“Bette I know you can do it,” a soft voice called out from nowhere.

Bette looked around but tried not to make it obvious. It sounded a lot like Tina.

“Just imagine you’re doing it for me,” the voice said again and Bette turned her head in every direction to find its owner. Tina could not have possibly been there because of the “image” she was trying to present to her homophobic mother.

“Come on baby,” Tina’s voice said, calming Bette down in many ways and killing all the butterflies.

Bette smiled a goofy grin and began her speech. “Throughout high school and college campuses in America…”

“Dad, I’m home,” Hudson shouted as he locked up the door to his family’s two-bedroom apartment. Noises from a recorded soccer game blared from his TV screen and only one light was on and that was the lamp by his father’s loveseat. He looked around the apartment. He had never invited his friends over for one good reason.

“In here,” his father called out from the kitchen. Hudson entered the kitchen and the aroma of baked chicken and mashed potatoes swept him away. He lifted himself up until the kitchen counter and watched his dad finishing up their dinner. He was wearing his blue apron today which contrasted his blonde hair but matched his ocean blue eyes. If he stood by his father, no one would have guessed they were related. Hudson got all his looks from his other parent. His personality however he got from the cook in the family.

“How was school?”

“Good,” Hudson answered like every other student in the world.

“How was practice?”

“OK,” he said again, eyeing the cooked poultry leaving the oven. His dad set it down by his son, smiling at his son’s saucer eyes.

“Hungry?”

“No,” Hudson lied. They had to run uncountable laps around the field and do any tackling drills which dehydrated him and took away all the energy he obtained from the sub shop earlier in the afternoon.

“Says you,” his father joked, whipping him with a rag.

“I’m not,” Hudson replied as they got into a whipping fight in the kitchen.

Tina ate her meatloaf silently in her room as she tried to concentrate on her homework. She wished Bette was there to explain some of the words that were too high-sounding for her. She got home later than usual because she stayed with Bette until the school van came to take her away at the tournament. She made a good lie that the bus was late which her parents believed but her mom eyed her suspiciously.