At 6’2’’ William towered over most of his classmates. It was the beginning of his senior year and he was happy about several things. The first that it was his last year of school. There was this strange awareness on his part that it was a rite of passage. The second was college. He worried about the application process but he had managed to keep his grades up so he wasn’t worried about not getting in somewhere. Ivy League to him wasn’t even a possibility, state college or liberal arts college were more his league. His last year would be the toughest for GPA but he knew a tutor or two that would help.
Being tall meant he had been recruited for freshman basketball while in junior high. A power forward with speed and an aggressive instinct he loved to go for the rebounds and when he could dominate that part of the court but he was lousy at free throws so the other team fouled him when they could. He wanted to enjoy this last year because it was coming to an end and no matter how tall he was here he knew he would be short anywhere else. He didn’t even plan to try for an athletic scholarship despite his coach’s and his parent’s urging. They told him to ride the bench if he had to but he didn’t want to be there, not in college. He didn’t want to have to practice and train, to be the starting team’s whipping boy. Plus he was done with playing semi-professionally. All of the macho egoism would be too much. If it was this bad in high school it had to be worse in college, he thought.
Everything was set. He could see all the bumps in the road, the hills, the distance. It wasn’t going to be easy but it was all possible. Smooth sailing, he thought, just one thing. He didn’t know why he did it. His spine burned when ge got the flyer earlier that day and his brain almost shut down. He looked back at the elfish looking freshman with bracelets and necklaces, corduroy shirt and shaggy hair and he was confused. It was a flyer for a ‘Gay-Straight Alliance After School Club.” His feet were heavy but he kept walking. What did it mean? How had he been reduced to this? Was there some truth there? Some truth about what?
When he saw his classmates he knew he had to get rid of the incriminating evidence so he tucked it into his bag. Why didn’t he throw it away? he thought. But he didn’t. And when his teammate Devin showed him his own flyer he was relieved for a moment until Devin crumpled it and threw it in the trash can then began to make fun of the organization. “What next,” he asked, “a club for beastiality?”
William laughed along and he almost forgot about the flyer until the last period when he was cramming his books in his bag and it made a weird sound at the bottom of his bag. He pulled out the flyer and began to walk. Back and forth, lost in his thoughts, the flyer just had the classroom number and somehow he managed to find his way there. 8215, Mrs. Gallagher’s class, she would be involved with something like this, he thought. He stopped outside the door, almost turned back. What if it was a set-up? What if it was a bunch of kids in there looking to beat him up? He was about to run away and that’s when he found the courage. If he was going to run away then it was something worth fighting for, he thought. It didn’t have to mean anything. He turned back on his heels and went straight for the door handle. He pulled open the door and stepped inside. He heard a few voices already in conversation and was ready to turn back again when they stopped and he looked to the back of the classroom where five people sat in a half-circle.
Mrs. Gallagher, three girls, and the elfish boy all looked to him.
“Uh,” he said, “I’m here for the um, I’m here for the...” he didn’t want to say the word, that bad word, “the club.”
“Pull up a chair,” the elfish boy said.
“Welcome to our club,” Mrs. Gallagher added.
She had been his 9th grade history teacher and she was always including the plight of oppressed people in her lectures. She talked about the Jews in World War II, the Indians during colonization, the oppressed peoples of Mexico during the Mexican-American War. He had always liked her and he had gotten straight A’s in her class.
He made his way to the back of the room where he adjusted his book-bag before pulling a desk to where they sat. He didn’t recognize the girls but he presumed they were friends of the other boy, and they might be lesbians but they looked pretty straight to him. No, they were probably friends. That meant the elfish boy had to be gay. He looked pretty gay. William adjusted himself in his seat with his long legs stuck out awkwardly from under the desktop.
“So what are you?” the boy asked.
William looked up and looked him right in the eye. In one question he cut to the heart of the fear. He didn’t know if he wanted to run or fight.
“Shane that’s not very polite,” Mrs. Gallagher said with her familiarly stern voice. “There are no labels here.”
William forced a smile and looked around at the girls who began to eye him with some noticeable curiosity. Play it cool, he thought, no need to give up everything on the first date. They may just think he is a gay and be his best friend or else secretly wish he was straight and it could lead to dating. That would be a weird way to meet a girlfriend.
“So what’s your name?” one of girls asked.
“William,” he said. “What’s your name?”
“Brittany,” she said. “And this is Heather One and Heather Two.”
“Heather One and Heather Two?”
“They are both named Heather so we gave them a number.”
Heather One shrugged and said it worked for her.
“That’s interesting,” he replied.
“Otherwise it gets into a lot of confusion.”
There was an awkward silence as everyone looked to Shane.
“What, you know my name,” he said gesturing to himself.
“But you haven’t introduced yourself,” Mrs. Gallagher said. “William I remember you from freshman class. You were a really good student.”
“Thanks,” William said.
Shane sat back and crossed his arms.
“I’m Shane,” he said.
They stared at each other for a moment before Shane looked away to his desk.
“We were just talking about the Day of Silence for next April and other things we can do to support each other and raise awareness for gays and lesbians on campus.”
William nodded his head and they fell into silence again. Mrs. Gallagher continued to talk and soon Brittany, Heather One and Heather Two began to join the conversation but Shane only nodded or agreed with what they said. After another twenty minutes Mrs. Gallagher dismissed them. William moved for the door quickly and as he exited he looked back and forth before entering the hallway.
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