She could hear the portable radio in the attic again, set for some reason no one could explain to droning static. Her mother was singing benevolently, but to a song that no one knew, and the family physician couldn’t explain. At least that’s what Alethea’s father said. Alethea knew that if Doctor John tried, he could unearth what was so opposite with her momma, but the doctor didn’t care. He went home to his own well momma with a hefty paycheck, and her momma went home with a fresh bottle of pills she never took. As much as it stung Alethea to see her family like this, there was one thing it did allow her. With her momma and papá preoccupied, they’d never notice her secret. And she, with difficulty, kept it too well hidden for even Daniel to notice anything was off.

𑂽𛲠𛲡𛲢𛲣

Alethea smushed farther into her oversized jacket before turning once more to talk to her brother, Daniel, who had shoved his hands deeper into his hoodie’s pockets against the prick of the frigid wind. “Do you think you can be at the football game tonight?” Daniel looked nervously at her then at their school, which they were standing in front of. “It’s senior night, and papá already said that he has to take momma to her appointment. Every other senior on Varsity’s parents are coming. I can’t show up with no one!”

Alethea understood how it felt to be the odd one out, even when she was at home. So mentally, she abandoned plans for going to her longtime friend Deirdre’s Volleyball competition the same evening and smiled at Daniel. “I’ll be there,” she affirmed.  

“Thank you,” he whispered sadly before climbing the steps into the building. Alethea lingered for a moment more before the steps into the school. She was only just about to walk inside; when she caught sight of a blur of lavender in the edge of her vision. She glanced over, and sure enough, her best friend Juniper was biking up to her, their pastel hair cut short again, only an inch above their head. 

As they dropped down from their bike, their jacket sprang up, and instead of exposing the deep chocolaty skin that Juniper wanted after chest surgery, it revealed a binder. As Juniper shoved their sweatshirt back down, they popped their earbud out. “Hey, Thea! Have you asked Deirdre to the homecoming game yet?” Juniper’s relatively quiet question seemed like a peal of thunder to Alethea’s anxious ears. Her head whipped to the overcrowded school building to make sure no one else had heard.

“No,” she seethed through gritted teeth, “And I’m not going to! You know I’m not out to my family, and my brother’s going to be there-”

“Okay, jeez,” Juniper deliberately threw the last word out long, allowing the excess e’s to show their annoyance. “You could just tell everyone else that you’re going as friends?”

Alethea sighed. She’d tried explaining this to them countless times before. But Juniper never seemed to understand. “It’s unfair to Deirdre,” she spoke softly, hoping if she couldn’t hear herself say the words, they wouldn’t be true. “No one wants to be in a secret relationship with someone. It makes you feel like they’re embarrassed by you.”

Juniper’s green eyes peered at their over their glasses. “That’s never stopped Dierdre from having a secret relationship before,” they pointed out.

“It was one girl. And if you know about it, then it wasn’t a very well-kept secret.”

𑂽𛲠𛲡𛲢𛲣

Juniper gently nudged Alethea forwards. They were about midway up in line to sign up to sell tickets the night of the homecoming game when Juniper had seen Dierdre coming their way. “Last chance,” they said tentatively. “Do you want to ask Dierdre to the homecoming game?

Alethea groaned in agony. “Juniper, I said no. Now let’s sign up and go.” But it was too late - Dierdre had heard her name. She picked her head up at the familiar sound of her name, her fair hair springing up, turquoise eyes carefully searching for the sound of Juniper’s voice. Then Dierdre spotted them. Her feet bounced gracefully across the floor until she reached them.

“Hey, Lee! Oh, and hi, Juniper,” she greeted them.

“Hey yourself. Are you selling tickets at the game, Dee? You can stand in line with us!” Alethea was usually better at disguising how much she liked Dierdre, at least when she wasn’t around her.

“Oh, actually . . . I mean, I’m not selling tickets at the - at the game. I wanted to go with - um with someone, actually, by the way,” Deirdre was having a hard time making it through the sentence. But that one sentence made Alethea’s heart drop. Deirdre did not, would not, want to go to the game with her. Deirdre had asked someone else. “I was wondering if - wondering if maybe you’d, I mean if you don’t want to definitely that’s fine, but do you- I mean,” Dierdre straightened her back out and said in a fake-serious voice, “Alethea Grace Lucía, will you go to the Homecoming Game with me, Deirdre Baker?”

“I - yes!”

𑂽𛲠𛲡𛲢𛲣

Juniper waved at Alethea as she walked fearlessly into the Stadium with Dee’s reassuring hand in hers. Dee was wearing a white tank top, a black collared shirt (patterned with pineapples) on over that, and ripped jeans. She looked stunning. Alethea scarcely heard the, “And now, the greatest fight song on earth!” over the roar of the stadium. The game had started. 

𑂽𛲠𛲡𛲢𛲣

“Lee, look at me.”

“Huh?”

Alethea had only just turned around to look at Dierdre when Dee asked, “Do you love me?”

The night had been a whirlwind of activity. The Band playing pregame, the kickoff, Dee kissing her, Juniper coming out to their moms as non-binary, and now this. She smiled because she knew. “Absolutely.” Just then Alethea heard something she didn’t expect: a gasp. But not from Dierdre. From behind her. And it sounded like her father. Sure enough, she turned around, and there her father was - and her brother.

“Care to explain, Alethea?”

“Papá? But I thought you had to take momma to her appointment!”

“I rescheduled it and thought I’d surprise your brother for Senior Night. Instead, I ended up being the one surprised. What’s going on here?”

“Papá . . . this is my - my girlfriend, Deirdre Baker. I’m pan - panromantic.”

“What does that even mean, Thea? That you’re attracted to pans? This isn’t a joke.”

“No. It was never a joke, Mr. Lucía. Your amazing daughter being panromantic means that she loves people of all genders - male, female, or on the non-binary spectrum. Hence the pan - it means all. Thankfully, it also means I get to love her too.” That was Alethea’s extraordinary girlfriend coming to save the day.

“Do you - do you hate me, papá?” Alethea’s voice was meek, and she wasn’t certain which she dreaded most - the echo or the answer. 

𑂽𛲠𛲡𛲢𛲣