This chapter "sets the scene" for the rest of the story. You'll see what I mean.

Kathleen is based off of one of my friends. (Sorry "Kathleen" if I didn't portray you very well. And if I made fun of ballroom dancing.) Carlie's entire school is based off of my school. One of the reasons I wrote this was because I was sick of all the ignorant homophobes at my school.

I don't own RENT.

Tell me if you get the Fiddler on the Roof reference.

A month into school in Connecticut, and not much had changed.

I mostly just talked to Amy, who I had three classes with (social studies, art, and English), and her friends. Amy was okay, but she was also really concerned with outward appearances (which I was all too familiar with, considering who one of my parents was). But, unlike Angel, she didn't seem to think there was much more to a person's character than what they looked like. Also, Angel was the type of person who you could tell honestly cared for everyone's well being. She was always nice to everyone; if a skinhead had harassed her in New York, she would tell me later that she felt bad for them because they were so closed minded. Amy, on the other hand, would pretend to be nice to a lot of people, but then afterward would tell me how much she hated them. To top it all off, Amy, along with everyone else in the school, was still under the false impression that Angel was my mother.

So, all in all, I wasn't overly upset when Amy wasn't in school one Friday, and I found myself talking to a different girl, named Kathleen, in art class.

"So," Kathleen asked me as we started to try to draw abstract self portraits, "you moved here from New York, right?"

Already, this conversation was headed in a direction completely different from any that I had ever had with Amy: Amy usually talked about herself more than she asked question about my life. "Yeah," I answered.

"That's so cool," Kathleen said as she looked at me. "I love New York. It's so much more, like, diverse than here. There're just so many different types of people. And they're all so different. Unlike here, where everybody is exactly the same. Or at least tries to act the same."

"I know what you mean," I told her as I started to draw one eye much bigger than the other. "I lived in Alphabet City; that's like the center of diversity."

Kathleen's huge brown eyes widened. "Really? I've always wanted to live there. From what I've heard, people just seem less prejudice."

"That's kind of true," I said. "I mean, there are still a bunch of people there that treat all gays like pieces of shit, and who think that everyone who's homeless is trash, but it's still much more, I don't know, just more accepting than here."

"I know what you mean," Kathleen replied as she tried to keep her long brown curly hair out of her face. "This place is the worst. Especially middle school. At least next year, when we're freshman, I've heard that people stop trying to be someone their not so much."

"Who told you that?" I asked.

"I have a bunch of friends from doing ballroom dancing," she told me. I gave her a funny look. "I know that it sounds awful, but it's really just so much fun. And most of the people there are like, theatre-y people, so they're just so much more real than the people in middle school. I mean, they've stopped trying to pretend to who they're not. It's a nice change, trust me."

"Don't worry, I trust you," I said to Kathleen. "So……who else does ballroom dancing?"

"Well, not many people that go to this school. There are a couple that are my age that go to private school or something, but most of them are high schoolers. It's mostly girls too, but there are a few guys. Most of them are gay though."

I'll admit it. I was shocked. I mean, it wasn't like I thought that everyone in Connecticut was straight or something, but I guess it just never occurred to me that I wasn't the only person in the school who new someone who was gay. But it wasn't just that that was shocking me though. Here I had been for the past month; hanging out with girls that didn't understand me and probably never would, when the whole time here was this girl that I got along with a hell of a lot better than I had with Amy. It suddenly occurred to me that Kathleen wasn't really the type of person I had to hide things from. I was pretty sure that if I told her the true about my parents, she wouldn't really care.

Taking a deep breath, I opened my mouth to speak. "Yeah," I started to say. "My parents are—"

BEEEEEEEEP!

That fucking stupid bell.

"What was that you were saying?" Kathleen asked as we quickly got up to grab are books.

I sighed. "It was— it was nothing. Never mind."

I went through the rest of the day with mixed feelings. I couldn't decide if I should have told Kathleen about my parents or not. On one hand, it would have been nice to tell someone the truth about myself. Especially someone who wasn't going to judge me on it. But on the other hand, I couldn't even be sure that Kathleen would be okay with my parents being gay. I could never really tell with most people. On the other hand, I had already told so many people that Angel was my mother, I didn't even know how to reverse all the lies I had told. But on the other hand— well, I had no more hands.

When I got to English that day, I was surprised to see Amy there. My teacher, Mrs. Green, had put my seat next to hers on my first day. So, when I went and sat down next to her, I asked her why she hadn't been in art this morning.

"I was sick this morning, but my mom drove me in late," Amy answered.

"Oh, okay," I said to her. In class, we were halfway done with presenting our projects on To Kill a Mockingbird. Our teacher called a kid named Mike to the front of the room to present his project.

"Oh G-d, that guy is so gay," Amy muttered to me as he walked up to the front of the room.

"Mm hmm," I muttered back, as my stomach plummeted to the floor. Why did people have to say things like that? After Mike's presentation, which I wasn't able to pay attention to at all, the phone in our classroom rang. Mrs. Green picked it up, said a couple "mm hmms" and "yeses" and hung up.

"Carlie?" she asked. "Could you come up here for a second?" Wondering what on Earth was going on, I walked up to my teacher's desk. She lowered her voice slightly, but it was still loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. "Carlie, that was your, umm, well, actually I'm not quite sure who that was, but he, I mean she, I mean, well, it sounded like man, but……"

"You mean Angel," I told my teacher. I could feel everyone's eyes pressed against the back of my head, wondering what this was about. "She's my, well………" Taking a deep breath, I decided the only way out of this was to tell the truth. "My—my parents are gay, and Angel's a guy, but she dresses like a woman a lot and she is basically my mom, but………" Behind me, the room was completely silent.

"Well, he— I mean she, I mean………well, Angel says that h— she won't be home after school today, but you're not supposed to worry; she just has a few errands to run." My teacher was obviously flustered and embarrassed, but it was nothing compared to how I felt.

I turned around and walked slowly back to my seat. Everyone was still staring at me with mixed expressions of shock, confusion, disgust, and even some slight fear.

I know— a cliffhanger. Aren't you just dying to know what's going to happen? Unfortunately, I don't think that I'll be able to update until at least Tuesday (May 16), but probably not until Wednesday. Sorry!

Please review and make my day!