, punctuated by a newly blackened eye nearly swollen shut.

“Chris, what happened?!” Ariel gasped, doing her best to keep her volume under control. “Did you make it to the shelter? Who did this to you?”

“Um…yeah,” Chris said, the nervousness and wavering in his voice was more than evident to Ariel, and it was suddenly becoming all too familiar. “I…was wondering if maybe there was another shelter? I would look it up, but…I…I don’t have a phone anymore.”

Ariel froze in place, frowning as she tried to assess the situation. What the hell had happened? Did it have something to do with the Hope Home?

“What, uh…what happened to the Hope Home?” she asked, furrowing her brow as she tried to keep her concern from showing on her face.

“Just didn’t work out.” Chris shrugged. “So, um…do you have anywhere else?”

Ariel remained silent for a moment, watching Chris intensely as a million scenarios ran through the back of her mind a sense of familiarity began to creep in.

“I…yes.” Ariel swallowed and nodded, somehow keeping her composure. “We do have a few other shelters. Did you have any luck with the temp agencies I gave you?”

“I have to have an address to work.” Chris shrugged.

“Did you try?” Ariel frowned.

“Not these,” Chris admitted, indicating the folder he was holding. “I’ve tried to apply other places, and I can’t do it without an address or a phone number. They--”

“Okay, look.” Ariel folded her hands, placing them on the desk in front of her as she swallowed again. “We have an agreement with the temp agencies in that folder. You can get a job without a phone number, they’ll work with you. Can you try it? For me? Please?”

Ariel’s request was intense; Chris frowned, looking back at her, and then nodded slowly. Ariel nodded back.

“Okay.” She barely managed to keep her voice from cracking as she nodded. “Why don’t we--”

“Ariel, Sandra wants to see you.” Miles strode around the barricade and nodded to her. Ariel closed her eyes and nodded. She pushed her chair back and excused herself, aware of Miles taking her place at the desk as she rounded the partition and walked along the wall until she reached Sandra’s door.

“Hey, Sandra,” Ariel said, knocking on the door frame. “You wanted to see me?”

“Yeah,” Sandra shuffled a stack of papers and shoved them aside. “I have some charity work for you.”

“Charity work?” Ariel crossed the room and pulled the wooden chair away from Sandra’s desk, taking a seat across from her. “What do you mean?”

“A young woman named Annie contacted us last week,” Sandra explained. “She has a procedure at the Planned Parenthood in Ann Arbor and needs someone to walk her in.”

“Wait, we do that?” Ariel frowned. “Can’t she just…walk through the doors?”

“Look, Ariel,” Sandra lectured. “The Haven is open because we have funding; in order to maintain that funding, we have to maintain a good image. For example, one donor gives us a hundred thousand dollars a year because it’s not only a good tax write-off, but also makes him look like a philanthropist. He’s not going to look like a philanthropist if we’re not doing anything that’s visible to the public.”

“Okay, that’s not what I mean.” Ariel glared, still confused. “I just don’t understand why she needs help getting from her car to the door…”

“Seriously, Ariel?” Sandra rolled her eyes. “Okay, honey, I have a lot to do today. Head over to Planned Parenthood, you’ll find her in a silver Mercury Sable. Here’s her phone number just in case.”

Ariel took a handwritten note from Sandra, gave it a passing glance, and folded it up before turning toward the door. Halfway there, she paused and turned; Sandra was already busying herself on the computer.

“Sandra,” Ariel said apprehensively. Sandra stopped typing and looked up. “I think…I think Chris was beaten up at the shelter I sent him to.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Ariel,” Sandra said in a very matter-of-fact tone. “But…it is a shelter and those things are to be expected. You’ve been here long enough to know that.”

“So there’s nothing we can do?”

“Not really.” Sandra shook her head. “We’ll find him another shelter, maybe work with him on employment, but beyond that there’s very little we can do.”

“I don’t like that,” Ariel said, shaking her head. “Can’t we do better?”

“Ariel, you know how it goes. People have to want help, and if they want it, they’ll take the necessary steps. They’ll take initiative, get a job, find housing, especially with the resources we give them. Ariel…you can’t put all your effort into a single person, you just can’t.”

“I’m trying to do my job,” Ariel pointed out. “We do help people here, right?”

“We help people who meet us at least halfway,” Sandra corrected her. “And, Ariel, doing your job is admirable, but at this point that’s all you should be doing. Don’t you have something else that should be on your mind?”

Ariel found it difficult to argue with that.

