Madeline
The door slammed and Valorie saw a streak of Sarah’s brown hair wiz through the foyer and up the stairs. Two seconds later Valorie heard a door slam. Sarah must have had a bad day at school.
Valorie, who was working at the dining room table, stopped clacking away at her keyboard and thought for a moment. She had interfered with Sarah’s life a few times in the past, sometimes it ended well and sometimes not so well. Now that Sarah was in highschool she didn’t know where she stood in the matter. If she should come to the rescue or let Sarah come to her.
Valorie looked down at her screen, pushing the thought aside and reread the email she left off on. “And that is why…” Valorie blew out a breath and shut the lid of the laptop. This email didn’t seem as important as it did five minutes ago. Not when she knew her daughter was upstairs and upset. It was possible she could solve all her daughter’s problems, at least the ones for today.
Valorie trudged up the stairs, leveraging her hands on her knees to help her lever herself up the stairs. When they moved into this house fifteen years ago, she would have sprinted up the stairs without problems, but the times had changed.
She stood outside Sarah’s bedroom door for ten seconds before rapping the door lightly twice with two knuckles. Valorie listened, waiting for permission to enter. When it didn’t come, she tried again, harder this time.
“What?” Valorie could hear Sarah’s annoyed yet muffled voice through the door.
“Are you okay?” Valorie asked.
“I’m fine,” Sarah responded but she didn’t sound fine.
“Do you want to talk?” Valorie tried asking.
“No.” Sarah said and Valorie turned back toward the stairs. Then the muffled voice came through the door again, “not really.”
That was Valorie’s queue. It was not ‘yes’ but it was not ‘no’ either. Valorie turned back. She knew her next words would be crucial in getting her daughter to talk to her. But she needed to respond quickly.
“I’m sure I can help,” Valorie said, wincing. S he knew this was not the perfect response to get her daughter to speak to her.
“I’m sure you can’t,” said Sara. Valorie winced again. It was as she feared.
“Try me,” Valorie waited for the response, holding her wince. Sarah then greeted her with an open door. An open door and Sarah’s wet red face.
“Oh honey,” Valorie wrapped her arms around her daughter. Sarah didn’t respond to her mother’s reaction, but she didn’t push away either. When Valorie let go, she led her daughter to the edge of the bed. Valorie spread her hands over the rainbow spreadsheet. It seemed so cheap, but she was not there to redecorate the room and turned her attention back to the task at hand. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“I invited Taylor to sit with us at lunch today,” Sarah said in between sobs.
Valorie was confused. Why would this cause so much strife in her daughter’s life? Valorie asked the only question she could think of to push the conversation along, “Who is Taylor?”
“Taylor Jenkins,” said Sarah.
“That sounds familiar. Is that the girl who was in your seventh-grade class?” Valorie asked with vague recollection of a girl with freckles and messy red braids. She stood out because she looked younger than the other kids. She never looked like she went through puberty, and always dressed in baggy clothes. But Valorie never remembered Sarah talking about her or having her come to any of Sarah’s sleepovers.
“Yes, well, now ‘she’ is a ‘they’,” Sarah started.
“Oh,” Valorie was understanding that this was more complicated.
“So, when Taylor sat down, Jessica started saying things like ‘why is she here?’ and ‘who invited her?’ I was just trying to be nice. Taylor always sits by themselves.” said Sarah.
Valorie put an arm around her daughter, “that was a nice thing to do.”
“So, then…”
Valorie was not expecting more to the story.
“Jessica told a bunch of people that I invited Taylor to lunch, and by the end of the day, everyone said that I was dating Taylor, and that I like girls. Even though Taylor isn’t even a girl, and I don’t even like Taylor in that way. I was just trying to be nice. Everyone got everything wrong.” Sarah was sobbing by now.
Sarah was right, Valorie didn’t know how to handle this. It was one thing to be teased. It was another to be teased about sexual orientation. Valorie was straight her whole life. Their small town was not exactly gay friendly. The only gay guy she knew taught her spin class, and even then, their encounters limited themselves to pleasantries. Valorie knew nothing about his personal life.
“That was very nice of you to invite Taylor,” said Valorie, racking her brain for any kind of advice she could muster.
“I wish I never invited them to sit with us,” said Sarah.
The pair sat in silence. Valorie could feel her daughter’s grief. She knew Jessica’s reaction was not right, but she couldn’t change how someone else’s daughter felt. She could only encourage her own daughter to continue to continue to be open-minded and empathetic, reminding her that kindness and understanding are powerful tools to combat ignorance and prejudice. Valorie could assure Sarah that staying true to this core belief and embracing diversity would not only make her a stronger individual but also contribute to creating a more inclusive and accepting world.
“I have an idea,” Valorie said, turning to her daughter.
—
One Week Later
“Please take your seats. We will now be starting.” Sarah said as she stood in front of a room designated for this meeting. She glanced around and noticed a variety of people had attended. There were Freshmen and Seniors. There were jocks and punk kids. There were white kids, Latino kids, black kids, kids of nationalities Sarah could not put her finger on. She did not know how important this would be to not just her and Taylor, but so many people in the school.
As everyone took their seats, Sarah noticed there were not enough seats for everyone. If this kept up, they would need to find a larger room.
Sarah spoke up to start the meeting, “Hi everyone. I’m really excited to start the first ever Gay-Straight Alliance here at Jefferson High. I would like to start with…”
