Okay! I offered cameos in the last chapter for anyone who gave me an unnecessarily long review. And just so you know, I went by word count. So here's how it's gonna go down.

1st: My-Sanity-Went-B00m-

2nd: CeruleanStarGlow

3rd: broadwaybaby4205

4th: The Last Truffula Tree

5th: Marky's Scarfy

And 6th: Hazel Fae

Alrighty, good people. That's the order of the cameos. They shall start in the next chapter!

I own nothing. The Almighty Larson owns it all.

Collins wiped the sweat off of his forehead with his arm. Even though he wanted to get away from his constantly arguing family, he regretted running in 80-degree weather. On the bright side, he knew where he was going he'd left the house, he hadn't had a destination in mind, but now that he was walking and could actually hear himself think, he decided to go to the home of the one person who hated his family fights just as much as he did.

Walking up to the porch of the familiar big white house, Collins started to have second thoughts, but he had to go somewhere. Jasmine was already upset about him leaving so he really didn't want to give her a heart attack if he had a heat stroke.

After hesitating for a while, he knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" the voice of a woman came through the door.

"It's Tom," Collins said, cringing as soon as his first name came out of his mouth. The door opened and he saw the face of his mother's mother, Rose Watkins. She was a small woman with dark brown skin and a friendly face that looked like she'd invite anyone into her house just as long as they wiped their shoes before entering. Her mouth spread into a smile as she looked up at Collins, who was two feet taller than her.

"Well, I'll be," she said. "I ain't seen you since you was knee-high to a grasshopper." Collins smiled at his grandmother's choice of words.

"Hi Nana," he said.

"Do I get a hug or did you go up to New York and get too big for hugs from your grandma?" Collins chuckled and enveloped the small woman into a hug. "I was wonderin' if you were ever comin' back." The hug lasted for about fifteen more seconds before ending.

"Well, I'm here now."

"You in town for the reunion?"

"Yes ma'am." Rose stared at Collins for a moment. He didn't seem as happy to visit her as she thought he'd be.

"What's the matter with you?" she asked.

"Nothing," Collins replied.

"I don't believe you, Tommy. If there's one thing I know that your Mamma doesn't, it's whether or not there's somethin' wrong with one of my grand kids." Collins opened his mouth to try and get the point across to Rose that there wasn't anything wrong with him, but he knew she was right. "Come on inside. I know you must be thirsty." Collins followed Rose into the house and into the kitchen, where the aroma of chocolate chip cookies and sweet potato pie filled the air. Collins inhaled deeply.

"It smells good in here," he said.

"I know," Rose gloated. "It's your two favorite desserts. I was bakin' 'em cause I was plannin' on comin' over later, but you're here now." Collins followed his grandmother with his eyes as she picked up an oven mitt off of the counter, put it on, and took a tray of cookies out of the oven after checking to see if the pies were done. She set the tray on the counter and put the oven mitt beside it.

"Nana, do I get a cookie?" Collins asked, feeling much like a five year old. Rose smiled at him.

"Of course you do, sweetie," she told him. She took a small saucer and a glass out of one of the kitchen cabinets and put three cookies on the saucer before walking over to the refrigerator with the glass in her hand and pouring a generous amount of milk into it. She then placed both the cookies and the milk in front of Collins, who had seated himself in a chair next to the kitchen table. "There you go. Be careful though. Those cookies just came out of the oven." Collins nodded and stared at his cookies as if he could somehow cool them down with his mind. "Your dad has the entire church ready to hunt you down and drop you into a pool of holy water." Collins looked up.

"Excuse me?" he said.

"Honey, your dad preached about homosexuality today and used you as an example." Collins looked at his shoes. "What's so interesting down there?"

"Nothing. I just . . . I'm sorry you had to find out like that."

"Child, I already knew." Collins' head shot back up and he looked into Rose's soft, dark brown eyes.

"How?"

"A mother may always know, but a grandmother picks up the stuff the mother leaves behind."

