Chapter Two

Sofia walked into the busy canteen, clutching her food tray and scanning the room with her eyes, hoping to spot a friendly face looking over at her. She was hoping that her science partner Amy had already found a spot to sit.

"Sofia!" She saw Amy waving at her, sitting with three other girls and she breathed a sigh of relief. However, just as she was about to walk towards them, another person called her name on her right.

"Sofia right?"

Sofia turned around and saw three girls sitting on the same side of the table, wearing similar clothes and their sleek hair all worn straight down their backs, they looked to her like characters out of The Heathers.

"Sofia Robbins?" The girl in the middle was the smallest and it was she that was speaking. Sofia considered getting into the whole Robbins Sloan Torres thing but decided that she really couldn't be bothered in that moment.

"That was really cool when you stood up to Mr Knight this morning. He's such a douche" Sofia smiled politely but couldn't help wondering if this girl thought Mr Knight was a douche, why she was calling her Robbins too. "Thanks…" she smiled and began to turn as if to make her way to where Amy was sitting.

"I'm Rachel"

"Nice to meet you"

"sit"

"Oh…" Sofia paused and looked over to where Amy and the other girls were watching what was happening, "That's ok I'm going to…"

"Don't be rude" Rachel cut across her, and Sofia felt herself blush. She hadn't meant to offend anyone, "come and sit down for a second we just want to talk to you"

Sofia conceded and sat down opposite Katie and her two silent, watchful sidekicks. Rachel noticed Sofia's eyes looking at her neighbours and proceeded to introduce them. "This is Rain and Rebecca" Three Rs… this was like a movie.

"So, what's the story with the really long-ass name?" Rain said, speaking for the first time in a valley-girl drawl that felt out of place in the middle of New York City.

"Well I have like three parents so…"

"Wait, what? Like gay parents and a surrogate?" Rachel piped up, excitedly

"Well uhh…" Sofia wondered where to start

"Rebecca was born from a surrogate. Her parents are straight though. Her mom is just a model so she didn't want to lose her figure" Rebecca smiled a smile that didn't reach her eyes as a sign of agreement.

"So are your parents gay?" Rachel asked, leaning in.

"Well, yes but…"

"So cool." Rachel sighed, sitting back in her seat properly.

"So liberal" Rain agreed

"Your dads must be amazing at, like, styling you and stuff" Sofia raised her eyebrows at what she was sure was a gross stereotype before she set the record straight.
"I don't have two dads, I have two moms"

"Ooh…" Rachel didn't bother to hide her disappointment. "I don't know what lesbians are supposed to be good at… Is one like your dad and the other like your Mom?"

"Is one really fat and wears a lot of plaid?" Rain chimed in,

"What? No!" Sofia shook her head, where were these girls getting their LGBTQ+ information from? "they're both… The mom... Pretty women, beautiful women actually! With style and brains and… they're great!"

"So why is there three parents? The sperm donor get a name in there?" Rain asked, with a side glance at Rachel to see if her joke had gone over well with her.

Sofia wondered if there was any way to explain her complex situation without exposing her entire family history to this almost complete stranger.
"He wasn't the sperm donor. He was my Momma's best friend"

"Was?" Rachel probed, eyebrow raised.

"He died"

"Oohh!" Rain sang "So tragic!"

"How?" this time it was Rebecca who had spoken. The bluntness of her question took Sofia by surprise. Her Dad had died when she was a baby so she had no real memory of him. Her opinion of him came from whatever her mothers had taught her. His anniversary was sad to her because her Momma would get sad, but it was hard for Sofia to feel any loss over the man she never met.

"He died in a plane crash" All three girls squealed

"This is like a movie!" buzzed Rain, all three moved closer to Sofia and for a moment, she liked it. She liked to see their interest in her, how exotic they made her feel. She had always thought of her home situation as sad and boring. Divorced parents, a dead dad, a lot of kids had that. But these girls made her tragic situation seem like it was something desirable. A complex past. Parents who had had lives before any of them had come about. Glancing one last time at Amy, she saw that she and the others had finished eating and left. She would find Amy later and apologise for blowing her off. In this moment, she was going to join the R Club. It was always a good idea to have more friends.

