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Louisiana sat at his desk, infront of him on his was the chemistry homework he kept procrastinating. He took online classes for five months a year like his 56 siblings but he hated doing any of the work.
In the hall outside his room, he could hear the voice of his sister, Utah. Looking for any valid excuse to not finish the homework, he got up and went to find out the drama, even though Utah was probably his least favorite sister.
“What’s fucking wrong?” Louisiana begrudgingly asked her, trying to pretend he cared.
“Montana tried to replace my hot chocolate with coffee!” Utah complained, Louisiana wasn’t surprised. Montana and Utah despised each other.
“Just stay away from her Utah.” Louisiana then walked right past her. He was looking for anything or anyone, no longer caring about his unfinished homework.
“Lou!” He heard someone exclaim, Louisiana wiped around just in time to catch Florida who practically hopped into his arms.
“What’s up? “ Louisiana asked his energetic little sister.
“We wanna go downtown, can you take us?” Virginia spoke as West Virginia and Texas walked up with her.
“I can’t drive.” He pointed out to his little sisters in response.
West Virginia pulled out a DC metro card from her dress pocket, “Who said anything about driving?”
—
And so, Virginia, West Virginia, Florida, Texas and Louisiana were on the Metro heading into downtown DC. Without telling their father… but none of them were tattletales, so everything would fine.
Louisiana’s leg twitched as he set on the metro and played with his hands in his lap. “Ya fine, brother?” West Virginia asked him, and he flinched.
“Oh uh… I don’t know…. I just haven’t felt very comfortable lately.” Louisiana confessed.
“What do you mean?” West Virginia asked him, her expression seemed confused. Yeah, well Louisiana was confused too.
“Like, I uh… I don’t know how to explain it.” Louisiana started playing with his brown hair that flowed to his shoulders. It was his first time actually having long-ish hair and he liked it a lot.
“ ‘k, maybe you should ask Dad? He knows a lot of stuff.” She shrugged, and was about to say more before being elbowed by her sister into another conversation.
They had ten minutes left on the metro and Louisiana wasn’t sure what the heck he was going to do to pass the time. If he turned on his phone, it would turn on his location too, and then his dad would find them. So, instead, he let himself go into deep thought.
*why does the both you so much?* Louisiana thought to himself. *It’s true, you are her brother. It shouldn’t bother you.* He was confused but fortunately the metro finally everyone at their stop.
“Come on.” Louisiana told his siblings as they all stepped onto the platform. They all put on sunglasses to hide their flag eyes. “Where do y’all wanna go?”
“McDonald’s!” Texas and Florida yelled at the same time.
“You went all the way downtown for some McDonald’s?!” Louisiana exclaimed in shock to his eagerly nodding little sisters.
“Well we just wanted to go shopping.” Virginia commented and West Virginia nodded in agreement. Louisiana gave a loud sigh.
“Fine we’ll go to McDonalds then wonder in the nearby stores.” He stated and although he heard groans from the Virginias, there was no other protest.
They arrived at the McDonalds in seven minutes and all of them ordered kids menus. The cashier looked at them curiously before asking a question. “You kids look familiar. Where’s ya parents, boy?”
*Boy.* Louisiana got stuck on that word for a second before he lied. “We’re actors, our parents are at the studio.” The old cashier seemed to accept this answer and handed them their food, they all left before the man would get suspicious and sat on a nearby park table.
“Look at our toys!” Florida got some small plastic alligator. Texas also had a small plastic cow. West Virginia got a black bear and Virginia got a cardinal. All their favorite animals, meanwhile Louisiana got a frog. The rest got their favorite animal and he got a frog. Not that anything was wrong with a frog, they were super cute and funky and Louisiana absolutely adored them but his favorite animal was the lion. It had always been the lion.
The next half hour felt like a daze to Louisiana. He’s been running his hand through a bucket of pins when Florida ran up to him, panicked and crying. She dragged him to West Virginia who was being yelled at by a straight couple wearing huge white crosses. Texas had pulled out her phone and started recording just in case. Virginia was hiding behind a clothing rack.
