Squires-32

Sunday morning saw the sun creeping over the skyline and the little bit life fog that sort of creeps in over the grass like a light mist that might just stick around for a half an hour before the September sun had enough strength to warm it away.

Jessie sat out on one of the lawn chairs of the back deck of the house in just his boxer briefs and a sports bra undoubtingly earning the ire of the nosey neighbours that always seemed to have a reason to peer over the fence or walk their dog so they could give their judging looks. It was nice though early and despite the lack of sleep from everything so far it was still a really nice morning to be up.

He made a pot of joe and had went out and got the Sunday edition in of the paper and then came out here with his laptop and had been there for about forty minutes. He sighed and stretched some then took a sip of the extra strong extra sweet coffee he had poured himself to help him kick-start his head.

There was a lot to do even if he wasn’t just the only one doing things today. They were on the site that Nick had made about the school and everyone seemed to be on it or checking into it with the school board meeting tomorrow evening.

There were even some press on here checking out the site and there were definitely some posts with some of them on it with all of the stories about the bullying and the “classism” that was going on there between the kids with means and those that weren’t them and then there’s the kids that were elevated up because of their athletic abilities and more…like the sexism and the racism that was so hidden and not there at the school.

Yasmine had even been on one of the threads talking about how she’d been bullied and her hijab torn from her head. She didn’t say a whole lot of stuff but she was there and it had a mention because as a few of the other screen names were saying that there was a lot of invisible racism going on at the school.

Honey was on there talking about some of the attitudes of the girls and the cliques and the bullying with the girls which actually went on in this whole flood of other girls telling times when they were bullied and there’s again a lot of racism there too in things they’ve heard about noses and kinky hair and other things.

BSN… were kind of getting famous and the three letters stood for Brittney, Shelly and Nancy but they avoided the names because it’d bring trouble on the advice of the site’s admin. (Nick)

It turns out that Britney and company were neck deep in the way that they treated everyone that didn’t have money or status or had a certain overabundance of pigments in their skin.

And there was PM’s going out to people that they read comments from and then checked their profiles and stuff like their IP’s.

Nick said some accounts would be fake if they seemed too new….he’d made sure the whole thing was Facebook compatible using a commenting service? He wasn’t sure exactly how that worked but it sort of helped with the whole legal stuff.

The point was though to keep things under wraps until tomorrow night, to have the signs and the posters ready but to have some kids that they were pretty sure that they could trust to do it and to share the rest of the information to.

The school board changing the times and the fact that something that seemed like a small protest was getting a lot of grease applied to it sure said a lot about what they were willing to do to shut people up about the problems in the school.

Namely for the big four tribes of the school named Basketball, Hockey, Baseball and Track with a close fifth in the Wresting team and it didn’t take a lot to figure out that there were boosters for these teams and that there was money coming from alums and a good deal of other money too if that was right on the surface.

There was likely more, Jessie knew as much and so did Nick and the others too.

He took another drink as he listened to the song and stared at the screen trying to think of what to write he wanted to have something written to say, something to stand up to talk to the school board and to the parents about.

He smelled the food starting and saw his dad up and starting to cook and then fill a cup of coffee and came out to the deck himself just bare feet and boxers.

“You’re up way too early Jess.”

“The Empire has routine Dad, the rebels never sleep.”

“Okay…”

“Star Wars Dad, Kind of a Danny riff.”

“Oh…well still.”

“I just want to make sure we’re organized.”

“Organized, that sounds extreme.”

“No…but it’s just this stuff can get blown out of proportion or taken over and we don’t really want that at the school board meeting we want to be taken seriously.”

“The page’s blank.”

“I’m trying to write some stuff down to say at the meeting, there’s going to be some press there and stuff more than likely and I didn’t want to sound like we’re not serious or taking this seriously.”

His dad nodded. “That’s a good point, maybe your mother and I will write something too.”

Jessie nodded. “It’d be a help if they don’t try to shut it down after too long or they get too much opposition.”

His dad raised the Spock brow as he sipped his coffee.

Jessie sipped his. “It’s the racist kids and the popular ones that are doing the bullying dad. The popular kids are mostly in the big sports teams in school but are like upper middle classed and better and stuff and they provide cash for the sports in boosters but those boosters sit on the committees for the teams and they have like say in stuff…like who makes the cuts in the first place….They have everything the way that they want it and they don’t want the rules to change because right now all those rules pretty much are all set up in their favor.”

