Chapter Two.
We settled in by the window, though not really. We hadn't brought anything with us, only because we really didn't have anything to begin with. Shine was in Queens since birth - I was in Queens since I was about 14. Now we were both 19, and as different as we were, we had a connection, and I would always appreciate everything she did for me.
When I joined the Queens Lodging House, the leader was Yellow. She still was the leader, but her rules had changed. One day, a boy came to our lodging, and he informed us that he had been sent from a lodging house in Buffalo. Yellow nodded, and didn't explain why we were letting a boy into the house. We all later figured out that he wasn't interested in any of us girls.
The newsboy simply went by Kid, but some of the girls called him Goil Girl. No one seriously hated him, but some of the girls picked on him more than anything. He rarely spoke, and one day he was found in Lake Eerie, a little ways from his lodging in Buffalo. Only a few of the newsgirl in Queens laughed about it and said maybe he deserved it, but the others took it seriously and felt awful.
A year or 2 later, we got another boy, who was also nicknamed Kid by his lodging house in NYC. This boy was taken into our house a little bit better than the last boy. The girls even got to the point where they would look at other boys for him! Of course, things don't always last, and just another year later, we received yet another boy, also nicknamed Kid. It was starting to make sense to us, that all of the homosexual boys were given the name Kid, and sent off to the girls lodging houses. That way, those who figured it out knew that the Kid was also a homo.
Eventually, our house had six boys with the nickname Kid, so of course we let them change their names. It got so confusing that whenever the new boy came, he would be ordered to change his nickname first. The leader's of the houses that these boys were kicked out of got together and debated what was to be done. They didn't want to bump into a Kid who had changed his nickname. How would they know? Oh, it was a mess.
To them.
Eventually, I was found out by my leader, and Yellow wondered what was to be done with my nickname. I begged her to let me stay, and I promised not to tell anyone that I was a lesbian. Well, Jack spoke with her and agreed to take me in. Yellow told him that my nickname was Kid. Simply and promptly, I was thrown out of Queens, and given scribbled notes on how to walk to Manhattan.
Shine followed me. I had only heard her speak a few times, and the last thing that she said was when she caught up to me - she said, "I don't care."
I nodded, still in a state of shock, unsure of myself and my future. And here we are in Manhattan, like we were the new kids.
It made me sick inside, thinking about who I was, and who I couldn't stop being.