“Aye!!” Leave her the fuck alone!” He screamed, shocking the couple. West Virginia quickly ran behind Louisiana, temporarily abandoning her brave and strong attitude.
“Well, I-We are his citizens and-“ The lady attempted to explain in a soft voice but Louisiana would not have any of it.
“That doesn’t give you the right to fucking harass her!!”
“Is that any way to speak to a woman, young man?!” The lady screeched before continuing to speak in her annoying voice. “We are simply trying to get your brother to turn to God-“
“My sister doesn’t fucking need God!” He yelled at them despite being (somewhat) Christian himself.
“Boy shut the fuck up before I beat your ass and you meet god.” The man said in a low threatening voice while firmly placing both on Louisiana’s shoulders.
Before Louisiana could even fully process the fear and adrenaline, he clenched his hands and punched the man. He heard the loud crack of the man’s nose as blood spattered out.
His hand was bleeding and violently stung. Louisiana could hear yelling and screaming as all his senses started to blur together and tears poured from his eyes.
America arrived six minutes later, the workers held the five kids in the front of the store while they waited for him to arrive. One had even been kind enough to bandage Louisiana’s hands that was kindness after the trouble he caused them.
The rest of the kids ran up to their dad, unconsolably sobbing but neither West Virginia or Louisiana moved an inch, still shaken by everything. America quickly calmed Texas, Florida and Virginia before walking over to his other two children.
Suddenly West Virginia broke in tears and ran into her dad’s caring arms. “Sh… it’s okay, it’s okay.”
The crying continued for another minute, before she had cried so much that she started hiccuping, causing laughter among the girls. When they were cheered up, America immediately turned his attention to Louisiana.
“Oh, Louie.” America wrapped Louisiana in a hug, but he didn’t began to cry. He wanted to badly, but he didn’t. “Let’s head home kiddo. We’ll talk there okay?” Louisiana gave a small nod, scared if he said anything that his voice would crack.
America got all the kids in his van and drove them home. They didn’t talk at all on the ride so it was filled with an awkward and uncomfortable. “Lou, head up to your room.” His dad immediately told Louisiana, when he got out of the car.
“Fine…” Louisiana replied, using his sleeve to wipe his watering eyes. He basically stormed off to his room before plopping onto his bed and crying.
“Louie…” America said, when entering the room, he sat on Louisiana bed next to him and hugged him. Letting him cry as much as he wanted. “Lou, it’s okay, my boy.”
That time Louisiana flinched again, but this one was bigger and more obvious. His dad immediately picked up on it. “Lou-did I say something?”
“I… I don’t know…” He said, as his leg started to twitch. How could he explain what he felt? He didn’t have the words to explain it, no one had ever given him the dictionary to explain how he felt.
“…Lou, please tell me what is wrong, okay? It doesn’t have to make sense.” America asked his kid, looking in his eyes with concern and unconditional love.
“I… I don’t like being called a boy. It makes me feel weird… I don’t know why…” He confessed looking away from his dad.
America wrapped Louisiana in an even tighter hug. “Oh, kiddo. Do you think you would maybe like to be a girl?”
“No-I don’t wanna be a girl either.” Louisiana stated, he was frequently envying their lives but he didn’t really want to be a girl. If anything he wanted to be both and neither in a sense, although it didn’t make much sense to him.
America looked at his amazing kid. “Why not you keep your phone for a bit, and do some research? You’re still grounded, so no leaving the house til you head back to your house.”
“That’s two months-“ Louisiana replied, looking up from their lap.
“Maybe think before you punch someone, violence is never the answer.” America told his kid.
“Fine. I’m not really sorry though.” Louisiana stated to which a sigh came from their father.
“I’m gonna send you some stuff kid, watch and read that and then we’ll decide how grounded you are after we expand your vocabulary and help you find out who you are, okay?”
“Okay.” Louisiana started to cry, and their dad tightly held them, everything wasn’t perfect now. It wouldn’t be perfect for a long time but, maybe soon enough it would feel just fine.