"How long have you known?" Rose sat down next to Collins.

"Well, when you were about twelve years old goin' on thirteen, Jesse got his first boyfriend, Mike. And Mike had a little brother the same age as you. Melvin, I think his name was. You remember that?" Collins nodded and broke a piece off of one of his cookies. "Well, you and Melvin got to know each other and then, just as you two became the best of friends-"

"He and Mike had to move," Collins interrupted, frowning slightly.

"That's right. He and Mike had to move."

"What does this have to do with how you already knew I was gay?" Collins put the piece of cookie that was still in his hand into his mouth.

"I'm gettin' to that part. Just hold on." Rose broke off a piece of one of the cookies on the saucer and ate it. "Now, when those boys moved away, I expected Jesse to be really sad, but I noticed that you were much sadder than he was."

"I was?" Collins broke off a larger piece of cookie, dunked it into his milk, and ate it.

"Yes you were." Rose shifted in her chair. "But what struck me as odd was the fact that your own mother didn't notice your change in behavior." She laughed for a moment. "I even pointed out that you weren't bringing stray cats into the house to live anymore and your mother just said, 'He's growin' up now, Mamma. He knows right from wrong.'"

"I still don't understand how-" Collins started.

"I'm almost there," Rose interrupted. "Let's see . . . I think it was one day before the move and Mike invited Jesse over to spend one last day with him so Jesse invited you to come along and hang out with Melvin. So I took both of you over to their soon to be old house and Melvin took you down to the river in the woods behind the house. Oh, hold on a minute, sweetheart." Rose stood up, walked over to the counter, put her oven mitt back on, opened the oven, took three pies out of it, one by one, and set them on a cooling rack. Collins sniffed the air as he stuffed another cookie into his mouth and Rose sat back down. "Where was I?"

"Theriverbehindthehouse," Collins said with a mouth full of cookie.

"Tommy, don't stuff your mouth or talk with it full." Collins picked up his glass of milk and drank half of it. "Tom!" Collins swallowed the mixture of cookie and milk, wiped away his milk mustache, and smiled Rose, who sighed and shook her head. "Anyway, it was almost time for us to go and Jesse couldn't find you. So I went into the woods and saw you and Melvin sitting side by side, hand in hand." Collins stared at his grandmother with widened eyes. He knew what was coming next. "Then, before I could call your name, Melvin leaned over and kissed you right on the lips. And you didn't complain."

"You never told me you saw that," Collins said, his eyes still wide.

"You never asked."

"So, you knew I was gay since I was twelve?" Rose nodded. "Oh my God." Collins covered his face with his hands. "Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God."

"Why do you keep sayin' that?" Collins stood up and left the kitchen. Rose followed him unhurriedly and watched him lean on a wall, still covering his face. "Tom, what's wrong with you?"

"You saw me kiss a boy." Collins' words sounded somewhat mumbled by his hands.

"And that bothers you?"

"Yes. You're my grandmother. When you were twelve, you didn't see gay couples much. I can only imagine what was goin' through your head when Melvin kissed me."

"It actually didn't bother me." Collins lowered his hands slowly. "Well, thanks for lettin' me see your nice face again."

"It didn't bother you?" Collins asked Rose, ignoring her last comment.

"No. Not at all. Besides, what kind of grandma would I be if I accepted Jesse and not you?"

"So . . . you're not gonna tell me about how I'm gonna go to hell if I don't date a woman?"

"Who told you that you were goin' to hell?"

"Dad."

"Forget about him. He has his own little world where everybody's straight, married with kids, and Christian. But in the real world, there are people who love who they wanna love and their families who accept them." Rose smiled at Collins and gave him a hug, which he returned. "I love you no matter what, Tommy." Collins felt like crying tears of joy. Someone in his family had accepted him and there wasn't a giant argument.

"Thanks Nana," was all he could say.

Awww . . . YAY FOR GRANDPARENTS! :)

Review please!