YouChannell: 2012-2013- Chapter Forty-Six: Gradually Along (April 11, 2013 4:30 P.M.)

“God, I can’t wait until we finally start high school!” Lidiya grouched as she and her friends walked home from school one cloudy, chilly afternoon.

“Tell me about it!” Kishi added, rolling her eyes in exasperation.

“Aw, I’m gonna miss you guys when you get there next year,” Amanda told them in a somewhat whiny voice, throwing herself onto Lidiya and giving her a bear hug.

“Ya’ll realize ya’ll gonna have to take more standardized tests, right?” River told them both in a condescending tone of voice.

Both Lidiya and Kishi slowly turned their heads to glare menacingly at River. What kind of young child wanted to be reminded of standardized testing in high school?! High school was about getting driver’s licenses, looking at college applications, senior skip days, more dances and parties, and overall more freedom! More standardized testing was the exact opposite of what their expectations were!

“Shut up, River,” Lidiya grumbled, quickly turning her head away.

River shrugged and smirked with a sly twinkle in her brown eyes. “Alrightie then. I was just saying,” she said more to herself before shoving her hands into the pockets of her orange school skirt.

The gang continued to walk home in silence until they bumped into a young, voluptuous black woman wearing a black Batman T-shirt and blue jeans that hugged her body and rolling a bright red baby stroller which carried a young black toddler in it. Something about her looked familiar- her careless posing and the child in the stroller- and then something clicked. Was this… was this Leandra Miller?! They haven’t seen her in, like, six months, which might as well have been forever!

“Leandra?!” Kishi exclaimed, quickly stepping back in shock, “What have you been doing this entire time?! We haven’t seen you in forever!”

“I dropped out of school,” Leandra answered with a slight shrug, “Now I’m a stripper.”

Stripper?! That was the most and yet the least surprising statement Leandra had ever said.

“Do you make any money doing all of this?” Kishi asked.

That was when Leandra pulled out a whole wad of twenty-dollar bills out of her jean pockets.

Twenty dollars was a lot of money for an eighth grader, so imagine several wads of twenty-dollar bills being earned all at once. Yeah… that was a lot of money.

“Wait, how can you earn all that money without even going to high school?” Amanda asked in pure awe.

Leandra merely shrugged and answered, “That’s just part of being a stripper.” Then she grabbed her son’s stroller and walked away.

The girls just stood there in complete silence for several minutes before finally walking the rest of their ways back home.

“Damn, this really makes me think twice about high school,” River stated.

Lidiya nodded. “You ever think that if any one of us never goes to high school, we’ll make a whole lot of money like that?” she asked.

“I’ve never really thought about that,” Kishi said, “I’ve always been told that you had to graduate high school and go to college if you wanted to be successful.”

The girls started talking about high school again, which made Anima herself think about high school. Believe it or not, there was one good thing about going to high school- going to the same school as Penelope. Hell, maybe she would be in some of the same classes as Penelope! That would be a dream come true. Speaking of Penelope, where was she? Anima hadn’t seen her in a few days, and she really missed her. Maybe it would be a good idea to wait for Penelope out at the playground near the woods, like she had done for her.

So, after school, Anima walked out right towards the slide on the playground with Piro and Katja, where she waited for Penelope. And wait she did… for moments and moments and moments. The sun barely shined, but she waited on… and waited… and waited… but the only person who even noticed her was Piro.

“Menstrual Man! Menstrual Man!” Piro cried out as he ran up to Anima with a stick in his hands.

Oh, God! “What the fuck do you want?” Anima asked in a groan.

“It’s Jason! Jason… Jason…” Piro’s voice strained for a few more seconds, trying to find words to say, but the only thing he could come up with was, “We gotta stop Jason!”

Anima heaved a gusty sigh. “Look, asshole. I don’t have any time for this shit. I’m trying to meet up with someone. Can you please not bother me?”

Piro looked up at Anima’s face, straight into her eyes, with confusion and disappointment in his own eyes. “B-B-But, Jason-“

“Will you please fucking leave?!” Anima shouted at him.

Piro ran away from Anima with tears running down his face and a sad howl coming out of his mouth. Anima heaved a gusty sigh and slid back under the slide where she waited for Penelope once more. Where the hell was she? It wasn’t that late, and it wasn’t that late either. This was boring- oh, so boring! She kind of regretted telling Piro to fuck off, but if she had been playing with him, she would’ve missed Penelope. Nothing was worse than missing out on Penelope! So, she stayed under the slide and tried to entertain herself the best she could.

“Hey, little boy. Want some candy?” Anima mumbled in a small voice.

“Who are you talking to?” a young woman’s voice asked.

Anima jumped in fear, bumping her head in the process. She looked up to see who that was and blushed a deep maroon when she found out it was-

Steam was pouring out of Anima’s ears when Penelope asked that question again. “N-N-N-Nobody! I wasn’t talking to anyone!”

“Then why were you sounding like a creepy pedophile?” Penelope asked, clearly not impressed with the girl’s answer.

Oh… no! “I wasn’t acting like a creepy pedophile!” Anima exclaimed at the top of her lungs.

“Oh, come on! That’s exactly what a creepy pedophile would say!” Penelope argued.

Damn, that was a good point. Anima crawled out from under the slide to see what Penelope wanted from her in the first place.

“I just wanted to say hello,” Penelope merely said.

Anima’s heart sank. Damn, was that really it? Well, that sucked. “H-Hi.” Was that all Penelope wanted to say to her? “How have eh… how have things been doing for you?”

“Fine,” Penelope answered flatly. The two girls just stood there and stared at each other for what seemed like hours.

“Jesus, this is getting fucking ridiculous!” Anima thought. She took a deep breath and was about to say something when Katja shouted from a distance, “Anima, it’s time to go home now!”

Damn, it was time to go home already?! They had barely even talked to each other! Anima sighed and looked at Penelope’s eyes. “I’ll… I’ll see you soon, okay?”

Penelope nodded. “Yeah, see you soon.” Then she did the strangest thing.

