Katheryn is turning four hundred and eighty-three. What are you meant to get someone when they turn that old? I had created a subgroup chat with my other friends to work out what to get for her. It's a school day, so we can't throw a big party that day as we did with Catalina and me, so we need to do something different.

LesbianHybrid invited SpanishQueen, BeheadedBoleyn, SilverSeymour and QueenfromCleves to the group Katheryn's Secret Birthday Party 2007

LesbianHybrid: Queens, I need help!
SilverSeymour: What do you need help with?
LesbianHybrid: I don't know what to get Katheryn. I'm seriously freaking out over here.
SilverSeymour: Wait, why the hell do I see you only just walking out of your house?
LesbianHybrid: I'm running a little late. But if you've seen me, then you're also running late.
SpanishQueen: I'm struggling too. I never know what to get for Katheryn.
QueenfromCleves: I'll help you all out.

Anne is screaming as she runs out of Kitty's house. 'Anne Boleyn, why are you screaming at half eight in the morning?' Anna yells. 'More to the point, where's Kitty?'
'I don't know!' Anne screams. 'I went round to pick her up, but she's not there.'
'Maybe she's already at school,' I say. 'If not, we'll wait for her.'
'But her parents didn't want me looking for her. They never acted like that before.'
'How were they acting?' I must have a journalist sense from Mummy.
'They seemed cold.' I look over at Kitty's house and spot the curtains twitching. A woman is glaring out from behind them.
'Anything else? Did they do anything that seemed abnormal?'
'When I asked questions about Kitty, they shut me out. Joyce said that they want nothing more to do with her.' Anne's eyes dart from me to our group of friends.
'How long was she gone for?' I turn to my other friends. 'Lina, your room is facing the street, and you live opposite Kitty. Did you see anything strange last night?'
'Not that I remember, no.' Catalina says before checking her watch. 'Guys, we're not going to make it even if we run.'
'What if Kitty's not at school?' Anne asks.
'We have history first,' Jane points out. 'If she's not there, one of us can bunk off school to look for her.' We turn to Jane. 'What?'
'The goody-two-shoes Jane Seymour suggests bunking off school?' Anna asks.
'I'm worried about my cousin. Listen, if we all go, the teachers will suspect that something's going on. If Anne and I leave if Kitty's not there, you can say something is going round in the family. Kitty's our cousin, so they'd believe us.'
'Other than the fact Anne played the 'I'm feeling ill' card to bunk off school before?' I ask. Anne opens her mouth to speak but then thinks better of it and closes it again. 'We will need two reliable people searching for Kitty. If she's not in history, I'll text Mum and Mummy so they know she's missing. If they search for her, they have more of a chance of finding her. We'll search for Kitty after school.'

'Or you could have texted me and found out where I was,' Kitty replies. We turn to face her. Several dark bruises are forming on her face, and she's holding her side in agony. Katheryn is wearing her school uniform and a warm coat. She is carrying her messenger bag on her shoulder and has a suitcase in her hand. Her school uniform looks like it was thrown into a muddy puddle and hasn't been washed.
'Katheryn, what happened?' I ask.
'I got kicked out.'
'What?' Anne asks.
'My parents were arguing about it for a long time. Isabel and my other siblings can't stand the sight of me.'
'But why? Isabel and the others love you.'
'They kicked me out because I'm a lesbian, Annie!'
'They can't do that!' I look back at the house where Kitty used to live. It's about time that I talked to the Howards. They cannot treat their daughter in this way.

I storm up the path leading to the house. 'Emma, no!' Kitty yells.
'The worst that's going to happen is they slam the door in my face,' I call back. 'I need to try.' I use the knocker and wait for a few moments. The woman from earlier opens the door. Her long, brown hair is tied back in a ponytail, and she glares at me with cold blue eyes.
'What do you want?'
'That's no way to talk to a friend of your daughter's.'
'That thing is not my daughter.' Joyce moves to shut the door, but I wedge my foot between the door and the frame.
'Not good enough, Howard!' I push the door open and enter the hallway.

I've been to Kitty's house before, and there used to be lots of photos on the walls of Kitty and her family. Now, they are gone, replaced with images that Kitty's not in. Near the front door are two full bin bags. On top of them is Kitty's photo album. 'Katheryn is your daughter.' I turn my attention back to Joyce. 'If you kick her out, you will regret it.'
'Either I lose her, or I lose everyone in my family,' Joyce's gaze softens. 'The best I can do is give Katheryn everything she owns before the others destroy it.' She places Katheryn's photo album in one of the bags. 'Give these to her.' I pick up the bags, and I'm about to step out the door when Isabel walks down the stairs.
'Mother, you should—what the hell are you doing?!' She screams when she sees me.
'I'm going to give Katheryn the rest of her belongings. As her sister, you should be supporting her.'
'It's not my fault that she turned into a—'
'I'm stopping you there. Do not call Katheryn mean names. What did she do to deserve that?'
'She slept with you, that's what!' Isabel walks up to me. She's taller than I am, so she stares down at me. Isabel tries to grab the bags out of my hands, but I put my hands behind my back.
'They do not belong to you. I'm taking these to their rightful owner.' Isabel slaps me. I hear my friends gasp.
'You shouldn't have done that,' Anne says.
'Like I care, Boloser.'
'No, seriously, you made a deadly mistake.' I turn to Kitty and hand the bags to her. At least with my hands free, I can confront Isabel.
'When I told our friend it hasn't started, I lied.'
'Why?' Catalina asks. 'Why did you lie to Jack?'
'I thought he would see me as a threat.'
'Hey, no more of that.'
'That what started?' Isabel asks. I turn to her and see her eyes narrowing.
'Kitty, did Isabel ever know that I'm not fully human?'
'No.' At that moment, the smell of burning wafts through the house.
'Now look what you did,' Isabel growls.
'It's not our fault if you're food's burning.'
'You interrupted Mother from cooking, so it's your fault.' Isabel pushes us out of the house and slams the door.