---

“What the hell have you done with my son?” Chef Quinn stormed across the kitchen where Tori was lazily frying up a pan of onions. Around them, the clattering of kitchen utensils and the sizzling of meat created a certain ambiance, accompanied by the regular announcement of orders from the front of the house. Tori looked up from the pan momentarily, regarding Chef Quinn, and then returning her attention to the pan as the onions continued to sear. She shook the pan, moving the onions about and then returning her attention to the conversation at hand.

“What do you mean?” Tori asked, moving the pan from the burner and throwing a glance to Chef Quinn who put his hands on his hips and cocked his head at her.

“Well, he hasn’t been hanging around the house playing his stupid video games,” Chef Quinn said, working it out in his head. “And when he’s out, he’s with you. You and my son doing the dirty?”

“What?” The pan slipped from Tori’s hand and clattered against the burner; the onions sizzled as she turned to Chef Quinn, a scowl on her face as she regarded him. “Absolutely not, he’s like ten years old, Chef Quinn!”

“What a shame,” Chef Quinn rolled his eyes. “I thought maybe he’d developed some taste.”

“Hey,” a line cook called from across the kitchen. “I thought that girl of Tori’s was good!”

“That’s a boy!” Chef Quinn shouted back.

“You made me ruin the onions.” Tori glared again, switching the burner off and storming across the kitchen toward the industrial fridge on the far side. Chef Quinn followed her like a man on a mission. “And Marcus is working for me.”

“Working for you?” Chef Quinn said, his tone hosting an upward inflection. “The food truck?”

“Yeah,” Tori said, brushing past Mariel and pulling open the refrigerator. “We’re -- where the hell are the onions?”

“Check the freezer,” Chef Quinn suggested.

“Because that’s where they go.” Tori rolled her eyes. “Yeah, he’s helping me clean it out, and then I’m going to get the hardware installed.”

“You want to set up in my parking lot?” Chef Quinn suggested. “Split the profits?”

“Yeah, probably,” Tori nodded. “You know, he’s not a bad kid.”

“Unmotivated,” Chef Quinn scoffed. “He’ll live in our basement for the rest of his life, way he’s going.”

“Doubt it.” Tori opened the freezer and reached for a plastic container of onions, but then paused, looking to the second shelf. “What the hell is this?”

“What the hell is what?” Chef Quinn demanded. Tori reached quickly, deliberately toward the second shelf and yanked out a gallon of ice cream.

“This generic shit!” Tori shook the quart and glared at Chef Quinn. “What happened to the Haagen-Dazs?!”

“Too expensive,” Chef Quinn said gruffly. “The customers don’t notice the difference.”

“They don’t notice the difference,” Tori repeated back to him. She turned, taking a few steps to the right, then turned back, laughing hysterically. “They don’t fucking notice the difference? They don’t know the difference between Haagen-Dazs and sewer water?!”

“Calm down,” Chef Quinn folded his arms. “You know we’ve had to cut costs.”

“Because customers aren’t coming back,” Tori laughed again, this time looking at the quart before raising her arm above her head and slamming it onto the ground. It bounced toward Chef Quinn, who managed to side step it. “Maybe they aren’t coming back because you’re serving them shit! How long have we been doing this, Chef Quinn? How long have you been feeding them this crap?”

“Oh, would you stop being a drama queen?!” Chef Quinn unfolded his arms and shouted back. “You know how it is!”

“What’s next? You going to start serving Choice steak?”

“We’ve been serving Select for months, you crazy bitch! Where have you been?!”

“Okay, that’s it!” Tori swept her arm to the right, smacking a rack of kitchen utensils to the floor. She moved around the side of a stainless steel work bench, slamming her hands against the surface and continuing to hold her glare. “You are fucking incompetent! You know what? I’m doing all the shopping from now on! You can choose the color of things, that’s what you can do!”

“Oh, you think you can do better than me?!” Chef Quinn roared. “I built this place with my--”

“Tori!” Mariel stepped away from her station and took her by the arm, smiling to Chef Quinn. “Why don’t we step out for some fresh air?”

Tori chewed the inside of her cheek for a moment, and then nodded, stepping past a red-faced Chef Quinn and following Mariel across the kitchen. They stepped into the hallway, walking past the bathroom and heading out into the rear lot, behind Mitchell’s. Tori unbuttoned the front of her coat and allowed it to hang loose as Mariel lit up a cigarette and leaned heavily against the wooden privacy fence surrounding the dumpster.

“What’s your deal?” Mariel took a drag on her cigarette as Tori clenched and unclenched her fists. “Problems with the kid?”

“Kid nearly got herself killed,” Tori said, exasperated. “I feel like I’m failing here.”

“You, uh…ever consider parenting classes?” Mariel suggested. “It worked wonders for me and my ex.”

