WHO COUNSELS WHOM?

Athena Kennard smiled at Shane. Shane was her favorite of all the girls in the Teaching-Parent Home. Athena was only a shift counselor, not one of the Teaching-Parents, but she enjoyed talking to Shane on her shifts, and it was making Athena sad that Shane was eighteen next week, and would be leaving the TP half-way house.

Shane smiled shamefacedly at Athena. She was much friendlier than she'd been when she'd shown up, angrily in need of housing after couch surfing for so long. Shane had escaped the foster care system after sixth grade, and she'd had to show up again, but now she was graduating from the beautician program at Harvey Milk Academy...

"I'll really miss you, um, Ms. Kennard." Shane said. "It was fun playing Old Maid with you and Cyprion. Sip graduated from here last week, and she said you were the only person who understood her. I kept telling her to go to Mass and just listen to her Walkman-"

"I know, Shane. And Mr. and Mrs. Hardesty have no business forcing you to go to services, none of you guys. This is a government owned facility. Um, Shane, that was just a joke about you uh, peeing in the Holy Water-never mind."

Shane snorted and lit a Camel, in direct violation of the Teaching-Parent Home rules, but Athena smiled tolerantly. The fascist house parents were out, and she -Athena-was having a great time with this girl who was, after all, only three years younger than Athena herself.

Shane dropped her ashes neatly in a tiny Nehi bottle cap, which was much better than in the cuffs of her jeans, a habit Athena had begged her to give up. "Y'know, Ms. K, you should relax more. I should take you out to meet MY friends. Not the punks or the stoners, but some kids I met at UCLA. You're takin' a course there, right?"

"I hope to." Athena smiled tugging a blonde curl. Athena had much in common with Shane, though not style wise...Athena had gone through the foster care system in Shebogyan, Wisconsin, and had been dropping in and out of colleges for several years now...she'd briefly been in a social work program, and this poorly paid job as a counselor had been quite a little find, but Athena really wanted to finish school.

"Y'know you always are tellin' me that I should follow this dream, or that dream, and we, all us girls think it's great, but are you doing everything you want, Ms. K?"

"You know, Shane, now that you're leaving the TP Home, you can just call me Athena if you want. I hope we can you know, get together in a more informal um, atmosphere. I'd love to meet your friends-they're not like Cyprion's, on parole and stuff?"

"You are such a white girl, Ms-Athena." Shane of course was paler white than Athena had been on her best day. "It's a pretty name, Athena." Shane tried it out on her tongue some more.

"Yeah. My parents adopted me and my dad named me Athena after a Greek Goddess-two of them, it's Athena Artemis Kennard, but then Daddy died, and my mom, who I think just adopted me to make him happy, left..."

Athena's eyes stung. Why was she telling this kid her personal business? "But the name makes me think of Dad, and it is a little long. When I was young, my best friend Gertrude wanted to go by Trudy, and I wanted to go by Tina, and we pretended we were sisters, because we were living in a-"

"Orphanage, children's home...re-create sibling stuff." Shane nodded. " I get it."

That amazed Athena. This little hairdresser-to be was a closer connection...it was psychic. Maybe because they were both sort-of orphans?

"But then Trudy was sent away to another home, and I went from Tina to Athena again. It's okay. It was just a name I fantasized about. There was another girl in the Children's Home whose name was Christina and she was also called Tina so-"

"Yeah but what were you, eight?"

"Seven-seven and a half. How did you-"

"Why can't you be Tina now? Save Athena for you know, signin' checks."

"It's a little late, Shane. I'm twenty-one-"

"Twenty-two. You just had a birthday, and I never see the present the other girls and I bought you."

"Yeah. A shirt with the message "We Bitches Ain't Shit but Hoes and Trix" is not quite the look uh-the thought was nice. But yeah, Tina's great, and maybe it would catch on. It's never too late-"

"To be Tina." Shane finished.

"Jesus, you're like Radar O'Reilley."

"Who?"

BETTE'S NEWEST EXHIBIT

Alice and Bette walked around the Student Art Show. Alice kept trying to hold Bette's hand, and Bette kept pulling her hand away, not rudely. Didn't Alice understand there were ALL THESE PEOPLE HERE?

"Dana might be by later." Alice said with a codependent smile. "She is bringing this girl from Pomona College, and I thought the four of us could-"

"We don't double-date, Alice." Bette said with a tired look. "I like you, we're having a good time-"

"Had you screaming last night."

"Yes. But you act like we're-a normal couple, and you're a GIRL." But there was something else. Bette liked Alice well enough, and certainly Alice was doing for Bette more than any male ever had. But, Alice was like a sister to Bette, or more like an annoying, talkative cousin. Alice just didn't ring Bette's chimes.

Still, it was so scary to ask girls out, and Alice was incredibly giving in bed, though she wasn't someone to um, read the Sunday paper over bagels with. Why, why can't she be different? Just a little more, uh, was it gravitas? That was an SAT prep word that Bette had never uttered, but-

"Oh, there she is. Hey!" Alice shouted so loudly that Bette blushed and the whole gallery stared.

"Oh, is that-that's not Dana is it, Al?"

"No, it's Shane, and she's with someone, a blonde girl-I think she works at Shane's institution. I wish Shane could've continued living with us. Why'd she bring one of the guards? She's cute, though...blonde."

Bette looked over, smiled at Shane, and then Bette's mouth went dry as she gazed at the "guard" who was indeed blonde, and smiling uncertainly. Bette, never expressive, gasped inwardly. She tried to control herself, and gasped again as she beheld the most beautiful girl in the world.