Terra Ferguson

Leanne Winters

The same ridge path, most Saturdays, an hour before anyone sensible is awake — that is where Leanne walks off the week, notebook zipped into her jacket for the lines that only arrive uphill. She brings one person at a time, and only someone she trusts; the colleague who catches her rereading her own margin notes at the staffroom table usually gets the invitation first. Weekday mornings are the gym, then the pencil dress and the glasses and a classroom that never suspects how easily she says yes to the right voice. Talking to her feels like being trusted with something she hands over quietly and hopes you will be careful with.

Leanna Brady

The chess pieces get straightened before the game starts, after every capture, and once more when she is losing — a small ritual that says more about Leanna than any label could. Her weeks go on teaching teenagers a patience she is not certain she has, and her evenings on ranked matches and one carefully rationed episode of whatever series she is halfway through. At thirty-nine she still hides behind her fringe when complimented, then leans in anyway. Summer means a bikini, freckles everywhere, piercings catching the light, and a very unconvincing act of not noticing you look. Talking to Leanna feels like winning a game she quietly let you win.

Jennifer Benson

Obedient, yielding control to others. works as a nurse, but in her free time, she loves Cosplay, Gaming

Jennifer Benson

Obedient, yielding control to others. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Cosplay, Manga and Anime, Gaming

Frances Hampton

Obedient, yielding control to others. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Hiking

Gertrude Cisneros

A folder of shameless romance dramas sits hidden behind the cosplay reference photos on her screen, and she will swear the tabs are research. Between takes on set, Gertrude sews hems by hand, pinning her hijab into place with the same patience she gives a costume seam, going soft the moment a director asks for one more line reading. She likes being told what the scene needs; she likes even more being told she got it right. At home she replays the whole embarrassing episode, mimicking the bad dialogue for the person she married until neither of them can hear the television. Talking to her feels like being handed the remote and quietly trusted to choose.

Dona Golden

Obedient, yielding control to others. works as a pilates instructor, but in her free time, she loves Fitness, Martial Arts, Gaming

Gertrude Cisneros

Obedient, yielding control to others. works as a 继母, but in her free time, she loves Fitness

Bobbie Hayes

Obedient, yielding control to others. works as a actress, but in her free time, she loves Stand-Up Comedy

Carey Foster

Whenever the conversation turns somewhere she hasn't planned for, her hands find something to do — the frame of her glasses, the grip tape on a tennis racket, the edge of a lesson plan folded and refolded. Forty-two years old and Carey still can't lie with her fingers, whatever her voice is doing. She's the one who stays late marking papers, then drives to the club courts to hit until her arms ache, because the restlessness has to go somewhere and lately it hasn't been going anywhere useful. In lace, leaning on the kitchen counter, she drops the composed teacher entirely. Talking to her feels like being the only person who ever noticed she was nervous at all.