"So my Dad and my Momma, Callie, I call her Momma. They were like a thing for a while. Momma was married in Las Vegas to her boyfriend George really quickly. That kind of fell apart and Momma, she kind of turned to Mark to make her feel better" Rain was giggling and blushing but Rachel looked at Sofia hungrily. "They dated for a while and then Momma kind of fell for her friend Erica and realised she was bisexual. That relationship fell apart too and when Momma was upset about it in a bar, my Mom came and found her in the bathroom and told her that there were lots of people who wanted her to be their girlfriend and when Momma said she'd like a list of their names, Mom kissed her!"

Rain pretended to swoon; "how romantic!"

"If you're into girls kissing you in bathrooms" Rebecca jabbed back and both girls laughed but Rachel urged her to continue the story.

"Well, Mom and Momma starting to date but after a while, My Mom Arizona got a chance to work in Africa because she's a Pediatric surgeon and they were going over to look after these sick kids…"

"Wait, your Mom is a surgeon?" Rachel cut in

"Yes, they both are. So was my Dad"

"Then you're really smart?"

"Well I like science I guess…" Rachel nodded thoughtfully as she waved her on to continue.

"Momma was going to move to Africa with her but in the end they decided that it wasn't going to work so Momma stayed behind and to feel better, got together with my Dad again.

"Wow I think I like your Momma Callie!" Rain giggled again but Rachel shushed her.

"Then my Mom turned up one day on her doorstep, not long after she left and basically said she was in love with Momma and she didn't want to be in Africa anymore because she missed her. But what she didn't know is that Momma had become pregnant with me. My Mom Arizona decided that she wanted to be my Mom too and stayed with Momma."

"So Callie is your bio Mom?" Rebecca asked and Sofia nodded. "I think you got the better one to be bio, she sounds really cool"

Sofia shrugged "they're both pretty cool".

"So what about the plane crash?" Rachel said, pushing Sofia to continue her complicated history.

"I was born and it was all pretty good apparently, Dad was like in love with this girl called Lexie who was also a surgeon with them and it looked like maybe they were going to end up together and that I would sort of rotate between the two families. But then they were flying out to another hospital to perform this complicated surgery on conjoined twins and Lexie, my Dad, and my Mom were all on the flight. The plane went down and they were lost for about a week. Mom had a really bad break in her leg and they had to amputate it" Sofia ignored the gasp of shock that came from Rain and Rebecca "Lexie died almost immediately and my Dad… He looked good for a while but in the end he didn't make it. Too many injuries." Sofia had been told this story many times but had never had to recount it in full like this before. It was strange to hear it all said out loud, to realise that her parents had suffered through so much and yet still had space for her silly problems, scraped knees, and math homework.

"How come I never heard about a plane going down near here?" Rachel asked

"We were babies when it happened, it was a private plane and it wasn't near here it was near Seattle."

"Seattle?"

"Yeah that's where we were all living"

"So how did you end up in New York?"

Sofia remembered all those complicated years of going back and forth between her Moms, the custody battle, losing Momma then having her again and not seeing her Mom. It wasn't something she liked to think on too closely. These last few years had been good. Both her Moms were here and she could see them both whenever she liked. They were nice to one another, but Sofia knew that they wouldn't get back together. The plane crash had ruined everything. That's what Momma said.

"We just moved here! All of us." She put some of her food in her mouth to give herself the excuse of not elaborating.

"So your Mom only has one leg?" Rain looked freaked out, but for Sofia it was completely normal now.

"Yeah but she has a prosthesis, so she walks and everything. You wouldn't even know it. She can live by herself no problem…"

"So they're not together? Your moms?" Rachel was quick to notice that small detail.

"No… I go between them. But they're on good terms. They're good."