Miranda and Morgan have a talk

It was a couple hours later. All three of the Mason kids had taken large trash bags from their Mom and filled them with all the clothes from their rooms. The bags of clothes were clustered in the front hall, waiting to be donated to charity.

Miranda was in her bedroom, wondering what to do next. She sat down on her bed, picked up the book she had been reading from her nightstand, and opened it to her bookmark. She tried to read it, but it was really no use. She could still read the words, more or less, but they didn't seem to come together into a meaning. And by the time she was halfway through a sentence, she'd forgotten what the previous sentence had said. She sighed and put down the book.

Just then there was a knock on her bedroom door and Morgan entered without waiting for a reply. "Hi sis," she said, "I thought I'd see if you need help with anything. I know things must be harder now." Miranda smiled up at her sister, not sure what to say. She was jealous of Morgan, who looked just the same and was just as smart as she'd always been. The only changes were that she had to be naked, just like Miranda did, and she was gonna be gay now.

That thought awakened something in Miranda's dim mind. She suddenly remembered what she'd been thinking about in the last few minutes that she was smart. "Oh sit down," she said to Morgan, "I wanna talk to you." Morgan sat down next to her on the bed.

Miranda paused for a long while, trying to put her words together. "I wanna tell you," she said finally, "I know what it's like, likin' girls. I always liked girls, I just hadn't told many people."

Morgan's eyes widened. "You mean, you're a lesbian too? You've always been a lesbian?"

Miranda shook her head. "Nuh uh, I like boys too. I like boys and girls. But mostly I just like Tobi."

Morgan nodded, realizing how much sense this made. The whole family knew Tobi as Miranda's friend, and they'd all figured she was probably a lesbian, even if they didn't suspect Miranda was involved with her. Tobi had short hair and wore boyish clothes. She played on the high school softball team. She was cute, though. In fact, Morgan found herself thinking that she'd never realized just how cute Tobi was before. She did her best not to dwell on that. "Thank you for telling me, Miranda," she said after a long moment. Then she grinned. "I bet Tobi will like you being naked all the time."

Miranda looked sad. "Yeah, but she also liked how smart I was. I'm so dumb now, she'll probably dump me."

"Hey," said Morgan, putting her hands on sister's shoulders, "Don't call yourself dumb. You may be a little different, but you're still you, and I bet Tobi will still like you." She stood up and took Miranda's hand. "Now come on, no more moping in here. Let's go..."