The Island of Misfit Kids, chapter 1

found family weathers a hurricane together

Content warning: substance use, grief, environmental disaster, and transgender prejudice.

---

“How big is it now?”

“Category Three.”

Four young people sat on two old couches, half-way facing a SmartTV. Everyone had their eyes fixed on their phones but Billy, who was memorizing all the big scary numbers on the weather forecast so he could tell everyone else later.

He had his stringy arms perched on the armrest of the sofa, his face dangerously close to the screen. He had glasses, but he insisted he only needed them for class. Billy went to school at some fancy Northeast college, and he was only supposed to be back in South Carolina for a week. The closer the hurricane got, the longer Billy’s stay looked like it was fixing to be. 

“That’s not that bad, right?” Jordan spoke but didn’t look up from their phone.

“Nah, as long as it doesn’t stay in the water.”

Jordan sat on the couch that was shoved into the wall where the roof of the trailer started, forcing them to either bend their neck or slide down into their seats. They chose the latter. Jordan was the newest child to join the Casey family, and the youngest. They grew up in Kentucky and spent most of their teen years in the closet. Their parents pressed them every time they changed their appearance - by cutting their hair short, layering sports bras, and opting for looser clothing - and they explained away their suspicions every time.

Jordan’s parents thought they were a lesbian, at the very least, and they believed that phase would pass as soon as they found “the right man.” As soon as they turned 18, Jordan rode a bus to a Planned Parenthood and started taking testosterone as hormone replacement therapy. Their parents kicked them out of their home shortly after. Maxine invited Jordan to stay with them two months ago. They’d had a lot of changes recently, to say the least, and their voice cracked when they spoke. 

“Hey Max - did they fix the storm drains yet?”

“What do you think?” Maxine rolled her eyes, snapped close her hand-held mirror, and started to rant about how neglected the infrastructure of Florville was. “For God’s sake, they built this town on top of a swamp. Why are they so surprised when we get flooded? If the state senate had passed that bill, we could have saved millions in…”

Max hates when people call her Maxine. That’s too bad, because I like that name. Maxine was the activist of the family, and she stayed up to date on national, and recently local politics. She dropped out of high school as soon as she was allowed and got her GED instead. She knew “public school is a farce and higher education is just a class barrier.” “Real education came by living”, not that Maxine felt that she had lived yet. She didn’t work and she mostly stayed home, listening to pop-punk music and signing activist petitions that she shared.

When she stopped explaining the current legislature session, she went back to her make-up. She was practicing to be a drag queen in Myrtle Beach, but she hadn’t quite found her style yet. She liked to use clashing neon colors, and her cheap brushes didn’t blend them very well.

“You look like a mess.” Carly barely looked up from her phone, her long blue hair hanging around her face. 

“So do you.” Maxine snapped back.