“I don’t think it applies here,” Tori said, closing her eyes as a cool breeze wafted through the parking lot. “She’s not a kid.”

“You still treating her like one?”

“Yeah,” Tori admitted.

“Then she’s a kid. Get some parenting classes.”

---

Rylee coughed as she regained consciousness just a few seconds later; her vision had flooded with darkness and her head had felt empty. Fortunately, all of that had spared her the terror of being present as she’d tumbled to the floor. She awakened face up on the yellow bathroom tiles, looking up at the faces of ten girls who were staring down at her in concern.

Oh god, no, she thought; the last thing she wanted was to draw attention to herself and she wasn’t doing a very good job of keeping a low profile.

“Are you okay?” A short, round-faced girl with black hair looked down at Rylee with concern as two other girls gently took her by the arms and raised her into a sitting position. Rylee briefly considered squirming out of their grasp, but her limbs were weak, and she allowed them to set her up against the wall.

“Hey, are you the new girl?” a blonde girl asked, cocking her head at Rylee; Carrie-Ann answered before Rylee even had a chance to consider the question.

“This is Rylee,” she said quickly. “She’s friends with me and Kelly.”

“Are you okay?” The black-haired-girl looked again at Rylee, this time placing a hand on her shoulder as she looked into her eyes. Rylee nodded slowly as the emptiness in her head was filled, and she reined in the beating of her heart.

“Yeah.” Rylee nodded and spoke, her voice cracking. “Just…a lot of people.”

“Oh, you have anxiety?” The blonde girl smiled warmly while the others murmured amongst themselves. “Jeez, that sucks, and we’re all crowding you. Come on, step back, everyone!”
Mercifully, they took a step back and the black haired girl offered Rylee a hand. After a moment’s hesitation, Rylee took it and allowed herself to be raised up to her feet in front of the small crowd.

“Did you just move here?” the blonde girl asked.

“She did, yeah,” Carrie Ann interjected, finally. “From North Carolina.”

Rylee looked at Carrie Ann, her eyes wide as Carrie returned her nearly-horrified expression with a simple shrug. Rylee turned away from her and back to the girls who were watching her closely. The thoughts that went through Rylee’s mind were too numerous to count: what were they thinking? Could they tell she was trans? Could they find out? Just to name a few.

“Well,” the black-haired girl said with a welcoming smile. “I’m Alissa, this is Karissa.”

After she spoke, the other girls introduced themselves quickly, citing names that Rylee would never remember. She simply nodded as each of them spoke, ultimately returning her attention to Alissa and Karissa, who were joined by Carrie Ann. This was getting quickly out of hand.

“Can you get to class okay?” Alissa asked as the crowd began to disperse. Rylee nodded. “I don’t know; these hallways can be a lot, especially if you’re new.”

“Oh, it’s okay, I’ve got her,” Carrie Ann reassured them. Alissa studied Rylee closely for a moment – so closely that Rylee nearly considered turning tail and bolting for the bathroom door.

“Well, alright,” Alissa smiled. “Hey, sit with us at lunch?”

“I, um…maybe?” Rylee said shakily. Karissa giggled; Rylee’s cheeks flushed. She and Carrie Ann exited the bathroom with Rylee cringing every time Carrie Ann giggled about the situation.

“Okay, first class is English,” Carrie Ann reminded her.

“I can’t go into the bathroom like that,” Rylee hissed, reminding her. Carrie Ann shrugged.

“It didn’t kill you,” she pointed out.

“It might!” Rylee said in a panic as they rushed down the hall, following a crowd that eventually tapered off, allowing them to take a quick turn and walk through a wooden door into a multi-tiered classroom. Carrie Ann ushered them to the back, stepping up the wide stairs until they came to a pair of desks in the back. The class wasn’t that interesting, nor was it that mentally taxing. The teacher took roll call and handed out stacks of papers including a syllabus for the year. Additionally, they were given green English books that must have weighed five pounds. The classes after that were much the same, each one giving Rylee more and more paper and more books until she was certain her backpack wouldn’t fit any more. Mind-numbing lectures on what to expect for the rest of the year, the occasional stares from other students, and each time, Rylee was passed off to someone else in the friend group. Kelly and Carrie Ann, she knew. Molly, Megan, and Richard, not so much. Nevertheless, she went along with it; she’d promised Tori, after all.

“What are you thinking?” Kelly asked as they walked toward the lunch room.

“Um…that it would be easier for everyone if I could walk around on my own,” Rylee sighed. “This is a lot of trouble for everyone.”

“Your sister would kill us both,” Kelly reminded her. “I don’t know about you, but I’m afraid of Tori.”