His dad nodded. “Sounds like my school when I was your age, the hockey and basketball teams couldn’t do any wrong.”

Jessie nodded. “Like those movies where those Texas towns are just about the football.”

His dad finished his coffee and headed back inside. “Just don’t push it too hard Jess you still have all day to do this.”

He went in and went back to fixing breakfast.

*Donnie…………

His arm was asleep and he had a touch of snore-throat when he woke up and he woke to the smells of bacon and coffee and toast. It took him a few minutes to get the smells into his brain enough to figure out he wasn’t home anymore.

Or well he wasn’t living with his dad anymore.

You don’t really smell instant coffee and toast over the smokes or the beer at his dad’s place and unless he was up first there wouldn’t really be anything left for breakfast anyway.

Who treats their kid like a hostile invader?

He rolled over and looked at the room his things here and some of them stuff he’d just sort of kept in his closet. Like his Shawn White poster, an amazing snowboarder…but his old man would have pitched a fit about the thing.

It was a late night and a pretty long weekend so far with everything that was going on and yet he felt rested, not totally wiped out but still this sort of at peace rested?

The sounds of the neighborhood and this house even were so different.

No yells and hollering and no deadly pops sounds here.

Suburbia…and he knew he was going to stand out here.

Well…given the house and the parties that just happened he was pretty sure the Stones were the odd family out in this place.

Donnie rolled out of bed and to his feet and he went looking first for the bathroom. It was clean…like not just clean but the grout for the tiles and the floor tiles were clean and fresh and new. It smelled clean, like no old watery smells or mildew or any of those things he’d always know from home. Fresh towels on the rack, actual face clothes and all those things that honestly he saw on TV in white people’s houses.

Seriously it was like a house was like hybrid with what he thought a hotel would look like.

Not that he’d ever been to a hotel or motel.

Heck he’d never really left the city or the neighborhood even.

That was a real thing; it’s a thing that a lot of people just didn’t get. That you hit a certain class or social marker and things like vacations and trips and those sort of things don’t happen. Okay if you’re a jock or you’re doing something that a school or something in that kind of thing sees as worthy then maybe.

He sighed and brushed his teeth and even that was new, not doing it but new toothpaste and electric toothbrush and mouthwash all his…because they had a shelf in the big medicine cabinet mirror thing over the sink with his name on it.

Donnie’s.

Jess had one too and there was a general shelf for stuff and the parents must have their own but still he hadn’t asked and there it was his. He looked a few things over and other than the toothpaste a lot of the stuff wasn’t familiar. Like owning name brand shaving cream the Nivea stuff and there being razors there but the ones with only the heads that change and not the cheap throw away ones he had to share…Q-tips, aftershave, Band-Aids.

He swallowed a lump in his throat because it might not seem like much but it was and actually it was sadder because they could have had things. There could have been things that they could have had back home if it wasn’t for his dad’s drinking and the whole “We don’t do that boy.”

His old man could be really black culture to the extreme not getting stuff because ‘that’s not what you ate.’

Horse shit…he just…there was always a reason for him to justify his crap, for hating people…his dad hated everyone and everything that didn’t fit his narrow view of the world.

His dad was the biggest racist that he knew actually and you’d think with so many white people against other races and stuff that he’d not be a jerk.

Nope… Spic, Kyke, Commie, Slant, Chink…you name it and he’d spout it off and then…then there was his new favorite A-rab, Paki…his dad might as well be a walking commercial for Colt 45 on Fox News.

He shook his head and took out the shaving stuff and he wet his face and his hair and smiled…he’d freak right out if he knew he was sort of seeing and definitely interested in Yasmine.

He took a breath and he started shaving…clean, even the hair a fresh start.

*Yasmine…………

She woke tired and very, very early but it was still the memories of her father and their timer that pushed her on. She rolled out of bed and she went and washed up properly and she went and she slipped into her running clothes and chose a hijab and put it on and arranged it so it’d co-operate with her headphones.

She was using headphones this time because she read last night on someone’s blog about a girl getting grabbed. The girl wasn’t Muslima but still some people were dangerous, and this was Chicago…so she took her headphones and she put them around her neck than rather over her ears so she could still hear and she fastened the velco on her weight bands for running and she headed out.

