Chapter 14

The upcoming week will be a busy one. Miki, Sunny and their moms, Stacy, Emmy, and now Hassiba, were to pick out their gowns and be fitted on Tuesday and Wednesday was Miki’s sixteenth birthday. Sunny thought, “What the heck am I going to get her?” And then ... on Thursday, they would go to the courthouse to apply for their marriage license.

The answer to what was I going to get her came the very next day. Miki’s phone fell out of the wheelchair and broke the screen. It was three years old. So, Sunny decided to get her the new iPhone to keep the operating systems the same.

Things at school were also “fun” if you knew what had happened with Stacy and Emmy this past weekend. They certainly tuned a few heads when they walked into school holding hands. It seemed our Lesbian pride table in the cafeteria was gaining popularity. Mr. Peterson asked Sunny if she was the president of the Eastern Technical Lesbian Association. Everyone at the table was hyped because of all the events coming up. The Biggy, of course, was the marriage license. Miki and Sunny were threatened with a torturous death if they didn’t produce it on Friday. Of course, they wanted one of them to film it on our phone for viewing on Friday along with the actual legally stamped document. And Cindy Pritchard from the school paper asked us if we could give her the inside scoop on who was coming out next ... She didn’t have to wait long for an answer.

It wasn’t two minutes after she arrived at our table with her “inquiring minds want to know” persona that a quiet, unassuming 11^th grader, timidly walked up to our table and asked if she could speak to Sunny. The normally reclusive and invisible girl’s eyes were red and looked like she had been crying and was on the verge of breaking down again at any moment. Cindy displayed some real class when she proved that she wasn’t about to take advantage of the situation for a story. She politely excused herself and told Sunny, “Don’t worry, mums the word.”

Sunny thanked her and pulled the girl to her and sat her down in the middle of the group. The girl said that Friday evening, her dad threw her out of the house because she told her parents she thought she was gay. She said that when she came out, her father slapped her about the head and face multiple times then went upstairs to her room with a large suitcase, threw her clothes into it and told her to get out of his house, he wasn’t having “an abomination” for a daughter defiling his home. He told her that if he ever saw her face again, he would kill her.

Hassiba Al Assan was an Iranian Muslim.

When she had retold the events of the previous day, Sunny asked her, “Where did you sleep all weekend?”

“I slept behind the school auditorium. My suitcase is in the office. Mrs. Jamison said she would call a shelter for me and see if she could find me a place to stay. I think I have to go to social services to get some money, Medicaid and food stamps, don’t I?”

The usually quiet and agreeable Miki said, “Fuck that! Sunny, she’s coming home with us. Gimme your phone so I can call my mom to get one of the bedrooms ready for her.” Turning to Hassiba, she said, “Girl, you’re living with us from now on.”

While Hassiba spoke to Sunny and the girls, Miki was on the phone with her mom. Hassiba wore conservative street clothes, but also wore a hajab, so everyone in the school knew she was Muslim. Sunny asked her if she had a girlfriend, and if her girlfriend knew that she had been thrown out of the house. Hassiba replied that the girl she liked didn’t know she existed. Katie asked her if she had ever had a relationship of any kind with a girl, but Hassiba shook her head no.

Katie asked her, “If you’ve never been with a girl in any way, how do you know you’re gay?”

“I hate boys; they’re pigs. The thought of a boy touching me or kissing me makes me ill.”

“Okay,” Katie replied, “but you need to get over that hatred for guys just because they’re guys. Not all of them are jerks or perverts. There are some very nice guys that know how to treat a girl right. It’s just something to think about.”

Sunny then asked, “This girl you like, does she go to this school?”

Hassiba dropped her head and silently nodded.

Like pulling teeth from a chicken, Sunny asked, “Oh-kaaay, can you tell me who she is?”

“She’s at this table.”

Everyone was silent. Who could she be talking about? All the girls there were in relationships ... except one.

Several weeks prior, Katie and Natalie brought a young fourteen-year-old, ninth grader named Mary Ann Mobley into the group. She had come to sit with them when she went to Katie and Natalie like Sunny and Miki had and confessed that she was pretty sure she was gay and didn’t want to be alone anymore. She asked if she could she join their little group. All the girls, except Miki, at the table were seniors adopted her thinking of Mary Ann as their younger sister.

Every head at the table turned and looked at Mary Ann. She got this shocked look on her face, pointed to herself, and asked, “Me?”

Hassiba blushed and nodded.

Mary Ann asked her, “How do you know me and how do you know I’m gay?”

Katie slapped her arm and retorted, “Well, DUH, you id-jit. You’re sitting at the table with a bunch of lezzies.”

Stacy butted in and said, “Well, I sat with you guys and wasn’t out of the closet.”

Stacy called her on it saying, “Hey, girl, you had a serious crush on Sunny and were making goo-goo eyes at her while you ate. You were as gay as a three-dollar bill; you just didn’t realize it yet.”

Mary Ann asked again, “How do you know me?”

Hassiba said, “We’re in choir together. I’m one row back and to your right.”

Nodding, Katie said, “So you were crushing on her without her knowing it, right?”

Looking at Mary Ann, she answered, “Yes. I think about you all the time and at night when I’m in bed also. I think you’re the most beautiful girl...”

Mary Ann blushed and answered, “I’m very surprised and ... actually, I feel very flattered that another girl thinks I’m pretty. Would you like to sit with me?”