“I mean…I’m not really afraid of her,” Rylee said, unsure of if she believed it or not. “I mean, um…she’s…”

“Scary,” Kelly finished the sentence for her as they moved toward the cafeteria line.

“Scary,” Rylee agreed, shuddering. Kelly chuckled as they moved along the food line and were eventually served with a slice of ham, peas, and a small pile of mashed potatoes and gravy. After Tori’s cooking, none of it looked appetizing.

“We get pizza on Fridays,” Kelly said helpfully as they moved away from the line, toward a table off near the back of the cafeteria. They took a seat at one of the tables with Carrie Ann, Kelly, Molly, Megan, and a few others who talked amongst themselves or sorted through the papers they’d received in their classes.

“What’s this?” Megan, an auburn-haired girl asked, pointing to her syllabus; Rylee strained to hear her over the noise in the lunchroom. “What’s The Odyssey?”

“You’re in Advanced English?” Kelly peered across the table at the paper; Megan nodded. “I don’t know. Never heard of it.”

“Greek poetry,” Rylee said, speaking up; she turned red the moment everyone turned to look at her. “Um…I saw the movie.”

“Rylee’s smart,” Kelly said helpfully.

“Not really,” Rylee said quietly. “They have me in special ed.”

“Did you go to that yet?”

“No,” Rylee shook her head at Kelly and then looked down at her food.

“Hey, Rosie,” Kelly said to a girl near the end of the table, nose stuck in a book. “Rosie!”

“What?!” the girl practically shrieked. Rylee’s eyes widened as she noticed her physical condition; extremely thin, bony, and sitting with a hunch even as she straightened up from her book and glared at Kelly.

“When is your special ed class?”

“Why?” Rosie demanded, her words short and her voice sharp as she glared at Kelly.

“Because Rylee needs to go to it,” Kelly said in a tone that was far more reasonable than it should have been, given Rosie’s demeanor. It was like she didn’t even notice.

“Who the fuck is Rylee?” Rosie demanded, slamming her book shut and shoving it aside in a huff. “I just wanted to read. Why won’t anyone let me read?!”

“This is Rylee,” Kelly smiled, pointing to an increasingly horrified Rylee.

“Okay, you know what? Fine!” Rosie snapped, slamming her fist down on the table; the rage continued to grow in her expression. “No one wants to let me do anything. Ever! I don’t ever get to read my stupid book, but I have to help your stupid friend! God!”

“You can’t leave me with her,” Rylee whispered, panicked. Kelly frowned.

“Why? She’s really nice,” Kelly said dismissively.

Rylee made a conscious choice to detach herself from the situation and to survey the lunchroom instead. There were probably forty tables set up in the lunchroom, which was a pale white. The floor was adorned with white linoleum tiles while the walls were white cinderblocks with the school mascot emblazoned near the front of the room in black and yellow paint. All throughout the cafeteria, students sat around tables, eating, talking, laughing, just existing in the moment. Rylee watched some of them carefully, her eyes traveling from table to table, wondering what it must be like for them.

Most of the students were carefree, happy, existing in the moment; what would it be like to do that? To just live instead of worrying about what was going to happen from moment to moment? To exist without that nagging fear in the back of her head? She’d never gotten to be one of them, not even when she was living at home in North Carolina. Always the outsider, always out of place, and always afraid. These days she was finding that the fear was fading, but she still couldn’t just be.

“Rylee,” Kelly said again; she’d probably said it at least three times before Rylee finally refocused her attention and then looked at Kelly, confused.

“Huh?” Rylee said, blinking at her.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.” Rylee nodded quickly. “Yeah, just overwhelmed. Lots of noise in here.”

“Do you want to go somewhere quieter?” Kelly furrowed her brow in concern; Rylee shook her head. Kelly patted Rylee’s hand and gestured toward the cafeteria exit; a long hallway led to the back hall where the music and band rooms, respectively, stood. She led Rylee down the dark hall, all the way to the other side; Rylee exhaled heavily and leaned against the wall, next to Mr. Reiner’s art room. “Rylee?”

“It’s just a lot,” Rylee said, finally. “People. I mean. It’s loud and…I don’t know.” Rylee’s face turned red and her stomach twisted as she tried to find the right words. She shifted her weight to her left foot and wrung her hands as Kelly regarded her with a soft expression. “I don’t feel like I belong here.”

“Sometimes I feel out of place too,” Kelly reassured her. “Being bi and all.”

“I can’t tell that from looking at your face,” Rylee pointed out. “But if you look at my face long enough…”

“I asked Stephanie Wells out in eighth grade,” Kelly said, giving Rylee a half-smile. “Interpreted things wrong, I guess. The rumors spread like wildfire.”

