I was standing in the bathroom staring at myself in the mirror of the wheelchair stall. The mirror was covered with corny love notes and crusty platters of dried soapy water.”Why am I so weird? I can never get a girlfriend or a boyfriend for longer than a few weeks. What is wrong with you?! WHAT IS IT!?” I said to myself angrily, I splashed cold water on my face. “You're a loser and you have never even snuggled with someone! The fucking most romantic thing youve ever done is grab somone’s waist! You're so dumb. Your last fucking girlfriend left you after two weeks for no reason.” I was lecturing myself again. My friends say I shouldn't do it, but I do because it’s a way to get my dumb ass to focus on shit. This lecture was about my lack of romantic partners. “I’m gonna fucking be single forever!” I splashed more water on my face. “YOUR SUCH A IDIOT YOU PANSEXUAL ASSHOLE!” The bell rang. I ran out the door headed home as fast as I could, face still dripping with cold water.

Suddenly I saw a moving truck pass me. “Is someone moving out?” I thought. I saw it go down my street about a block ahead. I was so curious, nothing ever happened in Soloris. The sun was hot so I didn't dare to walk in the heat, so I ran. I made it to the stop sign marking my street. I ran down past the old oak and the fountain in my neighbors' yards. I made it my house and I burst through the door, huffing and puffing. Two women's voices could be heard from the dining room. One was my mom but the other was unfamiliar. I came in sweating and dragged my bag up the stairs. I changed into some not so sweaty clothes and went into the dining room to see who it was.

A scrawny woman in her late forties, maybe early fifties. She smiled at me. She stared at my shirt and I knew she wasn't nice. She looked through my shirt and made her incredibly uncomfortable. My shirt said all lives matter in big rainbow letters. Her wrinkles were not pretty. She looked as though she were gonna make a book club and read some book written by adolf hitler called fuck gay people. I knew instantly that she was a straight cisgendered homophobic scrawny little bitch. And that's exactly what she was. She asked my mother “Why does your daughter have short hair?” My mother replies with “That is my child ma’am not my daughter.” Then the woman looked at me oddly for a moment then said ”Well of course she's your child but she is your daughter too” I stood up and had to bite my tongue and then my mother motioned for me to stay put and keep my mouth shut “Ma‘am my child is non-binary so their pronouns are they/them. And I expect you will respect that. Your misgendering my child is very wrong. I would prefer you call them by their chosen pronouns.” I was flicking the woman off under the table. The woman looked insulted like she had never been corrected before. The woman put on a very fake smile and said “Hello, I'm Mrs. Thomas ,and you are?” I glared at her. “I'm Kai” I said with a purposely fake girly smile. I got up from the table and went to my room to finish my homework.

About 20 minutes later I heard the door shut and I knew the horrid woman was finally gone. I went down stairs and my mom was smiling at me. I knew something was up. She told me to sit down. I slowly walked to the table. On my way to the table the floorboard creaked a friendly good luck to me as I sat down. “I know you don't like our new neighbors that much.” I smelled cookies baking. I knew exactly where this was going. She was going to make me bring cookies over to them. “I want you to bring over some cookies to their house.” My mom said exactly what I thought she would. She looked at me pleadingly. “If you do, I will put four cookies in your lunch.” She had to give me a deal that was hard to bypass. “Also…” she slowly began to do the horrible things I had to do. “MOM DONT YOU DARE MAKE ME HANG OUT WITH A BUNCH OF MEAN HOMOPHOBIC OLD PEOPLE!!” I yelled. “KAI!! No yelling!” she said, yelling at me, she looked at me with mom eyes. Those eyes moms give you to make you feel really bad for something you did. She could make me feel bad for breathing with those eyes.  “I was going to say that they have a daughter.” I was already hating this. “I set up a playdate between you two, I think you all would make good friends!'' She finished her sentence by making a puppy eye face. She stared at me trying to make me feel bad about even thinking of saying no. It wasn't working.''But mom please. I really don't want to!” If this was a comic book my please would be in all caps looking like “PLEEEEEEASE?”. I have never been more upset to have new neighbors. And that's a statement because I have never had new neighbors before.. “Fine” I said in a whiny tone, hoping my mom would change her mind if I looked sad enough about it. I mopingly walked back to my room to finish homework. I really hoped I changed her mind.

I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. Karla texted. She told everybody how cute the new girl is. How would Karla know? The new girl hasn't even lived here for a day. I put my phone back in the back pocket of my baggy black pants. It started vibrating like crazy. “Shit she said that in the group chat didn't she.” I thought as I walked into my room. I sat down, my mom always said to think on the bright side, right? Maybe I should- no I thought, she also said I should play with their daughter. Just as bad as them I bet! At least my mom isn’t friends with them, spare me the awkward dinners. Maybe I could drown my sorrows in memes and inside jokes I thought. And so I did what I had been dreading from the moment I saw the first message. I looked at my phone.