Yasmine loved running it took her away from the stuff in her head and she listened to a mix on her MP-3 player that was a mixture of old american rock like her dad loved and some of the things from home.

The American stuff had that beat, that thing that came out so often from the drums and bass that it was so great to get going it was a thing of footfalls but her home music different instruments different rhythm all together and it flowed differently.

American music was like strong spiced stuff and sharpness…BBQ sauce, Ketchup, mustard and to Yasmine even the rock and kip hop had that sound that very Middle Eastern and yes sort of stereotypical sound…that was like honey, or sugar or coffee with sugar…cardamom.

She shook her head at the analogies but yeah her dad’s rock jarred her and shook her into going and then the long rhythms and songs from home drove her to run smoother and faster like she was sort of flying.

It was a toss-up between Nancy Ajram and Sherine who she liked better for running but Sherine was a little more… Christina Aguilera as opposed to Nancy’s Madonna though she liked Elissa as well and she had a few other artists on there that were being played on Jordanian online radio and she also had some stuff she downloaded.

Random Stars… she took that from their own stuff they put up but they were sort of an important band. They were pretty unknown and everything but they were the first all-girl Emirati rock band and while they did mostly covers and stuff they were doing something the Yasmine found important.

Doing something that represented.

She was of a mixed race family with a mixed faith household and that had always caused trouble for them even though her mother had said that her father loved them fiercely and yet he was still his own man or whatever towards his faith and stuff.

She had always seen her parents as sort of the married version of the whole thing when Christians protected Muslims at prayer and Muslims protected Christians in going to church.

And she knew her mother was sort of a rebel in her own right for loving him and respecting him for his choices.

But she’d been looking for things herself, looking for a way to find herself in her faith or with it but in society too.

She’d found a pretty cool band called the Kominas online and that led her to Sabina England and that had introduced her to Taqwacore.

Taqwacore was Islamic punk music and culture…It was pretty real stuff.

There was a blogged interview she read last night from Sabina England a playwright that really spoke to her recently it spoke to her like the way that Jessie and Donnie and the others did.

“A lot of Muslim kids are tired of being told what to do, how to think, what to believe in, and how to act, by their parents. There are 'the angry Muslim kids' who wanna grow beards and pray five times a day, and then there are the OTHER 'angry Muslim kids' who wanna get drunk and say a huge big 'fuck you' to the Muslim population. Or maybe they just don't care and wanna sit at home and not think about Osama's video speeches about how America is the Great Satan."

“"Being a deaf woman from an Indian Muslim family growing up in both England and the US, I've never felt I fit in or belonged anywhere. So I was always forced to be an outsider, and because of this, I'd just watch people and observe their actions and words. I guess a lot of my ideas come from my alienation and anger."

And when someone had asked what Taqwacore meant to her…

"It means being true to myself, having my own faith, and interpreting Islam the way I want to, without feeling guilty or being looked down at by other Muslims."

Yes there was so much right there that she had found really, okay she wasn’t Indian or Pakistani but she was from the Middle East and she was part American and she was part white and she had lived for a while in England too.

Thinking about that and the music blaring drove Yasmine on faster and faster…honestly there was something that just…her and the guys and the girls and the way that they were just like this and then her finding this online too.

It was like she was being shown that even for her that it was alright to tilt.

Like right now running hard and flat out in a display that a lot of girls like her wouldn’t do, because sports and so many other things were just said that they were things that shouldn’t be done.

Or just assumed…or and this was a big one…especially here in the states, something that people would have made fun of a Muslima for…just running…and really running too and listening to her music.

Sure she kept an eye out and because there would always be danger and more so for her but she still ran.

Ran until she was soaked in sweat and her legs were tired and the sun had started to come up… and then she stopped…and she walked and panted and paced in front of one of the small parks in the area and she opened her water and she stopped and she saw a few pretty ragged looking folks there…homeless people getting ready to move on before the police would roust them out from the stand of spruces they’d bunked under for shelter.

She saw two though make their way across the dewy grass with some cardboard and both were black men and one had a forces jacket on. He looked at her and he offered her a piece of cardboard as him and his friend knelt facing Mecca and she bit her lip and she nodded and she took the cardboard and she turned off her music and then she offered the men her water bottle and they used some to wash their hands and faces and then they smiled at her and Yasmine swallowed the lump in her throat and she took a breath as he fellow without the forces jacket started doing prayer.