'You shouldn't have done that, Emma,' Kitty says as we walk up the path.
'I see that now,' I agree. 'I thought I could make things better—'
'You said that confrontations never solve anything.'
'When did I say that?'
'When you resurrected us. We wanted to kill Henry for what he did, but you said we should not confront him.'
'Sometimes, confrontation is necessary. In some cases, not confronting someone is worse than facing them. It makes them think of their actions, and they could have a change of heart.' Catalina checks the time on her watch.
'We've missed almost all of the first lesson.'
'If my mums find out, I'll be in so much trouble!'

We cross the road towards Jane's house. We look back over the road to see someone putting up a sign for Kitty's former home, stating that it's for sale. Kitty turns away. Jane stops walking, and we almost crash into her. 'My parents can look after you for a few days, but they can't do long term.'
'Who was it that kicked you out?' Anne asks.
'My uncle is living with us. My parents and siblings argued about it, but he made the final decision.'
'That's not fair,' I fold my arms. 'How old is your uncle?'
'Oh, shoot,' Anne says. 'Kitty, if your uncle kicked you out, he will force Dad to kick me out when he finds out that I'm gay.' Anne groans. 'I guess I better go and pack my things.'
'But your parents haven't kicked you out,' I say. 'Besides, who's to say that they will?'
'My dad is close to our uncle. He will disown me for sure!'
'Just because your uncle will disown you doesn't mean that you don't have other family members who don't care for you? What about your siblings?'
'Mary and George will always look out for me. George is actually bisexual, so if Uncle Thomas finds out, he'll get kicked out too.'
'But Mary's cool too,' Kitty says. 'Whenever Jane and I go around, she treats us to a day in the park or almost whatever we want to do.' We begin walking back to Jane's house. 'We'll get in trouble if your parents find out you haven't gone to school. Whose parents are the coolest about us not going to school?'

'Why have you not gone to school?' We all yell in surprise and turn to find Mum and Mummy standing behind us. 'Well?' Mummy asks. 'What's going on?' We hear Kitty sobbing.
'My uncle kicked me out of the house, and I have nowhere to go!' Kitty wails.
'He's going to try and kick me out too,' Anne whispers, her face turning white. 'Probably George as well; I better warn him.'
'Your mum and dad love you; they'll never kick you out!' Jane cries.
'You never know with my uncle! He holds power over anyone related to the Howard family, which could include you, Jane!'
'My parents know I'm pansexual; they knew for years. If they wanted to kick me out, they would've done it already. Besides, the Howards and the Seymours are only distantly related.'
'Yes, but he could still influence your family.'
'If it is going to cause a problem, why don't your families band together to get rid of him?' Catalina asks.
'My family's scared of him,' Kitty says.
'My family rely on him for support,' Anne adds. 'Besides, they never liked the Seymours much so that they wouldn't join with them.'
'Maybe it's time to change that.' Anne hums in agreement.

'Catalina?' Isabella asks. She is working in the front garden. 'Why are you not at school?'
'Sorry, Mamá. One of my friends got kicked out and has nowhere to go.' Isabella stops working and approaches us.
'Your friends are always welcome in our home, Catalina. It doesn't matter how long it's for, so long as they're safe.' She notices that Kitty is holding her suitcase and invites us all in.

We all sit in the bright, airy kitchen. Yellow tiles glitter on the walls and the white furniture makes the room feel bigger. We are all sitting at the table, drinking tea. Isabella is happy to have us there, even if we're meant to be at school. Anne fishes her phone out of her pocket. 'I'm going to text George and warn him that we could be in trouble.' She fires a text off to George and places her phone in front of her.
'Don't expect a text from him yet; he'll still be at school,' Isabella says.
'I know, but I want him to at least know that I'm thinking of him.'