“That sucks,” Rylee admitted. “What did you do?”

“Kids are cruel.” Kelly shrugged. “That’s what my mom says. They’ll say what they’ll say; you just gotta let it roll off of you.”

“There’s another problem,” Rylee admitted. “I just…I don’t know. School is your whole world, but it hasn’t been…my whole world. I don’t know if that makes sense. I’ve just…been places and things have happened to me and it’s hard to just…be…here. I don’t know. I can’t say it right. I’m not very smart.”

“Are you having an existential crisis?” Kelly suddenly laughed. “Well…yeah, I mean, I definitely kinda understand. I don’t know everything you’ve been through, but I know it was pretty bad. You’ve got a bunch of people who care about you, though, you just gotta give ‘em a chance, you know?”

“Yeah, I mean, I guess,” Rylee said, unsure, but slightly reassured as Kelly smiled, took her hand, and led her back to the lunchroom. They took their seats; Carrie Ann looked to them questioningly, but Kelly simply shrugged while Rylee picked at her mashed potatoes. On the other side of the table, Richard had half-turned in his seat and was excitedly talking to another boy about some new video game that had just come out. Rylee tried to tune into that conversation, but quickly tuned out as the noise became overwhelming.

“Hey! New girl!” an unfamiliar voice said. Rylee turned her head to see a blonde girl who was the very personification of high school popularity standing before them in a black skirt and white blouse, hair loose around her shoulders and her makeup perfectly applied as she looked at Rylee intently. Behind her was a brunette, just as well-dressed; probably way too nice for school. She could practically feel the eye roll from Kelly as the blonde stared daggers into her. “Why don’t you come sit with us?”

Rylee stared, unmoving, unblinking at the girl, like a deer in headlights as she gestured to a table across the lunch room.

“She doesn’t want to,” Kelly spoke for her; the blonde whipped her head around, glaring at Kelly. “She’s fine right here.”

“I’m talking to her.” The girl glared some more, gesturing to Rylee, who continued to stare, unable to speak. “You mute?”

“Go back to whatever level of hell you came from, Cathy,” Carrie Ann spoke up; the table went silent as every head turned toward the girl, Cathy. “She’s with us.”

“Ugh, whatever.” Cathy rolled her eyes and looked at Rylee. “You should learn to speak for yourself.”

“That’s the last thing she wants,” Kelly muttered as Cathy walked away. “Anyway.”

“What was that about?” Rylee asked quietly, looking from Kelly to Carrie Ann.

“Just, um…stay away from them,” Kelly advised. “They like to ‘induct’ new girls into their little club and then humiliate them. It’s a whole thing. Anyway…hey, Rosie, you ready?”

Rosie, lost in her book, completely ignored Kelly, who shook her head and reached across Carrie Ann, prepared to poke Rosie hard in the shoulder when she stopped and looked to her right, across the lunch room. Rylee followed her gaze toward a gathering crowd where even Cathy and her friend seemed to be drawn.

“What’s going on?” Kelly frowned and stood up from the table, her chair screeching against the linoleum. Rylee stood and followed her, keeping close as they pushed through the crowd. Rylee struggled to see; the other students were packed tight, but finally, they were able to see through the first row of spectators and Rylee nearly shat herself.

It was a brunette, or someone wearing a brunette wig; the girl was very clearly trans, though a bit smaller than Rylee. She was wearing a white button-up blouse and a plaid-checkered skirt atop white stockings. After that, the second thing Rylee noticed was the laughter; kids were jeering, pointing, screeching with laughter as the girl cowered against the wall. Kelly looked at Rylee, who stood there with a blank expression, watching the scene unfold. Suddenly, it was Cathy who stepped forward and ended the commotion, standing in front of the girl, a smirk on her face.

“Isaac?” she asked, her voice sat on the edge of laughter as the girl shook her head. She responded with a poorly practiced female voice that shook and cracked.

“It’s Izzy now,” she said quietly, simply. Cathy looked to her friend, who gave a quick shrug and a sardonic smile.

“Okay, Izzy,” Cathy laughed. “Why don’t you come with us?”

Kelly looked at Rylee as Cathy led Izzy away; Rylee shook her head and turned away, pushing back through the crowd, eager to disappear to her next class.

---

Ariel gasped as they pushed through the doors of the Planned Parenthood. The woman, Annie, was in tow, looking just as exhausted and horrified as Ariel. They’d just managed to push through a throng of protestors, all holding horrific signs and shouting phrases like “God doesn’t want you to kill your baby.” Ariel, wide-eyed, stood back as the woman made her way to the counter and checked herself in.

