As the other girls each took a shower, Kalei thought about going upstairs. She had sleepily told Zeta she planned to come out to her mom, and a good night’s sleep didn’t do anything to dissuade her. She’d been thinking about the day after the sleepover as the day she’d finally come out for a while now. She decided to microwave the leftover pizza and make that for breakfast. Her mom had slept in a bit, so Kalei had a bit more time to mentally prepare herself for this.

“I told Zates this already, but I think I’m gonna tell Mom today,” Kalei said as Zeta, Oka, and Lillia were in the middle of eating the leftovers.

“You want to do that with us all here?” Oka asked.

“Yeah, then you guys can like. Back me up. If my mom explodes at me about it or something.”

“I don’t think she’d do that,” Lillia said. “But we can do our best to back you up, of coure.”

“Thanks. You good with that too?” Kalei asked.

“I told you last night, I got your back!” Zeta said, clamping her fists together.

“I…do too…” Oka said. She seemed a bit distracted. Her face was flushed, but the house’s heat wasn’t on that warm.

“Oka, you’ve been blushing all morning, you good?” Kalei asked.

“She’s fine.” Zeta answered, then realized she answered way too quickly.

“Ohhh.” Kalei said. Zates and Oka got some make up time in after all the drama yesterday.

“Hmmm.” Lillia said.

“What? It’s nothing!” Oka said. “What?”

“I think I know why you two are acting a touch strange,” Lillia said. “I’ve surmised…well, maybe you would rather explain?”

Lillia seemed to enjoy making Oka and Zeta squirm.

“I’m gonna guess…hongouses were fonongused.” Kalei said.

“No!” Zeta said. “But, um…”

“So something absolutely happened between you two during the night or in the morning.” Lillia said.

“But like, whatever it was, it was good, right?” Kalei asked. “After last night, that’s the important thing.”

Oka and Zeta looked to each other, only able to give a slight nod.

“That’s good enough for me.” Kalei said. “Normally I’d bug you about it, but. I’m trying to rehearse telling my mom I’m gay, so.”

“Right, that probably takes priority.” Zeta said. “Which is good, because maybe some things should stay private? Maybe?”

“I don’t have that same concern, so I would really rather know what exactly happened.” Lillia said. “So while Kalei is coming out, I plan on investigating further.”

“Do you have to?” Oka asked.

“Yes.” Lillia said.

Zeta bowed her head, knowing she had no way of convincing Lillia to let this go. “You’re…really scary, Lillia.”

“How about this,” Lillia said. She held out a controller to Oka. “You and I in one on one in Farlet Kart. If I win two out of three races, you give me the details of whatever occurred, if something did occur, which I will in turn relay to Kalei when she returns.”

Oka sighed. “You’re on.”

As Lillia got Farlet Kart set up, Kalei swayed her arms, lazily clapping a bit as she wandered around.

“Alright, I’m gonna go.” Kalei took a deep breath. “I’m gonna come out. I’m gonna do it.”

She stood at the base of the stairs, frozen in place.

What if Mom gets mad? What if she hates me? What if she was just being pretend nice about Zeta and Oka dating and is going to kick them out? What if she hates Nikki? What if she makes me leave Rising Shards—

Kalei’s anxious thoughts were interrupted by a sudden firm hug.

“No matter what, we got your back.” Zeta said.

Zeta’s hug was quickly joined by Oka as well, and after a few seconds Lillia even joined in. Having a hug like that powered Kalei up, and she marched upstairs.

Her mother was brewing coffee, yawning as Kalei approached the kitchen. She leaned on a counter. In all the times she rehearsed it in her head, her mom started talking first. But she just kept yawning and muttered something about being worried she gave the wrong coffee machine away. As her mom poured a cup of coffee, Kalei took one last deep breath.

Too late to go back now.

“Hey, Ma?” Kalei said.

Let’s just do this and rush back downstairs.

“Hm?” Mahina said.

“I…can we talk for just a second? I don’t want to take up a lot of your time.” Kalei said.

“You don’t need to barter for my time, Kalei, you’re not selling me anything,” Mahina sipped her coffee. “You’re not selling me something, are you? If Rising Shards is doing a candy bar sale, I’ll tell you the same thing I said for your elementary school’s candy sale even though the prizes were very cool: I don’t want you going door to door selling anything at your age. College? Maybe we’ll talk.”

“It’s not that,” Kalei said. “It’s, um.”

Mahina looked confused as Kalei found her words.

“I just…” Kalei said. “I like…I’d like…to tell you something. That. Is kind of scary.”

“Is something wrong?” Mahina asked. “The Matora sisters didn’t break something even more valuable than that table while they were here, did they?”

“No, Ma, I…” Kalei said. If she took too long saying this, her mom would probably get on some tangent about the Matora sisters, and she’d be too heated to listen. The words finally tumbled out of her mouth. “Mom, I’m gay, and I like girls, and I’m gay, and there’s a girl I like, and I’m a lesbian. Or I'm bi maybe, I don't know, but I know I'm not straight.” The words tumbled out of her mouth, with her not catching her repetition or redundant words until a second after she said them. Then she realized she’d actually said it out loud.

How would her mother react? Anger? Sadness? Mahina looked at her daughter as she processed what Kalei said to her.

“Oh. That’s all?” Mahina asked.

“What? I just…"

“I was really worried it was the candy bar thing. I hate school candy bar sales. And that Risa was a door to door whatever salesperson? That is not the life for you.” Mahina said. “Now come here.”

Kalei’s mother gave her a bearhug. “Ma…” Kalei said as she gripped her just as tightly back, tears streaming down her face. Her mom didn’t suddenly disown her, or reveal herself as a giant homophobe out of nowhere.

“Nothing can make me stop loving you,” Mahina said. “Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me.”

Kalei felt like she had just finished ten laps around a track as she wiped her eyes. “I love you too, Ma. I…don’t know.” She laughed. “I feel really light right now. I thought you’d…”

“Thought I’d what? Blow up at you? I am very progressive, my dear daughter.” Mahina said.

“I thought maybe you’d be a little more surprised?” Kalei said.

“I’ve probably known longer than you, my dear.” Mahina said. “Big Mama Mahina can give you some tips on flirting!” Mahina patted Kalei’s head and mussed her hair up.

“OK, cuz I do have a really bad crush right now.” Kalei said. “That’s kind of the whole. Like yeah. How I figured out.”

“Oooh, you have to tell me everything about her. Or tell me as much as you want. But preferably everything if you’re up to it.” Mahina said.

Something about the mix of her mom being totally calm and normal about this made talking feel easier. Kalei felt the same amount of tension relief as when she flunked a test and had to go home and tell her mom what happened. The heavy legged walk fearing she’d be punished leading to her mom laughing it off and telling Kalei, "You have to fail a lot more tests to catch up to me," felt like the same balloon filled with anxiety popping, replacing itself with a more hopeful feeling.

“Yeah, so,” Kalei got her phone out and showed Mahina a picture of Nikki. “This is the girl that I um. That yeah. This is Nikki.”

Mahina whistled. “What a cutie! Good taste, good taste! You’re going to be a real ladykiller, you know?”

“Ha…” Kalei said. Her mom did a mock side headlock to Kalei, mussing her hair up more. She seemed to be on a real muss hair up kick that morning.

“Oh, my silly daughter,” Mahina laughed. “All the powerful women I bring home, and she still gets uncomfortable around the idea of romance, what a shame.”

Kalei broke out of the loose headlock. “You don’t bring home powerful women.”

“I guess I only do when you’re not around!”

“Did…you just come out to me…?” Kalei asked.

Mahina just laughed louder.