She took a breath and she followed suit and smiled because this hit her hard…but it hit her in a good way because it felt very grounded and real…realer than just sometimes going through the motions at Mosque.

Which she was sure was sometimes just as messed up as church was.

She nodded thanks to the two men and her phone rung and she answered it.

“Hello?”

“Yasmine, are you alright you were gone this morning?”

“I’m fine Mom I went for a run I’m on my way back.”

“Okay be careful we’re still in a strange city to us.”

“I will Mom, I’ll be home soon.”

She ended the call and she nodded to the others and wished she had something that she could give or to share to help them out and she started off and began to run her way home.

Her mother would still be expecting her to pray with her before they had breakfast together.

She looked back and the people were gone and she sent up a prayer for them as she ran and smiled afterwards.

Today had started well.

*Johnny………..

She’d woken up slowly and with a smile.

It’d all been so cool.

The party and getting together and the date and the weekend and Brian.

Brian…ow wow wow he made her feel things.

And it wasn’t like the things that she usually felt either this was…it had been literally never that she’d felt like this. Well okay except for the date with Danny and that time in the library with Jessie.

But actually feeling like she was her real self was like so rare and feeling like she was part of a group and having friends and stuff was so powerful and heady.

Well maybe not heady but it was…she felt actually good about herself and just for being herself and she hadn’t…not for so darned long not after she started to get that She was soooo not like the other boys.

Actually the last couple of years had been totally dogshit really.

And meeting her guys…and it kind of felt like that that Jessie and Danny and the others were her guys…she was the first girl in the group really so she sort of felt like it was something that she had first.

And that felt good.

And feeling good.

Brian felt good, it felt so good to do things with him and to dance with him and to kiss him…and be kissed by him.

Johnny rolled over and sighed and hugged her pillow.

Kissing, kissing and dancing and talking and grocery cart rides and kissing.

She closed her eyes and breathed into her pillow almost willing herself to dream…and to think about Brian and all the tall, buff muscles that he had and the way his hair looked and his eyes and the way that he smelled.

It got a bit mentally heated.

Even thinking about stuff like this didn’t really get that typical reaction though things did stir. The thing was they never really lasted and even thinking about that stirring usually was enough to stop that all together.

It wasn’t that upsetting though it was more like sort of the whole affirmation kind of thing since she hadn’t started her transition HRT yet and she still never really had the teenaged wood that boys had gotten or the size really… not that…that part really mattered.

And as for the feelings…well she’d always had the sort of sexy feelings that a straight girls would have had if she’d been born with an outie instead of an innie.

It was her shape, and other things that she had a problem with she wanted to look right, to feel right…most of the time.

Sometimes though she just wanted out of the system altogether and just be and not get judged for just being…other days she’d have the whole female disconnect where she wouldn’t feel like she fit who she was…those days were rare and they were hard too…sort of her purge feeling days.

But today was not either of those days…Brian had just been way too awesome and been just way too good to her for her to sort of have a trigger moment that’d backslide her.

She rolled out of the bed mostly because it was a pretty big bed and one of the cool things that she had gotten from her folks after things had go so south in her old school and stuff and that was a really nice bed with the metal frame and everything and a really big mattress and it had lots of fluffy comforters on it and Johnny sometimes took a few seconds to get off the bed depending on where she’d ended up sleeping.

She looked at the bed and bit her lip a little sort of picturing Brian there.

Even if it was like for make outs.

No sex.

Because even if she was going to do that kind of sex she was sure as heck not going to do it in the same house as her folks.

But still…Brian naked in her bed and her dark comforter and…she could swear that she could feel her body scream to be responding as it should…it was kind of sort of with this kind of funny horny ache but not ached inside and the same with her chest…it was a frustratingly odd feeling.

Life as trans and pre HRT transition…aching to ache in the right way.

Still she put on some music and she headed to do her Sunday spa and maintenance stuff and shook her butt a little happily as *I Want You to Want Me* Started playing on her stereo By Cheap Trick.

There was a bit of booty shaking in front of the mirror and she pulled back her hair and used a headband to keep it out of her face and she started her routine. Inspect for hairs and she took out the zapper and used it a present from her dad it was a at home laser, nothing fancy really but it did take care of the few hairs that still were coming through.

She had her face done just after it healed with the electro stuff since she had to have a lot done anyway and it was pretty much a forgone conclusion that she was still determined to be a she.