Anima’s entire face burned; she had never had somebody hug her like this before! She had especially never been hugged as a means of comfort or love before. What made Penelope do that? Why would anyone hug her? She was unhuggable, unlovable, un… untouchable. At least, Anima thought she was untouchable. Maybe not. After all, it didn’t stop him from getting his way, did it?

“Anima, I’ve already told you it’s time to go home now!” Katja called out from a distance.

Anima wanted to move her legs and get the hell out of there, but her legs were stuck and too wobbly to pick up. Anima’s breath sped up, and her heart was beating out of her chest. This was not good, this was not good, this was not…

And then, everything went black.

…

“Anima,” Katja’s voice called out from a long distance, “Anima sweetie, are you okay?”

Anima slowly and groggily opened her eyes to see Katja kneeling right beside her bed. “Wha… What happened?” she asked in a moan.

“You passed out after some girl hugged you at the playground,” Katja answered, “Was that girl someone you’re close with?”

Oh no, that dreaded question. Had Katja figured it out; she hoped not. That would be awful! Anima still remembered what Penelope had said on Valentine’s Day.

 “Remember this afternoon when Christian Seger called us faggots, lezbos, and dykes?”

“He’s not the only thing that thinks like that. Lots of people think that, too.”

“I just wanna rest for a bit,” Anima groaned turning away from Katja and from the whole world.

“Are you sure?” Katja asked.

Anima nodded, though barely.

“Okay then.” Right before Katja opened the door, she said, “I just want to let you know that dinner will be ready in about ten minutes.”

As soon as the door shut, Anima heaved a shuddered shy. She couldn’t believe someone had come so close to discovering the truth between her and Penelope, and it was Katja of all people! Anima pulled her green blanket over her head and squeezed her eyes shut. She had to be way more careful with her and Penelope; nobody should ever know about their relationship lest they get killed for it.

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YouChannell: 2012-2013- Chapter Forty-Three: The New Neighbor (March 21, 2013 12:00 P.M.)

It was a typical day in Ms. Mitchell’s eighth-grade English class… allegedly.

Ms. Mitchell continued on with the same bored tone of voice, “River, why don’t you tell the rest of the class about yourself?”

River barely blinked as she stood straight as a board and introduced herself in a half-assed tone to the class, “My name’s River Ziegler, I’m from South Carolina, my parents are in the navy and my uncle’s a plumber here, and I like listening to Miranda Lambert and Usher.”

Lidiya snorted and muttered to Anima, who was sitting next to her, “White trash.”

Anima understood what that comment meant due to that one time at Lidiya’s house a couple of weeks ago.

“Hey, somebody’s moving into that house across yours on Shiheed Street,” Lidiya announced to Anima and Kishi as she walked in, carrying a big, red, plastic bowl and a bag of Lay’s cheddar jalapeno chips.

“You mean the one across our house?” Kishi asked, sitting on Lidiya’s wooden floor.

Lidiya nodded as she stuffed a few chips into her mouth. “I heard she’s coming from South Carolina.” She swallowed her chips and muttered under her breath, “White trash.”

Amanda nearly spat out her chips. “Hey!” she exclaimed in a whiny voice, “Not everyone from the south is white trash!”

“I don’t know, you guys don’t do a good job with not proving yourselves to not be white trash,” Anima replied. She looked around the room for a bit before asking, “What’s white trash supposed to mean?”

Amanda threw her hands out and cried out, “Are you serious?! You’re calling me white trash, yet you don’t even know what it means!”

“Jesus, I wasn’t calling you white trash. I was calling the others white trash,” Anima said. She turned to Lidiya and asked again, “So what’s white trash mean?”

To put it in the shortest, classiest term- “They’re usually racist, sexist, homophobic alcoholics who have pregnant fourteen-year-old girls as girlfriends.”

So, in other words… half of the people in the YouChannell Group Home.

“River, why don’t you sit between Anima and Lidiya for the moment?” Ms. Mitchell recommended, motioning for the girls to raise their hands.

Anima and Lidiya wanted to whisper to River as she sat down between the two girls, but then Ms. Mitchell would bitch at them about whispering in class while she was going on about subject-verb agreements before state testing arrived. So they waited until lunch when they were safe to talk aloud.

“So, River…” Lidiya began, “How do you like Oregon so far? Do you think it’s better than South Carolina? A lot uh… classier?”

River shrugged. “I don’t know… it’s aight here, I suppose,” she answered, putting a bite of mixed fruit into her mouth, “Pretty fucking cold here though.”

“So, you prefer living back home in South Carolina because it’s warmer there?” Lidiya said.

“Hell no!” River snorted, “Most of the people there are bigoted ass white trash who gotta say something homophobic every ever other minute!”

Lidiya, Anima, and Kishi, who had been eating their food the entire time, laid down their forks and mentally dropped their jaws, especially Lidiya and Anima.

“I didn’t know you were an ally for gay people, River,” Kishi, who had been eating cornbread, said.

“I’m bisexual,” River stated, “I ain’t gonna tolerate that shit.” She sipped some white milk before adding, “Besides, ain’t Portland supposed to be, like, the gay capital of America?”

“Uh… I guess so,” Lidiya answered, uncertain of where this conversation was going, “Why’d you ask that?”

“That’s what I heard.” River tore off a piece of cornbread and threw it in her mouth. “It’s a good thing, too.”

The rest of the girls ate in silence while staring at River, not knowing what else to say until Lidiya finally had the courage to ask, “Hey, River. You wanna come to my house after school?”

River put down her milk and shrugged. “Sure.” She ate her last piece of mixed fruit and asked, “Where ya’ll live?”

…

The walk on the way home from school was a long and quiet one, mostly because River and Amanda have never met each other before.

“Um… hi,” Amanda awkwardly said to River.

“What’s up?” River replied back, staring at the young ginger seventh-grader with uncertainty and confusion.

Amanda looked over at Lidiya and asked-

“Oh, oh yeah. Amanda, this is the new girl River. River, this is my best friend Amanda,” Lidiya said. She turned to Amanda and added, “River’s that girl from South Carolina that we were talking about a couple of weeks ago.”