“Okay, um, I’m just going to sit here, and wait,” Ariel said, taking a deep breath as she sunk into one of the waiting room chairs. It wasn’t long before Annie joined her, sitting heavily on the chair beside Ariel. “You okay?” she asked Annie, who looked completely exhausted.

“Yeah,” Annie nodded, clearing a strand of brown hair away from her face. “I just, um…this is a lot.”

“Yeah.” Ariel looked past her, out the doors beyond the nearly-empty waiting room where the crowd still stood, chanting, screaming, waving poster-board signs that shouted derogatory phrases of their own. “Sorry about all that.”

“I’m just glad you’re here,” Annie admitted. “I’m not even here for an abortion, so I don’t know what baby I’m killing.”

Annie was maybe four years older than Ariel; a brunette with soft features and long-ish hair resting on her shoulders. She was very well put together aside from looking a little disheveled from the walk into the building. She went on to tell Ariel that cervical cancer ran in her family, so she was due for a screening. Annie was eventually called back, leaving Ariel to sit alone in the waiting room, occasionally checking her phone for notifications. One of her first thoughts was to text Tori, but what would she even say? She had so many questions for her, so where to begin? Most importantly, how the hell was she going to explain that she wanted to bring Rylee up here?

That was the burning question, wasn’t it? Supposedly, Rylee was happy down there, going to school or whatever, but she should be with her family. Ariel wanted her to experience this place with her, to live in the same house like they’d always planned. They’d talked about it so many times, discussing how they’d decorate the living room, how Rylee would finally have the room she always wanted. God, life sucked sometimes.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening as someone new was buzzed in. Ariel looked up in shock as Chris nervously strolled in, his head on a swivel but somehow missing Ariel as he approached the receptionist desk. Ariel frowned, leaning forward as Chris spoke quickly to the receptionist in a low, mumbling tone.

“Chris?” Ariel said aloud; Chris froze for a moment and then spun around, an object in his hand falling to the floor as he froze in place, eyes fixed on Ariel who rose from her chair, eyebrows furrowed. “What are you doing here?”

“Um…” Chris stared at her, frozen for a moment before he bolted toward the door, pushing through and vanishing into the crowd of protestors with Ariel shouting at him to come back. She gawked after him, her confusion more than evident as she turned back to the reception desk. The receptionist shrugged as Ariel approached, frowning as she spoke.

“What was he here for?” Ariel asked.

“Ever heard of HIPAA?” The receptionist rolled her eyes. Ariel sighed and turned around again, looking toward the door where Chris had bolted. Then, on a whim, she looked down toward the object that he’d dropped. Crouching down, she scooped it off the floor; there was nothing special about it; just a blister pack of pills. She looked at it with some confusion, and then gasped as she flipped it over and read the label on the back: Estradiol.

Chris was trans. Just like Rylee.

---

“How was your first day of school?” Tori asked Rylee the moment she stepped in the door. Rylee had arrived home shortly after Tori, probably by design, and found her in the living room sitting on the couch still wearing her chef jacket, unbuttoned and hanging loose.

“Awful,” Rylee whined, drawing a snort from Tori.

“Learn anything?”

“Yeah,” Rylee nodded. “Everyone is horrible.”

“They can’t all be horrible, Rylee,” Tori laughed. “What about Kelly?
”
“She’s okay,” Rylee admitted. “But Carrie Ann dragged me into the bathroom, and there’s this other girl there like me.”

“Trans?” Tori raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Rylee said quickly. “She just showed up like that today, I guess she was a guy last year, but now she’s a girl and everyone was laughing. Kelly told me I should be friends with her, but I don’t want to be friends with her just because she’s like me, and if people see me with her, what if they figure out I’m like her?”

“Uh…” Tori froze, blinking as her mouth twitched a little. “Not a problem I was expecting you to run into, but it’s high school, so…”

“So?”

“So weird shit happens in high school,” Tori shrugged. “I can’t tell you who to be friends with.”

Rylee stopped, staring at Tori from the other side of the coffee table, disbelieving.

“Tori, that’s…that’s exactly what you do!” Rylee moaned. “You’re supposed to tell me what I’m allowed to do!”

“Correct,” Tori stood and walked toward the kitchen, giving Rylee a quick glance before she stepped behind the counter and grabbed a can of Diet Coke from the fridge. “That extends to your friends outside school, computer access, curfew, phone usage, whatever. What I’m not going to do is tell you how to handle your social life at school. Get good grades, make friends, learn how to socialize, that’s your job, Rylee. Don’t do drugs.”