Well…after the bad beating and recovery she’d purged all her girl stuff for six months and five days…she just couldn’t keep not being her after that. It just wasn’t going to be living.

And stepping out after that kind of a corrective beating was the hardest thing she did.

If it wasn’t for that other trans girl on YouTube she’d have never had the idea to keep her given name.

‘Screw them and them trying to deadname you…if you’re okay with you being you then don’t let them. Keep your name if it ain’t strangling you; make them choke on it while you twist their idea of gender.’

It kind of resonated with her and as hard as it was she could literally see people squirm in their homo and transphobia when she did go back to using her girl name.

Tilt.

Okay Jessie and Dan and that whole Tilting at Air conditioners thing made her dance a little more in place.

Johnny danced a lot, one she liked it and two she wanted to actually have good moves, she wanted to be good at this and yeah…maybe a bit better than some of the haters.

The face hairs done she went through the ritual with a maintenance pluck for her eyebrows and the face washing of pore cleanser soap gel and then then face mask and moisturiser and then she sat and did the whole pedicure stuff and then a pube trim… (Blush) she didn’t shave she learned that much and then there was the whole thing with the bit bits and such…so she had a little electric beard trimmer that she used just for that and it actually helped keep things neat and better for tucking even if she had not a whole thatch bunch down there.

Actually even using a mirror to try and get as close to possible to a femme look even like she’d seen some girls do online.

Then her pits and that was a shave for sure she’d tried the hair removal stuff and it was just way, way too burny and after that she then got into the shower.

Which is why she did her face first and the shower cleaner all of that off and she actually shampooed first and to get the whole effect of the stuff on the directions of the bottle. She sore half the fight with hair is actually taking the time to do what it says on the bottle…shampoo and rinse really well and conditioner and then while she was waiting for all of that she washed and scrubbed and exfoliated.

The thing about a serious spa day is that you feel great but you actually don’t look as good as the movies say, you do get scrub blotchy and rub redness and things. But after that, once you’ve like rested and stuff you get the full effect.

All spa treated and relaxed she dressed just in her old kicking around the house stuff and she let her hair air dry after a really good combing and brushing. Always great if you have the time actually blow dryers are awesome but they do damage.

Then it was downstairs for breakfast.

Her and her family were not church going people they were pretty much non-religious but not like the whole angry atheist crowd. Merry Christmas was still Merry Christmas and when someone prayed they’d shut up and bow their head and stuff and say amen with the others but it was never really much more than that.

Sunday was a rest day, sleeping in and vegging out before the workday or school.

Breakfast was her own thing that she liked to make a multigrain bagel with peanut butter and honey and a scrambled egg and some sliced avocado and then a smoothie with orange juice and strawberry yogurt and a bunch of blueberries.

She ate and took the smoothie with her to her room and did some straightening up and then she sat with the computer and she went through some of her old pictures but she had some other things too.

There were a lot of cases of bullying out there. There were a lot of cases where bullies and jocks and the popular crowd got away with so much Steubenville and those jock assholes that poor Parson’s girl that killed herself over bulling and rapists in Canada.

Her own beating…she had the pictures.

It was really triggering in a lot of ways to look at those pictures and to do all of these things but she’d been shit on all last year and Yasmine and Honey had been bullied too and really who knew how many other people were being treated less than human by the entitled people that thought that they were the ones that decided what was right.

What was normal?

She was using the odd tissue when she got the downloads from Nick and transferred what she needed to use tomorrow to her phone.

That made her skin get all thrill bumped…they were actually starting out taking a stand. A whole lot of them taking a stand and she smiled when her phone rang and started playing her ring tone for Brian.

*What a man* By Salt and Pepa

She shimmy danced in her office chair and hit speaker phone. “Morning Tiger.”

*Brian…………

The last while had been a whirlwind and he had been pretty busy too doing all these things that he’d never really done with his old crowd.

The parties and getting together, and then helping out with fixing all that stuff up for people and just helping out.

It made him actually feel like he was actually doing something to be the guy that he wanted to be or had sort of seen himself in his head.

Then there was Johnny… and Johnny was transgender.

And she was a girl… MtF he thought the term was.

And really that should be still wigging him out.

But there were so many things that he’d done with her that just…

There was this thing that so many people don’t ever really think about…especially with guys. It’s all about the sex and guys wanting sex and all of that.

