"Hi, Grace," Carey said, kneeling down to unlace her boots. "How many of those have you had?"

"Just two."

"Two or two dozen?"

Grace smiled. "Just two. I'm saving the others for later."

"Others? I said you could have three cookies, so where do you get others?"

"Well...you usually let me have more than three," Grace said hopefully. "And it is a new box."

"There was a time when a box lasted me all week," Carey said, putting her boots neatly next to Grace's sneakers on the newspaper near the door. "You sure you're not related to Cookie Monster?"

Grace pretended to check her skin tone. "Nope, not turning blue yet."

"Could have fooled me," Carey said. "What are you doing there?"

"Working on my goals list.”

"Revising?”

Grace nodded. "Wanna see?"

Carey walked over to the couch. "Move over," she said, settling down on the cushion next to the teen. "You crossed off the question mark next to college."

"Yeah," Grace said. "If I passed the GED, Dad says I should be able to go to a community college." She circled the dollar signs next to the word college. "The only problem is gonna be money."

"You would be surprised how much money is out there for college if you want it," Carey said, patting Grace's shoulder. "Good move. Now you have to decide on your major."

"I have no idea," Grace said. "I'm good at math and figuring things out, but I can't imagine what kind of job I want to do for the rest of my life."

"So that's something you need to look at," Carey said. "I'll see if I can get hold of a college catalog. That will show you what careers are available and what courses are needed to get that degree. It might help."

"It would at least give me ideas," Grace said, closing her notebook. "I can't think anymore."

"You've had a big surprise today," Carey said. "Oh, speaking of surprises, I have one for you."

"You do?" Grace's eyes lit up. "What?"

"You clean up this mess," she said, pointing at the paper napkin covered with cookie crumbs. "I'll go get it. Don't get too excited. It's not as wonderful as you think." Carey went into the bedroom and retrieved the package that had arrived the day before. "You remember Mrs. Hamlin?"

"My math teacher?"

"That's the one," Carey said, entering the living room. "Since you've done as much as you can with the math books we have, she sent this for you."

Grace opened the brown paper wrapper. "She sent me a math book?"

"Trigonometry," Carey said. "Give you a head start for college. After all, we can't have you doing nothing during math period."

"I can think of a few things to do," Grace grumped good-naturedly. "Thanks."

"A letter thanking Mrs. Hamlin would be good too," Carey said.

"I'll write it tomorrow," Grace said just as the phone started to ring. Carey looked at the clock on the wall. "I wonder who that could be?"

She stepped into the kitchen and picked up the receiver. "Hello?" Grace flipped the pages of her new math book, trying not to listen to the phone call. Unfortunately, she was curious and it was too easy to hear each word. "...thought you two were happy together." Whoever it was, Carey didn't seem to be too pleased as the older woman began pacing in the kitchen. "That's not really any of your business." Grace made sure to keep her eyes on her book. "Now isn't a good time. Because we're in session, that's why and even if we weren't, I don't think it would be a good idea." Grace heard the refrigerator open, then slam shut. "Eve, I'm not interested. No. No. I don't care." There was a silence on Carey's end while the other woman spoke, then the instructor exploded. "Well if I'm so damn controlling, then why are you calling me after all this time?" Grace winced when she heard something come down hard on the counter, guessing it to be the angry woman's fist. "I know, I know, it's all my fault. The fact that you came home pregnant had nothing to do with it, right?"

Oh, I should not hear any more. Grace grabbed her sneakers. As she headed out the front door, she heard Carey say "...and you want to talk about fair?" Grace closed the door and sat down on the wooden steps. It was clearly a private conversation that she should not have been listening to, but still she could not stop from replaying the snippets of the conversation. It took little to add up the pieces, especially when she added in the way her mentor reacted to Eve's call. Even from outside she could hear the force in which Carey hung up the phone. She is so pissed. I'm waiting right here until she cools off.

Several minutes later, the door opened. "You can come back in now” Carey said, leaving the door open and walking to her recliner. Grace went in and sat on the couch, unsure what to say, or if she should say anything at all. Even with the shadows cast by the lamp, she could see the hint of red rimming Carey's eyes. She made you cry? I didn’t think anything would make you cry. Carey put the footrest up and rubbed her temple. "How much did you hear?"

"I tried not to," Grace said. "I left when you said something about being fair."

"Wonderful," Carey said, letting out a long breath of air. "Well, too late to do anything about it now." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Any questions?"

Grace thought carefully before answering. "Are you okay?"

Carey's head popped up, brown eyes locking with hers. "That's not what I thought you'd ask," she said.

"The other stuff doesn't matter," Grace said. "You seemed pretty upset."

"It was an unexpected call," Carey said, leaning her head back against the cushion. "If I had realized who it was, I would have let the machine get it."

“I won’t say anything," Grace said. "I swear."

"About what?" Carey asked, her lip turning up in a half smile. "About the phone call, or what you learned about me?"

"Both," Grace said. "It'll be like I didn't hear anything."

Carey smiled. "I doubt that, Grace. You heard, whether I like it or not." She rubbed her forehead again. "What the hell, I guess. You girls probably figure I am anyway."

"Actually everyone thinks Viking, I mean Instructor Donaldson, is," Grace said, her eyes widening when she realized what she'd said.