“What’s up?” River said once more, pulling her hand out towards Amanda.

“Um… howdy,” Amanda replied back, shaking River’s hand as she stared at her with uncertainty and a little bit of suspicion, “It’s real nice meeting another Southerner here in Oregon.”

“Southerner?!” River yanked her hand out of Amanda’s and shouted, “Shit, nigga! I didn’t know you was one of me!”

The other girls stepped back from River in a bit of shock. The only type of white person they’ve ever heard say the n-word were members of the Klu Klux Klan and edgy white boys on the internet.

“So uh, hey… you guys wanna hang out at my house?” Lidiya asked to break the awkward silence.

“Yeah, hold on. Lemme go change my clothes for a bit,” River answered. She walked to her house, the very same house that was across the YouChannell Home.

Who would’ve thunk that River Ziegler of all people would be both the new student at their school and the new neighbor on their street?

“Damn, is it always this fucking cold in Portland?!” River complained in a loud voice, rubbing her arms with her hands. She had returned wearing a puke green camouflage coat, tight, navy blue skinny jeans, and thick, loud, brown snow boots.

Lidiya merely shrugged. “It can always get worse,” she answered.

Amanda patted River on the shoulder and added, “Don’t worry. If I can get used to it, you can get used to it, too.”

At Lidiya’s house in her room, they sat on the floor in a circle eating Doritos Cool Ranch potato chips. There wasn’t really much to say because most of what had been talked about had been talked about during lunch period. The room was filled with so much awkward silence, in fact, that when Lidiya’s father Mr. Utano arrived home from work, they were all still sitting there.

“Hey, Lidiya! I’m surprised your friends are still here,” Mr. Utano said with a slight chuckle. He looked over at River and asked, “Who’s this girl?”

“Oh, yeah. Dad, this is River. River, this is my dad,” Lidiya introduced the two to each other.

River stood up and walked towards Mr. Utano. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir,” she said, holding out her hand for a shake.

“You, too,” Mr. Utano replied as he and the strange girl shook hands.

“So… Mr. Utano,” River started, “What were things like when you were a child?”

The smile on Mr. Utano’s face disappeared as he plopped down onto Lidiya’s bed. “I spent most of my childhood in the 1980s,” he answered, “Do you know what was the big thing in the 1980s?”

“The AIDS epidemic?” River guessed.

Mr. Utano nodded. “Very good. And do you know who was the most affected by the AIDS epidemic in the 80s?”

“…Gay people.”

Mr. Utano nodded again. “That’s right. Reagan made fun of the LGBTQ+ community during all of that. Now, imagine internalizing that message all throughout your childhood- gay people causing the AIDS epidemic, and back then, AIDS was a death sentence. Imagine internalizing the message that if you’re gay, you’re gonna spread a deadly disease to everyone. Now, imagine internalizing all of that as a child and then realizing you’re a gay teenager in the 90s.” He sighed and added, “Thank God my parents were one of the few people who would accept a gay child in their home.”

“Hol’ on, I thought Portland was, like, the gay capital of America,” River said, “I mean, I know things were shitty back in the day, but I’m bisexual, and I thought things have gotten better around here. Like, some states have even legalized gay marriage. So it’s safe to be gay in America, right?”

Mr. Utano sighed and rubbed the temples on his forehead. “God, I wish I could say that,” he glumly answered. He looked over at his daughter and asked, “Lidiya, you remember when I lost my job, right?”

“Yeah, why?” Lidiya answered, her eyebrows expressing confusion.

Mr. Utano took a deep breath before he explained, “It was August 14, 2004- less than a decade ago. I went to the Eugene/Springfield Pride Festival that was happening. It was fun; I met a cute guy there, and we got our picture taken together- I was kissing him on the cheek. Well, that picture was printed in some newspaper my old boss used to read. He found out, his associates found out, and I ended up getting fired for it. Imagine that- one little picture that was taken on one day celebrating something that was a part of who I am was enough to render me unemployed.”

“Wait, I thought firing people for being gay was illegal here!” River exclaimed, “That’s not fair! You should sue them for discriminating against you!”

“It wasn’t illegal in 2004,” Mr. Utano stated, “It only became illegal in 2008, which is a good thing. With the way things are going right now, I think it’s gonna be your generation who’s gonna have total equal rights for not just the LGBTQ+ community, but for many other groups as well.”

“Yeah, did you know that homosexuality is a crime in seventy-eight countries?” Lidiya added.

“Well, that’s just fucked up!” River said, “That shouldn’t even be a thing! You shouldn’t be able to discriminate against someone for something they can’t even control!”

Mr. Utano nodded and checked his phone to see what time it was. “Welp, looks like it’s getting late,” he said, “Your parents might be worrying about where you guys are.”

The rest of the girls said their good-byes to Lidiya, and as they walked out of the house, Anima caught a glimpse of a picture that looked too much like the one that got Mr. Utano fired from his first job.

Was that the picture that- it was. Anima stared at it for several moments, remember what had happened on Valentine’s Day when she and Penelope were in the woods together.

Penelope sniffled and said, “Remember this afternoon when Christian Seger called us faggots, lezbos, and dykes?”

Oh… that. “Yeah, why?”

“He’s not the only thing that thinks like that,” Penelope explained, “Lots of people think that, too.”

Anima had figured that the worst that would happen to her was getting called a bunch of stupid names by asshole seventh-graders like Christian Seger or someone’s parents getting pissed off. She had never thought about getting fired from a job or getting arrested for something that she couldn’t control. What kind of fucked up world was this?!

“Hey, Anima!” Kishi’s voice interrupted Anima’s thoughts, “Are you okay? You look kind of pale.”

Anima jumped and looked over at Kishi. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she answered weakly, “Why’d you ask that?”

“Because you look kind of pale,” Kishi answered, pointing at her face.

“Yeah, you do look kind of pale,” Amanda added, “Are you sure you’re okay because that’s not what healthy people are supposed to look like.”

