"Freak!" yelled the boy. "Stupid freak with your stupid made-up name!" yelled his friend. "If you think you're a girl, why don't you at least try to look like one?" yelled a third boy. At the age of 15, Fiero Nakai had seen it all. Her parents had pretended the move to Yamaku was only because of Dad's job there, but their scheme was see-through. A new school where she wouldn't be made fun of… right? She'd had to sit through Principal Hakamichi's special assembly on tolerance as the whole school watched her with bolted-fast eyes instead of looking at the interpreter, students tearing down the new gender-neutral bathroom signs on the day they went up, and worst of all, Dad's endless lectures on how he knew exactly how hard it was to change schools and how there was nothing shameful about going to a "special" school. Students with every conceivable disability and she, healthy as a horse, was the class freak. And somehow in all their scheming her parents had never noticed how living just a few blocks from the school was so very conducive to being followed back and forth by hollering bullies.

She slammed the front door on them only to find her mother wearing a rictus grin and standing directly in her path. "Dad and I want to talk to you in the kitchen," she said melodiously. Dumbfounded, Fiero followed her to find her father sitting at the kitchen table. In front of him was a folded card printed on creamy smooth pale blue paper. There was a scattering of stylized blossoms decorating the front. Without asking permission, Fiero unfolded the card to read:

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED

TO THE WEDDING OF

RIN TEZUKA AND EMI IBARAZAKI

ON

THE THIRTEENTH OF APRIL, TWO THOUSAND AND THIRTY THREE

This was followed by an address in Tokyo.

"Some old high school friends of mine are getting married," Dad said, smiling. Dad had about a billion old high school friends, an absurd number of whom seemed to be beautiful women. Fiero often wondered how on earth he had ever settled on Mom. Fiero had been to old high school friend's birthday parties and Christmas parties and New Year's parties and summer gatherings. She had been to Tanabata and fall festivals with them. She had been fishing and yachting and over for tea, but she had never been to a wedding.

"Is this a lesbian wedding?" she suddenly blurted, looking at the names again.

"Well… yes," said Mom, smiling awkwardly. Mom was a firm believer that practicing "tolerance" means never talking about what one is being "tolerant" of. Fiero had learned this the hard way through the long process of changing her name, her legal gender, and her school.

"This wedding is on Friday the thirteenth," Fiero, said suddenly realizing. "Rin would think that was funny," said Dad. "Why? Are you superstitious? Don't you worry, I'll protect you from evil. Don't you have faith in your good old Dad?"

"No, no. I'm not superstitious," Fiero mumbled. Something else occurred to her. "What will I wear to this wedding?" She thought of her closet full of sweatshirts and cargo pants.

"I was just getting to that," said Mom. "Since the wedding is in Tokyo, we, Yuuko, and Hakamichi-san are all going to drive up to stay with Satou-san and Ikezawa-san for the weekend. You remember them, don't you?" Fiero nodded. "I was thinking that they could take you shopping and help you pick something out. Just you girls together. Won't that be nice?" She smiled an extra-patronizing grin. "How is a blind woman going to help me shop?" Fiero thought, remembering vaguely the previous times she had met Lilly Satou. She had the forethought not to say it out loud, lest her parents no doubt chastise her ignorance.

"We've already arranged to have you excused from school for the rest of the week," Dad said. "We leave on Wednesday." Before he could say anything else, Fiero announced, "I'm going to Aura Mart," grabbed her sweatshirt and headed for the door.