Girl of the Wolves

Chapter four: Questions

When we got to the sushi place, we chose a table in the back right corner of the dimly lit sushi restaurant. "So how's life?" Heather asks me. I pause, thinking of how I'm supposed to answer this question. "It's... Alright." I say. They give me a look and raise one of their eyebrows. "What's up?" They ask, seeming genuinely curious. Heather always seems to be able to read my mind. It's strange, really. "Nothing's up, it's just..." I think, figuring out how to word this. "Do you know what therianthropy is?" I ask them. They seem surprised, their eyes wide. "Yeah, I do. Isn't it those people who pretend to be animals and walk around on all fours?" My eyes widen and I put on a blank face. "No, not- not really. That's more of a quadrobist. Some therians choose to do quadrobics as a way of expressing themselves though, so I suppose that's a good start." They blink at me, seeming to still be processing what I just said. "Okay... So the therians are the ones who believe they were an animal in their past life or that their brain just gives them uncontrollable animalistic behaviors?" Heather asks. "Yes! That's it!" I exclaim, and everyone in the restaurant gives me the side-eye. I roll my eyes at them and they all go back to what they were doing. "So, you believe you're one?" They ask. I stare at them, not quite believing how good their mind reading skills are. "I'm going to take that as a yes. Cool." They say, and next thing I know they're already ordering. "And for you?" The waiter says, and I order a California roll and an iced tea. The waiter takes one of the menus and I sit there, having no idea what to talk about now. Only five minutes later, we recieved our food, and I eat three of the California rolls and sip some of my iced tea before asking Heather; "How about you? How's life?" They look up from their dynamite rolls and swallow. "It's alright, same thing as always. Still non-binary, yay! Still asking my parents about looking at HRT in the future, yay." They say, the last yay totally sarcastic. "So, I'm guessing they aren't taking it well?" I ask, and they shake their head. "It doesn't really make sense though! They're totally chill about me being non-binary and they half joke about beating up the people who deadname me, but they still won't let me look at HRT!" They grumble and then eat another dynamite roll. I sigh and eat a California roll. I wish I could help Heather, but unfortunately there's nothing I can do. Then I dart upward as I remember something, and low and behold, choke on my California roll. I drink almost all of my iced tea trying to make it go down, and when it does I look at Heather with a glint in my eye. "I have an idea! I'll talk to my moms about them talking to your parents and then maybe they can convince your parents to let you go on HRT in the future!" They smile at me and nod. "That might just work!" Once we finish our food, we leave the restaurant and say our goodbyes, promising each other to formulate our plan more the next time we see each other.