A young woman walks into the kitchen. She has dark brown hair tied up underneath a black sailors' hat with the White Waves Line logo on it. She is also wearing a waist-long navy coat with eight brass buttons, and on the bottom of the sleeves is a yellow line and a circle over it. 'Emma, you're not supposed to wear your uniform when you're not aboard the ship.'
'The captain of the Orissa is coming today,' the older Emma shrugs. Her blue eyes are sparkling, and she starts beaming. 'The second officer retired. Hopefully, I'll get a promotion.'
'You're the third officer on the Orissa?' I ask. 'I've seen so many pictures of that ship. It looks incredible!'
'I've not seen much of it,' the older Emma shrugs. 'I spend most of my time on the bridge, doing my rounds or in the officers' mess.'
'Will you be back for April?' Isabella asks.
'You know me. I'll always be back for April.' Her blue eyes lose some of their sparkle, and Emma stops smiling.
'Why would you be back for April?' Mummy asks.

'No reason,' the older Emma shrugs. Her gaze falls to the tiles on the floor. 'Every year, I get April off. It's in my contract.'
'But why would you not work for a whole month?'
'It's not your business.'
'Considering that she's your mother, it is her business,' Isabella retorts.
'And you're an older version of me, so I'd like to know, too,' I add.

Emma looks up at me. 'You have no idea what it's like.'
'What do you mean?'
'You're too young to understand.'
'Try me.' I fold my arms. My friends stare between the two of us.
'All right.' The older Emma lifts her gaze to me. 'Have you ever lost someone before besides Lavinia and Suzie?' I shake my head. I would remember if someone I cared about died. 'You will witness a lot of death in your time. I wish I could tell you that you will get over it in time, but some things are harder to get over than others.' I slip off my seat and approach the older Emma. I know not to touch her; that can cause all sorts of problems.

'What sort of things?'
'I don't want to talk about it.'
'Emma, if you talk to someone about it, about him, you can get the help you need,' Catalina points out.
'There's no point. It happened almost a hundred years ago. What's the point in getting help if no one believes that I am who I say I am?'
'They will believe you.'
Emma shakes her head. 'Besides, maybe I'm going mad.'
'You're not,' Anna firmly says. 'We won't let you go mad, and William wouldn't want you to grow mad, would he?' The older Emma sighs.
'I'll stay sane, then.' Emma walks out of the room. I don't know whether to follow her or not. She's an older version of myself, and she looks like she needs help.

'I wish there were something we could do for her,' Kitty says. 'She's been like this for almost a hundred years.'
'A hundred years?' Mummy breathes, horrified. 'What happened?'
'It's something that Emma should discuss with you. It's a personal matter. All I will say is that she lost a guy she really loved, and she never got over it.'

Maybe my username isn't correct. I've been attracted to girls before, but never guys. I think I need to do a bit of research. But for now, I get my phone out and log into the group chat.

LesbianHybrid changed their username to QuestioningHybrid.

'Fair enough,' Anne says when she glances down at her phone.
'What's happened?' Ruby asks.
'Nothing!' Anne puts her phone away.
'Who's QuestioningHybrid?' Anne's face grows pale.
'How the hell did you see my screen?' Emma reappears in the doorway, a smirk on her face.
'I didn't need to. Kitty had her phone on the table. Well, who are they?'

Emma starts laughing. 'Wow, I forgot this happened.'
'This is not how I wanted today to go,' I say. Mum and Mummy look over at me.
'What do you mean?' Mum asks.
'I'm QuestioningHybrid. It was originally LesbianHybrid, but since my friends said I'd be attracted to guys in the future, I thought that username no longer works.'
'You could have told us you were questioning your identity,' Mum says gently. 'We would have been happy to help you.'
'I already knew,' Mummy says. 'I accidentally saw Emma's username in the group chat, but as she didn't want you to know at the time, I promised to keep it a secret.'
'So I was the last one to know?'
'There are loads of people who never knew about me,' Emma shrugs. 'And you're not the last one to know. I came out loads of times. If anything, you're one of the first.'

Kitty heads upstairs to start unpacking her belongings in her new room, and the older Emma disappears upstairs. I hope I don't run into her too many times in the future. It will make things complicated, and she might accidentally reveal something that I'm not meant to know.

I go back to the subgroup chat.

QuestioningHybrid: We need to make this birthday extra special. Kitty must feel like one of us.
SpanishQueen: Exactly. I'll hold it, and we can decorate the living room again.
BeheadedBoleyn: Her favourite colour is pink, and her birthday is on Valentine's Day, so we could have heart decorations
SilverSeymour: But it's also after her death day. We don't want to do anything that would seem inconsiderate.
QueenfromCleves: What's her favourite game?
BeheadedBoleyn: We created our own monopoly game. Kitty loves playing it. I have the pieces and board, so we could play it.
SpanishQueen: What about gifts? What sort of thing is Kitty after?
QueenfromCleves: Before all this happened, she wanted something related to animals.
SpanishQueen: Mama doesn't allow us to have pets because Padre is allergic.
SilverSeymour: How about a visit to the zoo? Kitty loves animals, so we could do that the weekend after her birthday.
QuestioningHybrid: Great idea. We should also do an animal-themed party on her birthday.

Soon after we finish talking in our group chat, we explain to Isabella what we're planning. She agrees that it's a great idea, and she books the trip to the zoo for the Saturday after Katheryn's birthday. The rest of us begin organising ahead of Katheryn's birthday.