“This isn’t fair!” Rylee huffed; Tori looked at her in amusement. “How am I supposed to know what to do?”

“The same way I did,” Tori shrugged. “Just play it by ear, fail a bunch, and relive the trauma memory over and over post-graduation.”

“How is that advice?!” Rylee whined. “What if--”

“Come over here.” Tori motioned to her, setting the Coke can on the counter and walking toward the couch. Rylee groaned and walked over to her, immediately bending over and helping her to move the coffee table toward the back wall.

“Do we have to do this?’ Rylee pleaded. “We did it yesterday.”

“Yep.” Tori pointed to their normal spot in front of the couch; Rylee walked over and stood in front of her while Tori looked her up and down. “Okay, I’ll start with the shoulders, as usual, then move down your arms, okay?”

“Okay.” Rylee nodded quickly, her voice quiet now.

“Don’t tense up,” Tori warned. “Just relax, okay?

“Okay,” Rylee said, not relaxing in the least.

Tori carefully laid her hands on Rylee’s shoulders and began to rub, softly at first, then harder, doing her best to maintain eye contact to judge Rylee’s condition. She moved down her body, rubbing her left arm, but avoiding the cast on her right. Rylee’s eyes twitched away and began to glaze over as whimper after whimper escaped her lips at the contact. Even through her clothes, this was killing her.

“Hang in there, sweetie,” Tori said, her tone much softer now than it had been a moment ago. Ever since she and Anette had learned about Rylee’s autism, this had been one of the daily rituals. Rylee, like most autistic people, had high sensitivity to light, sound, and of course, being touched. While all of these were a problem, the one they were most interested in addressing was touch, which meant rubbing her down daily to help desensitize her. In the past month she’d gotten better at handling it, but she was far from perfect and they had a long way to go.

Rylee squirmed uncomfortably as Tori ordered her to raise her arms and began to rub her lower body, enduring Rylee’s pained and terrified whimpers as she did so. She spent a full thirty seconds rubbing her sides and then moved down to her legs, making sure to look up and keep eye contact with her as much as possible. Finally, she finished and took a step back, to which Rylee immediately responded by bolting toward the couch. She launched into the cushions, drawing herself into the fetal position and whimpering quietly as she lay there, burying her head in the fabric. Tori stepped away, taking a yellow box of Dots gumdrops from the kitchen counter and placing it on the coffee table before dragging it back into place.

“You did good, Rylee,” Tori reassured her before stepping away. Every bone and instinct in her body told her to run over and comfort her little sister, but, practically, she couldn’t; Rylee needed to be alone for a few minutes at least, processing what had just happened to her. At least she had her favorite candy.

Tori returned to the kitchen and grabbed the Diet Coke, taking a long swig to finish the can and then dropped it into the recycling bin beside the trash can. She kept a close eye on Rylee as she stepped over to the counter and began to sort through the mail. It was mostly junk, a few bills, and a newsletter from the school. The joys of being a ‘parent,’ apparently. She dropped the mail and continued watching Rylee as she continued to whimper, but loosened up considerably until finally she moved herself into a sitting position.

“You okay?” Tori asked her from the counter. Rylee shrugged. “I’m going to set your pills on the counter. You don’t have to get up and take them right now, I just want you to know they’re here, okay?”

“Okay,” Rylee nodded. Tori opened a drawer and pulled out Rylee’s daily pill container, setting it on the counter alongside a glass of water. She found it was always better to let Rylee know she didn’t expect her to get up and do things right away. She’d learned a lot about dealing with her in the last few months.

When she didn’t move from the couch, Tori grabbed a plastic bag from the counter and made her way over to Rylee, sitting on the couch beside her. Rylee didn’t flinch or try to move away; instead she turned her head slowly and looked at Tori with puffy, bloodshot eyes, then looked away just as quickly. Tori smiled and looked at her encouragingly.

“You’re doing a lot better,” Tori said honestly. “You really are, I promise.”

“Are you sorry you kept me?” Rylee asked quietly, keeping her eyes fixed on the coffee table and the cellophane-wrapped box of Dots.

“Never,” Tori whispered, finally extending her arm and wrapping Rylee in a partial hug. Rylee accepted the hug, leaning into Tori rather than pulling away; more proof that she was in fact, doing better.

“I’m broken,” Rylee said pathetically. “I don’t want to be like this.”

“Not broken,” Tori whispered. “Not to the right people. You’re my adorable little sister. Cute, brave, sometimes crazy, but never, ever broken.” She leaned over and planted a kiss on Rylee’s cheek, getting a giggle in return as Rylee fully leaned into the hug, wrapping her arms awkwardly around Tori’s waist, her right arm jutting out in the cast. Tori smiled and laid her chin on Rylee’s shoulder, whispering reassurances to her little sister until they separated and Rylee sat there, hands clasped on her lap with a bright smile on her face.

