She had been watching them for a good twenty minutes now.

They had originally been on the playground: swinging side by side, chasing either other across the monkey bars, and going down the slide. Now, they were resting peacefully on the roots of an old tree, both eagerly drinking the juice boxes their mothers had given them.

Poppy put a cautious arm around her brother as she watched the two kids laugh and entwin their hands, running together to the playground again. Her lips curled in disgust as they laughed and began to play once again.

Gay.

What a salty word, she scoffed. A pretty word it may have been back then: happiness, joy, fulfillment, even love. But now it was a horrendous word. An evil one. One that was every father's nightmare and a mother's sorrow.

And the fact that their parents failed to realize the horrible disease their sons were already beginning to develop troubled her even more.

Poppy stiffly stood up as one of Jeremy's friends came into view. She quickly pulled her brother up and escorted him out of the park, praying his friend wouldn't see him, and her brother wouldn't catch the deadly disease that she already had.

This was Poppy.