Trio of Yew

Preparation

Three teenagers walk into a National Park... it sounds like a bad jokes about to start, and I guess you could say what happened to us was. It was sort of a regular day, no rain but not unusually hot for our small town in southern Oregon. My name is Newt and my stupid nerd friends and a nature walk changed my life forever. 

"Y'all what the FUCK!" a slightly masculine voice echoes down the street from me, a sure sign Orville is only a couple houses away. As I hop off of my house's small front porch I see him speeding towards me on an almost-too-small bike. None of us have the money for new ones but making do is something we are used to.

  Kids in public school are mean. In case you didn't know this, but that's probably something everyone knows. When I first figured out I was trans a few years ago I felt a click in myself and I felt so much more comfortable in my own skin. I am agender! I know who I am for once! But kids don't see it that way. Most kids anyway.  

  I met Orville and we didn't get along at first. He didn't understand they pronouns and it took a couple weeks for him to warm up to the idea. He was always apologetic and willing to try again whenever he slipped up. That's more than I can say for public school kids. I love Orville's passion for nature. He's the type of guy to spout facts about indigenous tree frog species when you're feeling down, which, may not always be comforting but now I know a lot more about Oregon's native flora and fauna.  

"Where's Mae?" Orville pants as his bike skids to a halt a little too close to my uncovered toes,

"She should be on her way, but you know how she is about early mornings, especially becasue of that HSS she's come down with lately." Home-school schedule syndrome, otherwise known as HSS has a wide range of symptoms, including forgetting how to get up at a consistent time in the morning. 

"God, I'm tired too, but I think this nature walk will really tie this spring up nicely," I hear him say, although he suddenly stops and his eyes widen looking behind me. I whip around only to see a perfectly manicured Mae skating down the tree lined street.

  When I first met Mae and Orville I was at our county GLAAD meeting. I had never seen Orville before but I had seen Mae around the town on grocery outings and other trips. I thought she was stunning. She was a pudgy brown girl with short bob length hair. She had a beautiful voice and her nails were always super long and painted perfectly. She still looks almost exactly the same, and she is pretty much my best friend. Obviously, I don't know how else I could handle her sass. 

She wasn't at the meeting for herself, but rather her dads. Plural. Harvey and Timothy Rivera-Bahl are Mae's parents. Harvey works on construction and carpentry and Timothy is a self employed writer, 'living his dream', he's always quick to remind. 

"Suck it losers, I've been up since three waiting for your lame walk!" As she turns the corner into my driveway I notice something new, and slightly peculiar, about her appearance.

"IS THAT A NOSE RING?" Orville and I shout unanimously,

"Sure is, now I was promised breakfast, so pay up or I'm leaving." 

"Alright, you better tell us all about how you got that around your dads." Mae has notoriously strict parents, her home has a dress code that she regularly breaks, and her windows have had actual padlocks since the Incident of 2016.

We walked up to the house with grumbling stomachs and, for the most part, restless minds.

Orville was the one who came up with the nature walk idea. To be truthful, Mae and I really didn't want to do it at first but since we felt so bad for him we gave in. All he did was research and study and look at things in the woods so we felt bad taking the excitement out of the idea for him.

"Ugh," giggled Mae, "I just don't understand why you guys reacted like that, do you think I'm not cool enough for it or something?"

"Of course not," Orville reassures, "We just didn't think you'd pierce your OWN nose."

"Or do it with a paperclip, either." I add.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures!" she reminded us.

Orville began to roll out a crudely drawn map of Umuqueque National Park, only about a quarter maile from where I live.

"So, I think we'll start going West towards the coast, just to see if we can find any cool marine life, but if you guys want to wait 'til it's brighter out that works for me too, because I can fin-" he stops abruptly, "Wait... do you guys still want to do this? Newt, you look like the living dead, and Mae... MAE," she snaps to look at him, "a little enthusiasm would be nice, just saying."

She looked up and brushed some stray waffle off of her chin,

"Honestly, at first I wasn't very interested, but now it sounds like a fun idea! I'm just a little tired because I was up late, but if you want to go, I want to go."

I nod in agreement. Ever since we met we all just clicked, our personalities electric, unless, of course, it was three a.m. and we were bickering over a few plates of small amounts of assorted breakfast food. My favorite was toaster french toast, Mae preferred waffles, and Orville was 'always a slut for some OJ and peanut butter toast'.

"So, as I was saying," Orville continues, picking up the pace again as he did when he got excited, "I think we should go to the coast when its lighter out so we don't, ya know... drown or something-" I stop focusing on what e's saying and start to clean the dishes. In less than an hour we were packed for a day trip, but we didn't know we would be gone for much longer than that.