“Yeah, I can attest to that,” River said, “Are you sick or something? You coming down with, like, the flu?”

“I’m not sick, and I’m not pale! So piss off, and leave me alone!” Anima yelled at the three girls. She stormed away with her head lowered and her feet scraping the rough concrete and dirt ground. They wouldn’t understand; none of them would understand. They didn’t have to worry about getting harassed or having their parents pissed off at them or getting fired or even arrested for something they couldn’t control. Not even River had to worry about any of that, and she was bisexual! How could anyone not worry about any of this?! How could anyone, especially people like River Ziegler, be so open despite all the things going on in the world to people like her?!

…

“What does bisexual mean?” Kishi asked during dinner at the YouChannell Home. Dinner that night was chakalaka, tamales, and pavlova.

Greg laid down his fork and asked, “What makes you ask that?”

“Well, the new neighbor across our house, River, said that she was bisexual when we were at Lidiya’s house,” Kishi explained.

Just then, Katja laid down her fork and looked over at Kishi. “And did that new neighbor River give you permission to tell other people that?”

Kishi opened her mouth and was about to say something, but Anima beat her to the punch. “She kept on bragging about it. What does it all mean?! What does any of this mean?!”

“Isn’t being bisexual mean that you’re attracted to both boys and girls?” Minha asked, “That’s what I’ve heard.

“There are more than two genders, you know,” Ami added condescendingly.

“And who the hell asked for your opinion?” Anima inquired irritably at Ami.

“Look, I was just saying,” Ami said with her hands up and out in front of her chest. She added under her breath, “And it wasn’t an opinion. It was a fact.”

Anima jumped out of her seat and exclaimed with her hands thrown up in the air, “Jesus fucking Christ! I just wanted a single fucking question to be answered! Is that too hard to comprehend around here?!”

“I think bisexual means you’re attracted to two or more genders,” Tessa calmly answered, “A lot of people claim that being bisexual means you’re only attracted to boys and girls, but there are a few bisexuals out there who are attracted to people of other genders as well.”

“Wait, you’re saying there’s more than two genders now?” Anima said, her head spinning in dizziness. This whole thing was starting to get more confusing than she ever anticipated.

Tessa shrugged. “It happens,” she merely answered.

Anima looked down at her food and sighed lightly through her nostrils. Her thoughts went back to Mr. Utano’s story about being fired from his first job for being gay, and she wondered if the same thing could happen with being neither a boy nor a girl. After all, it could happen to someone for liking someone of the same gender, so why not for someone born as a different gender? And there were some people who were okay with announcing to the world that they were gay or bisexual or even identifying as a different gender other than boy or girl. River was one of those people. How was it possible to be even the slightest bit comfortable coming out like that when one had to deal with bullying, pissed-off parents, getting fired, or even getting arrested?

River Ziegler was one brave and lucky motherfucker, and her appearance was the biggest shock anyone like Anima Hatsune could ever wish for.

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YouChannell: 2012-2013- Chapter Thirty-Six: Anima and Penelope; Ryan and Sydney (February 14, 2013 3:45 P.M.)

“Did you guys hear about Leandra Miller?” Kishi asked Anima, Amanda, and Lidiya on the school bus that was parked right in front of the high school.

“Who’s that?” Amanda asked.

“She’s this teen mom who’s been in the eighth grade for who even knows how long,” Lidiya explained. She turned to Kishi and asked, “What about her?”

“Well, someone told me that she dropped out of school to become a stripper, and-“

Anima didn’t hear and didn’t care about what Kishi had to say about Leandra Miller because she was too busy looking for Penelope. The person she should’ve looked out for was Christian Seger.

“What’s up, faggot?” he asked staring straight into Anima’s soul in the seat in front of hers.

Anima sighed and groaned internally; what did this fucking asshole want?

“What the hell do you want?” Anima asked in a groan.

“What’s up, faggot?” Christian repeated.

Anima felt a sinking feeling in her stomach; there was that word again, and there was that arrogant smirk on Christian’s face.

“You looking out for your girlfriend?” Christian asked in a snarky tone of voice, “You going lezbo for her?”

“Fuck off, asshole,” Anima growled, her fists clenching up into balls.

But that asshole Christian did not fuck off. In fact, he stuck his face right into Anima’s face and exclaimed, “Why are you getting so butthurt about something that’s not even a big deal? It was just a joke! I wasn’t being serious or anything!” He took a deep breath and added, “You’re acting like a real fag-“

“Piss off, Christian!” a high-school girl’s voice interrupted the almost fight that was about to happen with anger in her voice.

Both Christian and Anima looked up and saw Penelope standing over them. Christian slowly slid back down into his seat, yet he still had that asshole smirk on his face.

“Ignore him,” Penelope told Anima as she sat down next to her, “He’s just trying to piss you off so that he can have a reason to make fun of you.”

Well maybe that was true, but that didn’t make all those comments Christian had hurled at her hurt any less.

“So uh… how have you been lately?” Penelope asked, rubbing her arm and blushing a bright pink.

Anima shrugged and answered as casually as she could, “I don’t know. Okay, I guess. How about you?”

Penelope also shrugged and answered as casually as she could, “I guess I’ve been doing okay as well.”

Both girls sat silently and stared away from each, then at each other, blushing and swinging their legs with perfect synchronization. Then, Penelope placed a slip of paper into Anima’s hands and whispered, “Hey, meet me in the woods at seven, okay?”

Anima blushed a bright red and looked down at the slip of paper in her hands; it was Penelope’s phone number. That made Anima blush even more. She quickly shoved the slip of paper into her skirt pocket and hoped that nobody noticed her blushing… only for that asshole Christian to be leaning over the back of his seat watching over both Anima and Penelope.

“Ha ha! Gayyy!” Christian shouted at the top of his lungs, pointing at the two girls and laughing his ass off, “I told you that you were a fucking lezbo!”

Anima immediately jumped out of her seat. “Get fucked, asshole!” she shouted back.

