PART II - SOFIA

To be honest, I expected more of the Queer Club.

Last time, we had been eight people, this week we were nine. Six of those were girls, two boys, and a non-binary kid. Three of the girls were Jenny, Maria, and I.

To give the girls some credit, they were better prepared than the last time. They handed us stickers with name and pronouns written on them, we filled out the void beneath that.

Sofia, she/her.

They led us through a whole PowerPoint presentation about queer history from Sappho to Indya Moore. After that, they answered questions from the internet to break the ice and encourage us to ask questions, whether it was about terminology or sex education – if they didn't know the answer, they put it down and promised to answer in the next week. I was amazed by the openness those kids (they were all younger than us three girls) showed.

What does the whole acronym LGBTQAI+ stand for? (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, aromantic, asexual, and agender, intersexual, and the plus is for the sexualities and identities that are not included in the first 7 letters, like nonbinary or genderqueer, demisexual, demiboys and -girls, etc.)

What does being transgender mean? Does trans include non-binary/genderfluid? (Jordan raised their hand as if we were class: "Transgender is an umbrella term for all people whose gender identity or gender expression differs from their sex assigned at birth. So yes, non-binary does count as trans.")

What is drag? Can women be drag queens?

Why do lesbians often refer to themselves as gay?

What's the difference between asexual and aromantic?

"We don't want this to be more work for you guys, but we'd like you to prepare small presentations like the one we did today, not more than 10 minutes. We have five topics. Find a partner and chose one of them. One; Marsha P. Johnson and the Stonewall Riots. Two; queer representation in media. Three; legal status of LGBTQ folks in history and today. Four; religion and homosexuality. And last but not least; children of homosexual couples, adoption, artificial fertilization, the whole thing. We made a group chat, just text us which group and topic you'd like to work on. Whichever group is doing the Stonewall Riots, you're on the week after next. Any questions? No? Good. You may leave."

Secretly, I believed that Jenny loved that kind of power. I could absolutely see her in a field of education.

It was too early to leave for rehearsal, so I stayed for a bit.

"Do you think she'll make them every week," I asked chewing on one of Martha's cookies.

"I hope so, they're delicious," Maria said, falling in the seat next to me.

"Tell us a little bit about yourself, New Kid," Jenny demanded, sitting on the floor between us.

"I've been here for two months."

"Yet we still don't know anything about your first crush or ... your first kiss or ... since when you know that you're gay."

I slightly shook my head. The questions go on forever – first Baker, and now Jenny.

"My first real crush was a girl from my ballet class when I was like 10 maybe? I didn't know I was gay back then. I started questioning my sexuality at the age of 13. And I had my first kiss with my first girlfriend, Maigo. What about you?"

"My first crush was Annabeth from Percy Jackson. Her blue eyes... My gosh. I'm sorry, babe," she said to Maria, "your eyes are beautiful but Alexandra Daddario's are unparalleled. My first kiss was with –"

"You can't out her just like that," Maria interrupted her.

"A kiss doesn't necessarily mean something."

"But she told you that she was bisexual."

"Now you outed her by saying that the first girl I kissed was bisexual."

"As long as you don't say her name..."

I was looking back and forth between them. They had their own stare battle going on.

"I probably don't know her anyway," I said though I was very interested in the answer by now.

Their eye contact was broken when someone knocked at the door.

"Come in," Maria shouted.

Helen entered the room. "How was the meeting today? I just saw Jordan outside and they said you were still in here – oh, hi, Sofia."

I forced a smile. Now I got outed without actually wanting to.

"It was good," Maria said.

"We were just talking about first kisses. You want to join in?"