Carey smiled. "Viking, huh? Fits. She's straight, though."

"You, we weren't sure about," Grace said. "Some think you are and some think you aren't."

"We don't keep you girls busy enough, do we?" Carey said. "I don't even want to know how much of your day is spent trying to figure out the sex lives of your instructors. It's probably better than talking about going to kennels looking for dates." Grace colored and looked down.

"It was just talk," the teen said.

"I know what it was," Carey said. "And I know how easy it is to let loose a juicy piece of gossip."

Grace looked up quickly. "No," she said. "It's your business, not theirs." She looked down. "Not mine, either. I'm sorry I didn't leave as soon as I realized it was a personal call."

"And just when was that?"

"When you began pacing and slammed the fridge," Grace admitted. "You don't usually do that, no matter how mad you get. Instructor Gage is the pacer."

"Everyone has buttons," Carey said, resting her elbows on the armrests and lacing her fingers together. "So did you think I was or wasn't?"

"I wasn't sure," Grace said. "I thought maybe, but it's not like I could just come out and ask if you were…”

"A lesbian?" Carey offered. "It's okay to say the word, Grace. It doesn't make you one."

"I know that," Grace said hotly. "And how do you know I'm not?"

"I don't," Carey said, pushing the footrest down. "Sex is a subject you manage to avoid quite nicely, even in SR class. You can dance around an answer better than anyone I know, and you remember what happened the last time I pushed you about it." She rose to her feet. "I'm not in the mood to dodge any chairs."

Grace grimaced at the reminder. "I said I was sorry about that."

"You can be sorry all you want," Carey said. "The trick is to learn from your mistakes and not repeat them."

"I promise." She looked at Carey expectantly.

"What?"

"Can I ask you another question?"

"May I, not can I," Carey said. "I won't promise that I'll answer it, but go ahead."

"I don't know who else to ask," Grace said nervously. "You're the only one I know."

"One what?"

"Um…lesbian."

"You haven't been listening to the teenage grapevine," Carey said, settling back down on the recliner.

"I heard," Grace said. "But that's just talk because they went off on that walk together for so long."

"What's your question?"

Grace rubbed her hands together, her eyes focusing on her notebook.

"When did you know? That you were?"

"That's not an easy question to answer, Grace," Carey said. "May I ask why you want to know?"

"You don't have to answer," Grace said. "Forget it."

"There has to be a reason," Carey said. "I always knew I felt different but I didn't accept being gay until I was in my early twenties”

"You didn't want to be?"

"It wasn't a question of wanting to be or not wanting to be," Carey said. "It was more a question of accepting who and what I was."

"I don't understand."

Carey put the footrest down and leaned forward. "It wasn't a choice between being gay and being straight. I'm a lesbian and nothing is going to change that. The hard part for me was acknowledging that fact and dealing with it. Now, why are you asking?"

Grace stared at the coffee table. "You said you felt different...like from the other girls?"

“You're answering a question with a question," Carey pointed out. "When I was a teen the latest boy bands didn't send me swooning. My walls were covered with female rockers. I didn't have too many friends over to see my room."

The grains of the table blurred as Grace let her mind drift back. "The first time I saw a naked woman was in a magazine one of my mother's boyfriends left behind." Her heart began pounding. "I kept it hidden in my room and looked at it all the time. It was my little secret. I...I thought there was something wrong with me." She took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "When I think about sex…I think about it with women."

"How long have you felt this way?"

"Since I was thirteen or so," Grace said. "When I found the magazine and started reading the stories and seeing the pictures." She rubbed her hands together. "When other girls were talking about kissing boys, I was thinking about kissing them."

"Have you had sex with a woman?"

Grace shook her head. "No. My cousin and I showed ourselves to each other once but there wasn't any touching."

"Have you had sex with a man?"

The question caught Grace by surprise, causing her to look up at her mentor. "Uh…”

"Be honest with me," Carey said.

"Yes."

"Intercourse?"

Grace looked down, feeling completely ashamed. "Yes." She heard Carey move from the chair and braced herself. Please don't ask me about it tonight. "Um, I have homework."

"The homework can wait," Carey said, sitting on the cushion next to her. "Do you want to talk about it?"

“No.”

“You can talk to me about anything," Carey said.

"I know."

"Grace, how old were you?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Sixteen? Fifteen? Younger?"

Grace stared at the coffee table. "Fifteen."

"What happened?"

The teen shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing important."

"It affected you," Carey said, her voice understanding and gentle. "It is important."

"Please."

Several seconds passed before she heard Carey let out a deep breath. "All right, Grace. I told you I'm not in the mood to dodge chairs tonight. I'm here if you want to talk."

"Can...may I ask you another question?"

"What?" Carey asked softly.

"Do you think…if I told my dad how I feel…” Grace closed her eyes. "Do you think he'd still love me?" She felt a hand rest gently on her shoulder.

"I think any man that carries that many pictures of his daughter in his wallet will love her no matter what," Carey said. "What do you think?"

Grace swallowed hard. "He told me he'd love me no matter what but he didn't want me to become a porn star or anything like that."

Carey gave a soft snort. "I wouldn't want you to become one either," she said, giving the teen's shoulder a quick squeeze before withdrawing her hand. "He loves you, Grace. I know that."