“Anima, stop!” Penelope whispered anxiously, pulling her arm.

“Hey, everyone! This girl’s a fucking lesbian!” Christian screeched extremely loudly, pointing at Anima and laughing meanly.

Luckily, nobody seemed to give a shit about what Anima was or wasn’t, but she was so enraged that she clenched her fists and was about to lung at Christian when the bus stopped to a screeching halt, pushing everyone forward. “I’M GONNA KICK YOUR FUCKING ASS, BITCH!” she screamed. She pulled her fist back, getting ready to pop Christian a real sweet one in the jaw when-

“Will you shut the fuck up and get off the bus, please?! Some of us want to go home!” Ryan yelled at her.

Anima lowered her fist and looked back at Ryan, whose face was red and eyebrows angrily furrowed into his forehead. She limped down and looked over at Penelope, who had buried her face into her hands in shame. Penelope slowly looked up at Anima and mumbled, “I’ll see you at seven, okay?”

Anima hastily nodded and quickly hopped off the bus, not looking at anyone.

“What was that all about?” Lidiya asked as soon as the bus pulled away from their stop.

Anima shrugged; like hell she was going to tell anyone.

“I bet it had something to do with that girl she was sitting with,” Amanda answered like she knew everything in the world.

Anima quickly turned around angrily inquired, “What the hell are you talking about?!”

“Well, you two were whispering to each other an awful lot, so I was just thinking something’s up between you two,” Amanda explained.

“Yeah, I was just thinking about that, too,” Kishi added.

Anima blushed the brightest red she had ever blushed. “There…There’s nothing between me and th-that girl!” she stuttered, “We…We were just sitting next to each other, that’s all!”

“Oh, really?” Amanda teased, leaning up into Anima’s face, “Then why have you been blushing this entire time, huh?”

“Yeah, you have been blushing this entire time,” Kishi stated, “Are you okay, Anima?”

“I’m fine!” Anima snapped. She then cleared her throat and repeated more calmly, “I’m fine.”

The other girls, especially Amanda, weren’t very convinced because Amanda opened her big fat mouth and stated, “You know, you and Lidiya are kind of the same.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Anima questioned.

“Yeah, Amanda,” Lidiya said, her face right into Amanda’s, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Amanda looked around the street to make sure that no one was around to hear before she took a deep breath and answered with-

Anima and Lidiya both blushed profusely because OH, HELL NO!

“Damn it, Amanda!” Lidiya exclaimed, “I thought I told you not to use so much anime terminology!”

Anima, on the other hand, was completely silent. She went from zero- “Amanda?”

“What’s up?” Amanda casually asked.

-to one hundred- “You are one DEAD MOTHERFUCKER!” -real quick. Anima lunged at Amanda as violently as possible.

“I’M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU GODDAMN WEEABOO PIECE OF SHIT!” Anima’s threat pierced the skies while she chased a screaming and terrified Amanda around the path.

“Anima, stop!” Kishi cried out, “This is getting really scary now!”

“Jesus, Anima! She was just screwing around! Can’t you take a joke?!” Lidiya griped.

Apparently, she couldn’t because she was still chasing Amanda around with Greg running after her. In fact, it took damn near ten minutes for Anima to calm her shit, and that was because Greg was holding her back.

…

Dinner had just ended, and Anima was buried into the stuffy orange couch in the living room because she damn sure ain’t gonna be able to go outside, though for what she had forgotten. She watched as Ryan walked down the hallway to meet up with Greg.

“Hey,” Ryan said to Greg as casually as possible.

“Hey,” Greg said, “You need something from me?”

“Yeah, I need to talk to you about something,” Ryan mumbled, putting his hands behind his back.

“Alright, let’s talk.” Greg and Ryan walked towards the door of Greg’s room where Ryan stiffened up with his light brown eyes darting from left to right.

“Ryan,” Greg began, “Are you comfortable enough to be having a conversation right now? Because we can always-“

And that was when Ryan zipped into Greg’s room and slammed the door shut.

“Ryan!” Greg exclaimed, pounding his fist on the door, “Open the door now!”

Damn, why hadn’t Anima thought about that? She looked down in her skirt pocket and felt something in it. No, it couldn’t be… the slip of paper with Penelope’s phone number on it?! Wait a minute- Penelope! She was waiting for Anima in the woods! What time was it?! 6:48?! Right, time to leave. Anima quickly put on a red-and-white-striped T-shirt and jeans and climbed out of the first floor’s bathroom window.

The sticks on the ground and the grass growing over it snapped and crushed under Anima’s sneakers as she desperately ran deeper into the woods, yearning to hear just a little whisper of Penelope’s singing. Finally, just as she reached the deepest sections of the woods with the pond right behind it, she saw her- the most beautiful girl in the whole world.

God, she was just so beautiful! Her chocolate brown hair fell down to her waist like a waterfall falling into a sparkling lake. Her figure, though chubby, had the right amount of fat and softness to feel like plopping down onto a cloud of cotton candy. And her voice! Dear God, her voice! It was deep, yet graceful, like floating into the deepest parts of heaven. Anima yearned to hear that heavenly voice flow into her ears. Instead, she heard the cracking of a branch.

Shit!

“Jesus, you scared me!” Penelope exclaimed, her hands clutched tightly to her chest.

Scared her?! Anima scared herself! “Sorry!” she said as she blushed and her eyes quickly darted to the ground.

“You’re late,” Penelope said.

Was she? Anima stared at her phone- 7:10. Damn, she really was late. “Sorry,” she said. She looked all around the woods until her eyes finally managed to focus on Penelope and asked, “So… why did you want me here in the first place?”

It was Penelope’s turn to blush, and boy, did she blush a bright red. Her chocolate brown eyes darted from left to right, her mouth opened and shut before she took a deep breath and confessed, “I… I have a crush on you.”

Those six words that came of Penelope’s mouth impaled Anima right through the heart. Those were the exact same words she had said to Catherine about a year ago.