“Very much.”

“What’s up with a place to live, gimp?” Katie asked. Only Katie could talk to Miki that way. Everyone knew that it was just Katie’s brash way of speaking with people she was very familiar and friends with.

“Hassiba, like I said, you are now living with Sunny and me.”

Katie picked up on Miki’s statement and asked, “What? Are you two shacking up already?”

Shaking her head, Miki replied, “You know what I mean you dimwit. Sunny is with me every night until my mom comes home at ten, and we WILL be living together in three weeks. The wedding, remember?”

Katie snickered and replied, “Oh, okay. Just checking, that’s all.”

Sunny had left and got Hassiba a tray of food and had just returned. She gave the tray to Hassiba and asked, “Did I miss anything?”

Natalie said, “Miki said that you, Hassiba and her were going to have a Ménage à trois.” Hassiba turned forty shades of pink.

Miki retorted, “That’s not true. The truth is, Sunny don’t like anyone but black girls. Once you’ve had black, you never go back. Right Darling?”

“I’m gonna beat your ass during PT tonight.”

Miki got bold and quickly retorted, “Oooh, hurt me, baby!”

By the end of the lunch period, Mary Ann and Hassiba were holding hands. They looked good together. Sunny told Hassiba to go to the office after lunch and tell Mrs. Jamison that she now had a place to live. Miki and she would meet her at the office, where her suitcase was, after last period and go home together.

Mrs. Jamison was almost in tears when Miki told her that Hassiba was going to live with her and Sunny from now on. Hassiba was flabbergasted when she saw Miki’s home. She couldn’t believe she would be living in such a beautiful mansion.

After Miki’s call about Hassiba, Silvia took the evening off from work. She showed Hassiba which bedroom was hers and after giving her the tour, they sat at the breakfast bar and had a soda and chips. Silvia told Hassiba, “I know you’ll need some spending money, so if you do the dishes, take out the trash every night, and do some light dusting and vacuuming, I’ll pay you twenty dollars a week, How’s that sound?”

Sunny told her, “Dishes are a snap. Just pop them into the dishwasher and turn it on.”

Silva had also called her attorney. She told him she wanted him to draw up the papers to obtain legal custody of Hassiba. She could then take her to social services and get her medical assistance. The only way she could buy her insurance was if she had legal custody and she needed something in the interim.

Miki and Sunny asked Silvia if it would be okay to add Hassiba to the wedding party as the flower girl. They wanted her to know that even as a lesbian, she was accepted, and that there was no shame in being who she is. Of course, Silvia approved, but what kind of gowns would a Muslim girl wear?

Sunny shared the results of her hunt for a videographer/photographer. Their high school, Eastern Technical High School, has a magnet school program called Interactive Media Production. This program teaches everything in the digital production of audio, video, and photographic media. Jerry Snyder, an award-winning videographer/photographer, agreed to shoot the entire video using multiple remote-controlled cameras from different angles, then edit the video into a slick, professional video of the wedding ceremony. That freed him up to shoot stills of various events like the ring ceremony, the kiss, cutting the cake, etc. He said he’d shoot the whole thing for $500 plus materials. Jerry pointed out that even with Baltimore being 14% below the national average, this was still about half price for a licensed professional to do the same quality work. Silvia clucked her tongue, winked, and said, “Well, that’s another item we can check off our “to-do” list.”

At lunch the next day, the two main topics were, how did things work out with Hassiba moving in with Miki and that Hassiba would be their flower girl. Hassiba was both very shy, yet exuberant over the fact that she had been accepted for who she was by this moderately rowdy group of outspoken girls, but also by the fact that she and her secret crush had hit it off and were now an item. She shared how she was welcomed into Miki’s home with open arms, and that her mother had given her some chores to do to earn twenty dollars a week allowance. Sunny announced the bridal gown fitting that evening was to be at six.

Passing out cards with the name, address and phone number to the bridal shop, Sunny said, “Everyone, our appointment this evening if for six pm. Don’t be late. The name of the place is M’jourdelle Bridal Gowns on York Road. It looks like a small stone house with a fancy canopy awning out front. There is an Enterprise car rental place right next door.”

At M’jourdelle’s, the owner was outstanding in her selections for the girls and her knowledge and assistance was second to none.

Sunny selected a Martin Thornburg, Aria Style, intricate trumpet gown with lace sleeves. A sleeveless beaded embroidered applique on a tulle trumpet gown with narrow lace illusion straps, a deep sweetheart neckline with an illusion modesty panel, a dramatic dropped waistline, a deep V-back with a concealed zipper, and a flared applique accented skirt with multiple rows of horsehair and a chapel train. The top had to be altered because Sunny’s bustline was a little too small for the cups on the Deep V sweetheart neckline. The alterations would be completed, and the gown would be ready for pickup on Monday, November 8^th: five days before the wedding.

Miki chose a beautiful Satin and lace Sweetheart Fit-and-flare wedding gown with embroidered lace neckline. The dress had a full A-line gown with box pleats and pockets on the skirt. It was simple, elegant and because it lacked a train, was perfect for her in a wheelchair. Using crutches to stand, Miki was able to make sure the dress fit properly, and it didn’t need any tailoring. She looked simply divine. Both Silvia and Hye Bin were wiping tears the entire time.