Well he was kind of like that; he liked sex, loved it even but after a while without someone to have sex with it was just…

He rolled over in bed thinking.

Without that someone, without actually connecting with a person and having a relationship it was kind of useless.

With Brit he’d really was her popularity ladder, he might as well have been doing porn.

And not the way that most people thought of porn but in the way like it was a job sort of way. There really wasn’t a whole lot of anything in his relationship with Brit that was any good by the time that they broke up.

And wow…she just flew off the handle just because he was being nice to Johnny.

And then Johnny.

The thing with his shirt…she was so scared he could tell that she was scared to step up and do what she did and yet it was so frigging decent really.

And it’d been a long time since someone had made him feel nice about just…little stuff like that and instead of things sort of being awkward and everything it just seemed to get better and better.

It was soooo who Johnny was and how she treated people that made her attractive.

Of course that led to him thinking about her and the times they spent together and how pretty she was too.

Bleached or dyed blonde with sometimes some of that odd color that some girls did in it and she did these sort of smokey eyes really well and maybe a little lipstick she didn’t like go too far with stuff and the rest he didn’t know about but she was skinny and she kind of didn’t have a whole lot of curve but it was the way that she moved and talked and just acted around people.

Honestly it was really the first girl hat he really wanted to know so much more deeply than sinking it in deeply.

Not that he didn’t think some of those sort of thoughts too.

Johnny had a great butt.

Not that’s where he was thinking… “Dammit dude get your head out of the gutter.”

He too out his phone and stared at the time.

She might be up by now.

He dialled and she answered. “Morning Tiger.”

And that was another thing she was fun.

“Tiger?”

“Yeah, it suits you you’re definitely as cute as Peter.”

“Peter, who’s Peter?”

“Peter Parker.”

“Like Spider-man?”

“Yeah it’s a line from the comics.”

“I never really read that.”

“You don’t like comics?”

“Sure it’s just I kind of stopped when I was…once I started dating.”

“Oh well I still get a few.”

“I like that about you maybe I’ll get some too now.”

“Oh like what?”

“I have no idea but I liked The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man.”

“Have you seen any of the movies yet?”

“Nooooo Brit wasn’t into that kind of thing.”

“You want to come over?”

He stopped for a minute. “And meet your folks?”

“Sure unless you have stuff to do.”

“A few chores and some homework and getting stuff ready for tomorrow night.”

“Then some other time? I mean like…”

“……..another date?”

“……….I’d like that.”

“Me too Brian.”

He smiled, no grinned it felt good. “So we’ll go and get movies and you can show me all the stuff that I missed?”

“Deal Tiger.”

“Okay…I think I kind of like that.”

“Good because I was still going to call you that.”

He heard his parents up and moving around. “I should go; the folks are up so they’ll want to be doing stuff and all of that.”

“Have fun.”

“Friday night?”

“Huh…I mean sorry what?”

“Our date, movie night we can do it Friday night if that’s good for you?”

“It’s very good for me.”

“Okay laters.”

“Laters Tiger.”

She hung up and he rolled over again and looked at his phone and just stayed there and smiled for as long as it took for his mom to yell upstairs. “Brian breakfast!”

He rolled out of bed and grabbed a spare jersey and some sweats and then headed downstairs.

*Kenyon…………

He’d sleep fitfully after he got home despite hitting the work out stuff and trying to burn off some energy.

Jessie…Jessie was on his mind and how close they were getting which was beyond guys as friends close and actually crossing that line into the whole gay relationship stuff.

And then there was remembering the physical closeness, the dancing. How hot it was and how much his body was responding to Jess’s.

And once in bed those thoughts all swirled together and sort of became a lot of fantasies and stuff that made it hard to sleep…both literally and with the who play on words about the whole thing.

God he really didn’t want to be that guy, that stereotypical gay guy that is all about like sleeping with someone and the sex and all of that.

It was still rough getting around in his own head the idea and then there was what he was actually feeling.

Wanting to kiss and touch but really taste and feel.

It was maddening that he was having dreams about oral sex and sex with Jessie and of him being the bottom.

Yeah he wanted that…both of that and while there was definitely this whole dream of him sinking himself into Jessie’s thin swimmers body there was much more of wanting to sink down and worship that swimmers body in another way.