That “huh” had killed Anima once before, and she didn’t want to kill Penelope with the same kind of “huh” that Catherine had previously used on her. She looked up at Penelope and then quickly looked down at her feet. What the hell was going on? Why was her heart beating so quickly and so loudly? Why did her cheeks feel so hot? Why did she have a tingly feeling between her legs? Unless… no, her too? Apparently so; she had to admit it herself.

“I… I have a crush on you, too,” Anima confessed with the last couple of words being barely audible.

That didn’t matter to Penelope because she blushed an even brighter red, a red so bright that Anima thought she was going to become blind in a minute or two. “You… You too?”

Anima could barely get the one word out. “…Y-Yeah.”

Tears stung Penelope’s eyes and she relaxed her body and tightly wrapped her arms around Anima’s body. “Oh my God, thank you!” she breathed out.

Anima looked over at Penelope, still with tears in her eyes. “What’s up?” she asked.

Penelope sniffled and said, “Remember this afternoon when Christian Seger called us faggots, lezbos, and dykes?”

Oh… that. “Yeah, why?”

“He’s not the only thing that thinks like that,” Penelope explained, “Lots of people think that, too. My parents are really closed-minded. You know how I like singing?”

Anima nodded, trying to figure out where this was going.

“Well, they wouldn’t let me join Choir because they thought I would be better off in Track and Cross Country. And I hate it! It sucks! I’m like, the worst person on the team! But they won’t let me change it because they want me to win as many scholarships as possible to pay for college.”

Anima stared at Penelope for a minute, then looked down at the ground. One part of her couldn’t relate; Greg and Katja didn’t choose her activities or her interests for her. On the other hands, her parents were really strict… actually, they were way more than strict. Not to mention the fact that when she was caught with Catherine… never mind. She didn’t want to think about that ever again. “I’m sorry you have to deal with that,” she just said.

“It’s okay,” Penelope said, “I’m used to it by now.”

Used to it. Damn, that hit hard… too hard.

“Listen, I have to go soon or else my parents are gonna ground me for, like, a week,” Penelope said, “Can I get your phone number before I go?”

Anima quickly put her number into Penelope’s phone.

“Thanks, gotta go. I love you!” Penelope turned around and ran out of the woods, her feet bouncing with joy and energy.

Anima blushed the brightest red she had ever blushed. I love you. I love you. She had never been told those words before, not by Greg, not by Katja, not by her parents or the people in that other, and especially not by Catherine. Her heart started beating profusely, and her hands became clammy. She swallowed and swallowed again, discovering that her throat was too tight for any words. Finally, after several minutes, she found the energy to barely utter-

She wondered whether or not Greg and Katja were on her ass.

…

“Ryan!” Greg exclaimed, pounding his fist on the door, “Open the door now!”

Ryan didn’t give a shit about that because he was busy frantically for his cell phone to call Sydney. Which cabinet could it be in? First drawer, second drawer, third drawer- aha! A smartphone with a dark green cover was hidden until a pile of manila folders. He quickly swiped it out of the cabinet and began to dial Sydney’s number. With his hands shaking, he hurriedly tapped Sydney’s phone number to called. He waited and waited and waited until-

“Hello?” Sydney’s voice came out of Ryan’s phone.

“What’s up?” Ryan tried to ask as casually as possible.

“Who is this?” Sydney asked.

Ryan gulped and licked his lips. “It’s Ryan.”

“Oh…” Nothing was said for a few minutes until Sydney asked, “Whatcha calling for?”

“Oh, you know…” Ryan rolled around on Greg’s bed and said-

“Oh.” Sydney was silent on the other end of the phone for a little bit before she said, “I like your accent. Where are you from?”

“Melbourne.”

“…Where the fuck is that?”

“Australia.”

“Oh yeah… I forgot you told me that the first time we met.” Sydney laughed, which made Ryan chuckle. “So… how you doing?”

Ryan breathed out and rolled over on the bed once more. “Erhm… I’ve been doing fine. What’s up with you?”

“Work. Weed. Booze. The usual.”

Ryan laughed and said, “Yeah, that’s how it is with me, too.”

“I thought you said your parents were strict.”

Ryan blinked and darted his eyes from left to right just in case Katja or God forbid Greg was there. “Yeah, well… I only do it when they’re not around.” He still wasn’t going to tell Sydney about his family situation.

“Oh, wow! I can see that somebody’s been in juvie at least a couple of times.”

Ryan snorted and laughed loudly, then took a deep breath, praying that nobody heard him. “Yeah, like you haven’t.”

“No, actually. I haven’t.”

Damn. “How the fuck did you manage to do that?”

“I don’t know. I guess I just don’t get caught. How the fuck do you get caught so many times?”

Ryan gulped and licked his lips. “I don’t know… I wasn’t trying to get caught or some shit like that, but erhm-” Then he heard a clicking sound coming from the doorbell, and next thing he knew, Greg was standing right in front of the doorway with one hand on one hip.

Ryan gulped and licked his lips again. “Hold on, I gotta go now,” he told Sydney, “I’ll see you soon, right?”

“Yeah,” Sydney said, “See you soon. I love you.”

Love! “Love you too, babe! Bye!” Ryan exclaimed happily. He hung up and quickly ran out of Greg’s room when the tall black man stopped him.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Greg asked.

“You told me to get out of your room. Remember?” Ryan answered with a sly smirk.

“Not with that in your pocket,” Greg said, snatching Ryan’s phone out of his khaki pocket.

“Alright, damn. Shit.” Ryan was about to walk upstairs to his room when he bumped into Anima, who was about to walk to her room herself. “Oi, watch where you’re going, little midget cunt!” he exclaimed.

“No, you watch out yourself!” Anima exclaimed back. She ran into her room and started breathing heavily and swiftly with her heart practically trying to escape from her body. Penelope loved her; she had said so herself! She could still hear the words in her mind, and she loved it! In fact, she loved it so much that she accidentally let out a little squeal.

“Are you okay, Anima?” Greg asked as he ran into her room.

Anima jumped and looked over at Greg standing in her doorway. “I’m fine,” she answered, blushing and crossing her arms across her chest.