Tori patted Rylee’s arm and reached for the plastic bag, handing it over to her; Rylee looked at her questioningly.

“You’ve been playing that game so much, I figured you must be tired of it,” Tori explained. “So I got you a new one.”

Rylee beamed brightly as she opened the bag and pulled out a copy of Final Fantasy VIII for the Playstation. She turned it over in her hands a few times and then embraced Tori in another hug. They sat in silence for a few moments, until the front door opened and Anette announced her presence before leaving the foyer. Tori hugged Rylee again and waited for her mother to enter the house and drop her purse onto the counter.

“You ready?” Tori asked her. Anette returned her question with a nod before walking out of the kitchen and taking a seat on the glider chair near the couch. She folded her hands onto her lap and cleared her throat.

“How are you doing, today, Rylee?” She watched her carefully, trying to assess her current state. Rylee responded that she was fine, and Anette nodded. “Okay, we’re going to have another family meeting, just you, me and Tori, okay?”

“No Fiona?” Rylee asked, almost sarcastically; it was pretty true that Fiona was always present at these meetings.

“She’s working a double today.” Tori lightly flicked Rylee’s shoulder. “Otherwise…”

“Rylee, I’m just going to say it outright,” Anette said, finally. “We found your sister.”

It took Rylee a long moment to process the statement; her brow furrowed and her eyes flicked back and forth as she tried to understand, but finally, she spoke.

“Ariel?” Rylee’s voice was quiet, weak, sitting on the edge of tears as she tried to make sense of the situation.

“Yes, sweetie,” Tori told her. “She’s living in Michigan. She survived, and she wants to see you.”

Tori and Anette allowed the conversation to halt for a moment as they gauged Rylee’s reaction; she seemed to be deep in thought, her breathing becoming more labored by the second. Tori rubbed her back and took her hand; Anette observed from her position on the glider.

“Ariel?” Rylee said again, disbelieving. Anette confirmed it again; Tori wrapped her arm around Rylee’s shoulder.

“I spoke to her on the computer,” Tori said. “We’re paying for her to fly down here next week. She probably won’t stay here permanently, but you’re going to see her more often.”

“And…and that’s okay?” Rylee finally looked at Tori, her eyes wide, pleading and glazed over. “You won’t mind?”

“Sweetie, why would I mind?” Tori frowned.

“Because….you’re my sister now, right? Are you sure you want me to see her?”

“Sweetie, you can have other family, and if everything you’ve told me about Ariel is true, you need her in your life. You wouldn’t be here without her.”

“This…this is…she’s okay?” Rylee could barely speak; her eyes began to fill with tears. “She made it.”

“She made it, sweetie.” Tori hugged her again. “You’ll see her soon.”

Rylee tried to choke back her tears and failed miserably; she buried her face in Tori’s chest and sobbed, tears of joy for the news she’d waited so long to hear.

---

It didn’t take Ariel long to find him; Ypsilanti was only ten miles across, and if he wasn’t hanging out near Eagle’s Market, he had to be near one of the parks. She checked Riverside first, but when that came up empty, she crossed the wooden footbridge to Frog Island.

She spotted him from a distance as she walked down the footpath; he was sitting out beside the track atop one of the concrete steps built into the side of the hill. Gravel crunched beneath her feet as she walked briskly through the night, paper bag in hand. It was dark now, and the expanse of Frog Island’s soccer field lay out in front of her, nearly shrouded save for the spots bathed in moonlight. If he saw her coming, he didn’t give any indication, not even when she sat down beside him, looking out over the soccer field, toward the lights of Depot Town high above.

“I guess you know I’m a freak now,” Chris said, after a moment of silence.

“I know you’re a person,” Ariel corrected. “Just like any other.”

“Did you come here to make fun of me?”

“No,” she said softly, reaching into her jacket pocket and pulling out the blister pack of pills; she handed it to him, along with the bag. “I got you dinner.”

“I don’t need charity,” he said sharply. “I need a job and a place to live. I can handle the rest.”

“Pardon me, but you do need charity.” Ariel gave a swift lecture. “You’re out here homeless in the park. If you’re not going to take the food, at least let me take you to a shelter.”

“Tried the shelter,” he pointed out. “You know what happened.”

“That was just one shelter,” Ariel reminded him, “There’s still the Hartley Center.”

“How about you stop making promises you can’t keep,” Chris said, standing up. He walked off into the night, leaving Ariel to sit alone under the stars.