He’d already used the tissues twice since then and now was a third time as he slipped back into that fantasy of him and Jessie with his parents gone and them down on the couch in the den and one thing leading to another and he just knew, had felt it and he’d seen just how much Jessie was packing and it made him ache…it made him open his jaw in fantasy as he pictured the things that they could do together.

That Jessie would do to him…far more that what he’d do…honestly he felt sort of wanton and slutty thinking about all of that and he honestly liked it.

….. Sweaty and spent he stayed in bed for a while more before getting up and getting his bedding gathered and then tied up the wastepaper basket and sprayed some body spray on the bed to hide what lingering smell that there might be.

He went down and made some toast and put his wash on and got a cup of coffee as he looked at his phone as some of the stuff for tomorrow was coming in and he downloaded the song that Nick was sending around and then went to the den after making some more toast and took out his books and things and worked at his homework and what he wanted to say at the meeting.

And there was stuff to say because as much as there was a sort of LGBTQAI+ thing at school there were far more bigots and bullies.

Maybe some humour? He wasn’t a serious kind of guy in public…more of a joker and he kind of had a line already in his head so…

He wrote it down on his laptop and he’d build out and around it from there.

*Honey…………

Church was good, actually she needed church today with the feelings that she was trying to deal and grapple with especially about how she’d felt about Selina.

She liked her.

She was still sure she still liked boys too because that very cute and very handsome Kirk Donnelly was there with his family and she couldn’t help but eye him during part of the service which had he catching eyes with some of the other girls that were there about her age and everything.

Yes he was that handsome and often a figure of their in bathroom and after service conversations.

And he’d still be such.

But choir and being in it and singing it had brought up watching Selina sing and then talking and stuff and that way that she had felt after and just being…

Attracted to another girl.

Discovering that she liked another girl in a way that had only ever been a thing that she had felt for boys before was actually pretty strange. It was less scary than she had thought after her mom had seemed to be okay about that stuff. Her mom was still a bit of a surprise to her when it came to her being cooler than she’d thought but she worked so hard and so much all of the time that it was hard to see who she might have been and not the adult that was always bone tired all the time.

It was though really embarrassing though when her nipples were way too pointy and present when she took off her choir robes and blushed because of the few stares.

That was always a mixture of embarrassed blushing and self-conscious blushing in the not great way. There were a few men and some of them even being members of the church were really iffy people and they stared at her all the time.

Like they were string today.

Just bleeech.

It made her skin crawl too.

Thankfully she wasn’t there for too long past communion and the whole after church talking and things and then her and her mom headed home and it was nice having all the stuff done. They had all come as a group and fixed up all the stuff that they couldn’t get done between work and school and all that they had to do was rest today and maybe a little laundry and it would be a good day to do some cooking for the week.

She checked her phone and then she downloaded the song that Nick was sending to everyone and the app too and she checked her messages and saw one from Selina.

It was just a [Hey you up?]

She typed back [I’m up and just back from church.]

She waited and after a few minutes there was nothing so she started getting things out that her and her mom had talked about and she turned the oven on first to get it hot and then took tomatoes and onions and some peppers mostly some Anaheim’s and some yellow wax peppers and rubbed them with oil and salt and put them into the oven to roast off with the skins on. The intent is to sort of scorch everything to get the skins off but to also get that roasted flavour going throughout everything as well.

She washed up and took out some masa flour and some eggs and a couple of potatoes and some sausage and cheese and some other things and she put the sausage on first and that was just some of the Johnsonville meat that was in the package and not in casings and she let it cook and then she made the masa into dough by adding a little baking soda and powder and then a little bit of sugar measuring it all by eye and then she poured in some water and then some lard she melted in the microwave…never shortening and never vegetable oil and she started to mix it all together when her phone rang.

Hands a mess she looked over at it on the counter and saw it was Selena calling. She nosed the talk icon and hit speaker. “Hello?”

“Uhm hi it’s Selina I…I thought that I’d give you a call since you’re out of church.”

“Oh okay, are you hungry?”

“Hungry?”

“Yes I’m making a late breakfast or like brunch so would you like to come over and join us?”

“Oh…so…is this a date?”

Date?

Oh…oh wow what should she do?

Do I want it to be a date?

“Yes it’s a date, it might be breakfast and hanging out but I’m asking you over.”

Big swallow.

“…………can I bring anything?”