“Are you sure? I thought I heard you squealing-“

“I said I’m fine!” Anima shouted, blushing an even brighter red.

“Okay then,” Greg said, “I was just checking up on you.” He slowly backed away and told her goodnight.

As soon as she was sure Greg was gone, Anima sighed in relief and plopped down onto her bed and rolled around. Butterflies were fluttering in her stomach, and a smile cracked up onto her face. Penelope loved her; she had said so herself. Penelope loved her.

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YouChannell: 2012-2013- Chapter Thirty-Two: Anima Gets Her Glasses (January 25, 2013 8:12 A.M.)

Over the past several days, Anima wondered and thought about when her glasses were coming in from the eye doctor and worried about whether that girl she saw at the Safeway really was Penelope or just a girl who looked a lot like her. It was getting into her head so much that by the time her glasses did get into the eye doctor’s place, Anima was practically obsessed over this idea.

“Have you picked your glasses yet?” Katja said as she and Anima were waiting in the waiting room.

Anima shrugged and quickly glanced at the glasses that were still there on the counter.

She sure as shit wasn’t going to tell Katja about those.

“Anima Hatsune!” the receptionist from the front desk called out.

“This is it,” Katja whispered to the young girl as she grabbed her hand and walked up to the front desk.

This was it. The rest of her life as she would know it was about to begin… or would it?

“Your glasses will be ready in a minute,” the receptionist said.

Fuck, another minute of fucking waiting! That was just fucking great! “Fucking hell!” Anima grumbled under her breath.

“Anima, it’s not going to take much longer. You’re just going to have to wait for another minute,” Katja said.

“Well, this is fucking stupid!” Anima argued, slumping back into her chair, “Why the fuck do we have to wait here for who the hell knows how long if they still don’t have my glasses ready?!”

“They’re just adjusting the finishing touches,” Katja firmly explained, “Then, when they’re finished, they’ll call us again, and we can go on as usual.”

So the two ladies sat their on their leather chairs and waited… and waited… and waited some more. Anima sighed long and hard, glancing at Katja reading a magazine, and picked up her Lucky Star manga and began to glimpse at the pages, not really paying attention to any of the dialogue or characters until-

“Anima Hatsune!” the receptionist called again.

Oh God, what now?! “How long are my glasses going to take?” Anima asked, almost grumbled.

“Your glasses are ready now,” the receptionist said, pointing at the other receptionist with the light tan and coily, curly black hair.

Oh, that was quick. Anima walked over to the other receptionist and sat down at the light tan table where her glasses were waiting for her in a green glasses case. She opened up the case and put on the inevitable.

“Well Anima, do they fit well?” the other receptionist asked.

“How do you like them?” Katja asked.

Anima turned to Katja and the other receptionist and-

“Oh, you look great!” Katja exclaimed.

“They look so beautiful on you,” the other receptionist said.

Anima’s eyes darted to the floor. Of course they would say that; one lived with her, and the other was practically being paid to say that. Was she really expected to believe all of that?

“Thank you. Have a nice day,” the first receptionist said as Anima and Katja left the eye doctor’s office.

“Thanks, you too,” Katja replied.

The pair drove all the way to Nach Cuma Middle School in complete silence. It felt weird for Anima to be able to see so many things outside with so many small, subtle details. Was this how the whole world was supposed to be the entire time?

“Alright, we’re finally here!” Katja chirped. She parked right in front of the middle school and led the young Asian with the new glasses into the front office where she checked her in and saw Anima be handed in a sky blue excused-absence slip. “Have a nice day at school,” Katja said to Anima right before she left.

Anima froze in self-conscious fear. She knew she was going to be on her own for the whole school day, but she didn’t realize that Katja was just gonna dump her. What the hell? She looked down at the excused-absence slip and sighed, trudging into Ms. Blume’s classroom where the teacher was helping some douchebag seventh-grader named Dylan with his assignment- something about analogous colors and some wild animal.

“Like I said, Dylan,” Ms. Blume was saying, “You just need to look at the color wheel to find out what the next color is. For example, if you choose green, you can either use yellow-green or blue-green as your next option-”

Just then, Ms. Blume looked over her shoulders and saw Anima just standing there with her excused-absence slip tight around her fingers.

“Oh, Anima!” Ms. Blume said, grabbing the slip out of Anima’s hand, “I didn’t see you there! Glad you could make it!”

Anima only barely nodded and dragged her feet towards her seat where she saw Violet Blume and Kyla Wong doing their assignments. Kyla Wong and Violet Blume were the last two people that Anima had ever wanted to see.

“Hey, Anima,” Kyla’s voice said… or at least, Anima thought that was Kyla’s voice. She looked up; sure enough, that was Kyla’s voice.

“Are those glasses real?” Kyla asked.

Anima nodded. And then Kyla said the weirdest thing.

Oh, God. Was she just being serious, or was Kyla just fucking with her?

“Yeah, hipster glasses are really in style right now,” Violet added.

Oh… they were being serious. But still, did Anima really pick hipster glasses? If so, then ewww…

Other than that, nothing really happened except for the fact that she could finally see what the hell was going on without squinting her damn eyes. The day was a rather average day until it was time to get on the bus to go home. That day, Anima sat in a seat in the middle of the bus alone because Kishi had to go to the dentist early in the afternoon. She was very lonely, especially since Lidiya and Amanda were talking it up like it was nothing, and she debated whether this day was even worth it when someone cleared their throat. Anima looked up.

Anima felt her ears and face warm up. “N-No,” Anima stuttered, “You can sit next to me.”

“Thanks.” Penelope breathed out a sigh of relief and plopped down on the leather grayish-red seat next to Anima. She looked over at her seat neighbor and analyzed her for what seemed like an eternity until she asked, “Haven’t I seen you before?”

Oh, shit. Anima’s ears and face were absolutely on fire. “…We have?”

Penelope nodded. “Yeah, we met on Halloween in the woods, remember? You must be Anima.”

