The Truth About Secrets

Hazel Kight Witham

"Can I Ask You Something?"
It is 1987, and Hazel is in sixth grade.

Three things consume her: how to be Pretty when she’s not allowed makeup, how to be Cool when she’s just not, and somehow getting her crush to ask her out. Oh, and one more thing: keeping her biggest secret.

Today is supposed to be the day when her crush chooses between her and another girl. It’s supposed to be the day that she sneaks makeup to feel Pretty, and tries to find Cool somewhere in all her awkwardness. Instead, it’s the day that three girls approach her and say the words she didn't realize she was dreading: "Can I Ask You Something?"

As her close-held secret becomes kindling for middle school rumor-wildfire, Hazel is forced to confront not only the judgment of others, but her own feelings of shame.

From the initial confrontation to bathroom breakdowns to her surprising way of trying to take back control, we watch as Hazel not only tries to contain the flames of middle school gossip, but reconsiders her entire relationship with this secret she has guarded for so long.

She never realized how secrets and shame can transform into a strange kind of liberation. Threaded throughout the poems about this pivotal day are notes from the author on queer theory and LGBTQIA+ history, things Hazel wished she’d known, so that her pride could have been buoyed by stories from a vast Rainbow Community.