Oh, so she wasn’t going to mention that one time at the Safeway. Anima just nodded and mumbled, “Catherine.”

“Huh?” Penelope tilted her head and stared at Anima in sheer confusion.

“I… I thought you were someone else.” Anima’s eyes quickly darted to the floor in shame. She would never be able to tell this beautiful girl the real reason for the slip-up.

“Oh.” Penelope stared at her feet for pretty much a really long time before she finally looked up at Anima and said, “You look really pretty.”

Anima’s ears and face were practically burning, and her heart was thumping so hard and loudly that she felt as if it was about to explode out of her chest. “You… You really think so?”

Penelope nodded. “Yeah, really.”

“Oh… my… GOD!” Anima thought to herself, feeling faint and dizzy. So she was recognized by Penelope, glasses and all. And Penelope thought she was pretty! That was something, right? “Th-Thanks. You too.”

It was Penelope’s turn to blush and drift her eyes back to her feet. “You really think that?”

Anima nodded, finally having the courage to stare at Penelope’s beautiful face. Penelope had such beautiful brown eyes and a cute nose. She was beginning to calm down, her heartbeat returned to normal, her ears and face began to cool off, and she even reached her hand out to hold onto Penelope’s. She was enjoying herself… that was until-

“HA, GAYYY!” some middle-school boy shouted (probably referencing Community) at Anima and Penelope.

Anima jumped in her seat and looked up at some white boy in front of them staring at the two girls.

“Piss off, Christian,” Penelope told the asshole seventh-grader.

“Is that your girlfriend?” Christian asked in a sneering way.

Anima gulped as she felt Penelope squeeze her hand. Girlfriend… used in a sneering way. She looked up at him; he had an asshole smirk on his face, his cold, gray eyes pierced through the girls like arrows shot from a bow, and his thin eyebrows were arched up, ready to fall onto the girls at any time.

“Why the hell are you so concerned about my personal business?” Penelope inquired.

Christian wheezed and loudly laughed his ass off. “Ha, gayyy! You’re a dyke!” he shouted right at the top of his lungs. He fell back into his seat and still laughed his ass off.

Dyke. Gay. There went those words again. That grimy, slithering feeling of disgust. Disgust. And for what? What did they even do to this little shit?! Anima sprung out of her seat and lunged for Christian, her heart beating loudly against her chest and her muscles tensing up. “What the fuck did you say, you little shit?!” she yelled.

“I called you a DYKE!” Christian repeated himself, putting much unneeded emphasis on the word “dyke”. That was enough for Anima to leap over the seat and tackle Christian.

“Anima, stop!” Penelope cried out, “He’s not worth it!”

But Anima didn’t stop pummeling Christian, and Christian didn’t stop trying to throw Anima off of him and his seat.

“WorldStar!” Ryu-jin shrieked at the top of his lungs, holding his phone up to record the whole thing.

That comment inspired Christian to pull on Anima’s hair as hard as he can to mess up her face. Anima responded to that by trying to scratch on his legs.

“Stop!” Penelope cried out once more.

As usual, Penelope’s plea failed; it wasn’t until the school bus screeched to a striking halt and threw everyone forward. “Both of you stop fighting or else I’m going to take this bus back to the school and have all of you suspended!” the bus driver barked.

Just then, Niklas got up in Anima’s face and swooped her off of Christian by the arms and shouted in her ears, “Will you quit fucking fighting?! Some of us want to go home!”

Anima slumped back into her seat and scowled the rest of the way home. When the bus stopped on her street, Penelope quickly handed her a small piece of paper; it was her name with her phone number on it. Anima slipped a tiny smile out.

“You’re a faggot!” Christian shouted at Anima one more time just to rub salt in the wound.

That did it. Anima lunged towards the asshole seventh-grader once more and was about to tear his shirt off of him when Niklas pinned her arms behind her back and dragged her off the bus.

“What the fuck are you so offended for?” Niklas inquired after the bus left, “He’s just some stupid asshole!”

“How the hell would you know?!” Anima answered back with a growl.

“Are you seriously getting offended about some somebody who hasn’t even hit puberty calling you a dyke-” And then Ryu-jin realized something and started cackling his ass off. “Oh, holy shit!”

Anima’s face grew red, her hands grew clammy, her muscles tensed up, and her teeth clenched together once more as she got ready to fight Ryu-jin, but then she thought about what he had said and questioned, “What the hell do you mean?!”

“He thinks you’re a lesbian,” Ryu-jin answered.

Anima stopped walking and stared at Ryu-jin for several minutes in complete silence before she blurted out, “Lesbian?!”

“He thinks you’re a gay woman,” Niklas answered.

Gay? Anima? She stopped completely in her tracks and thought about what Ryu-jin and Niklas had just said. She straightened the glasses that had been moved around her head during her fight Christian and thought about why they fought in the first place. Then the words came back to her- gay, dyke, faggot. The remorseless smirk on Christian’s face, his cold, gray eyes piercing through her and Penelope like daggers. Was this really such a bad thing? Was it really wrong to be attracted to Penelope? Was it really wrong to be attracted to… Catherine?

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Christian Seger (2012-2013)*

Full Name: Christian Josiah Seger

Other Nicknames: n/a

DOB: 10/15/1999

Gender: male (he/him)

Height: 5’1″

Weight: 114#

Origin: Portland, Oregon, United States

Race: Caucasian (American)

Description: Christian was born to a stay-at-home mother/housewife named April, a prosecuting lawyer named James, and two older brothers named Michael (born 1990) and Damien (born 1995). The Segers live a rich and lavish lifestyle.

Christian likes to mess with other people, especially his next-door neighbor Penelope Boucher. He doesn’t like school or in-school suspension.

Christian is an asshole. That’s what everyone says. Why he’s an asshole is another question that’s to be answered. Whether being an asshole stems from his older brothers or the privileged lifestyle he has grown up with, either way Christian’s an ass that no one likes to hang around.

Please read my book: https://www.wattpad.com/601886969-youchannell-2012-2013-chapter-thirty-one-anima/page/3