“Your appetite but anything that you want.”

“I’ll be right over.”

“Okay.”

Oh wow she was so nervous and yet she’d been the one who asked Selina over and yeah it was breakfast but she wasn’t like that around boys, she’d never really had a lot to do with them…they were kind of scary and worse or harder was trying to find one that wasn’t all like an asshole.

She seemed to attract assholes.

She cleaned off her hands and set the dough to relax and stirred the sausage and then she grated the potato up into a bowl and gave it a really light toss and dusting of corn-starch then she chopped up a few vegetables and took out some sour cream and then her mom came downstairs.

“You go and get changed if your friend id coming over.”

“You heard?”

“I heard, you have a date.”

Honey blushed and she headed upstairs but paused. “Mom…? Are you sure this is alright?”

“As long as you’re comfortable with it I’m fine with it Honey, it’s your life and I’m not going to judge you. Who you end up caring for should never be a condition in the love from your family.”

“Thanks Momma.” Honey ran upstairs and she went through a lot of her things before deciding on something simple but hopefully something that was alright enough for Selina to see her in.

She went through a few things and had slipped into a much nicer bra and underpants and then some capris pants and a scoop front top she had that she could wear while cooking and she thought about leaving her hair down but she was cooking and decided not to risk feeding Selina hair and pulled it back into a pony tail and she headed downstairs just as she heard a scooter pull in?

She went to the door and saw Selina was on a Vespa and was wearing faded jeans and a top that was sort of similar to hers but in a sort of peach shade that looked really pretty on her especially with the really cool looking soft brown leather jacket that she was wearing.

Selina also had a couple of cloth shopping bags with her that she took off of the handlebars and came up the walk and Honey opened the door.

“Good morning.”

Selina smiled at her and honey couldn’t help but to notice just how pretty she was. “Good morning, thanks for inviting me over.”

“Well I thought that I could feed you and maybe get you used to it.”

Selina laughed a little. “My stomach is one of my weaknesses.”

“I hope you like taco de papa.”

“Uhm…I have no idea.”

“Potato tacos.”

“Oh…I’ve never had them.”

“Come on inside then and I’ll feed you.” Honey moved so she could let Selina in and in the moment it took to do that Selina had a bouquet of flowers out of one of the bags and was holding the out for her.

And they were absolutely beautiful and one of her favourites being those miniature sunflowers.

“For me?”

“Yes I hope that’s okay….you said it was a date.”

“They’re lovely and definitely okay.”

“So we’re definitely on a date?”

Honey stopped and she looked at Selina and she nodded. “Yes, we’re definitely on a date. I want to get to know you more.”

“Same here, I think you’re really nice honey and I kind of want that in my life right now.”

Honey blushed and smelled her flowers and she nodded. “Honestly you sirened me…I haven’t been able to get you out of my head from the last few nights and it’s never happened to me before but I kind of want it to.”

Selina blushed this time and she ducked her head to go with it. “Wow…I’ve never had someone say that to me before…that was…”

“Corny?”

“Romantic and corny sort of but in really good ways.”

Honey offered her hand and led Selina into her kitchen where her mom was frying the grated potato up in the leftover renderings from the sausage and the scent of crisping potato was in the air along with the scents of smokey paprika and cumin.

*Selina…………

She’d been up early and she had left the apartment early enough so as not to have to put up with the usual family stuff that sort of went on at their house on a Sunday.

Not that family was bad but it sometimes sure wasn’t great especially in a family of pretty much straight folks and straight arrow types. She didn’t mind it sometimes and her immediate family was okay…ish but the other relatives that would come over wouldn’t be so great so the lesbian thing would come up as would some uncle or cousin thinking she needed corrective dicking because otherwise she wouldn’t be a lesbian if she had it right.

She met up at The Truffle House with Penn and Bobbie and they sat and ordered coffee’s and some of the croissants that they made there and sort of joined in the whole Sunday morning crowd of the offbeat artsy types and nibbled and ate while they were talking about stuff that was going on as they all got the song downloaded to their smartphones and instructions too.

Bobbie/Roberta had this frown on her face.

“What’s up?” She asked her.

“There’s so much going on and all of this for like the protesting thing.”

Penn… “I think it’s pretty cool.”

Roberta looked at her with this not quite pleased look. “Okay it’s cool but really this stuff? And why the heck are people listening to Jessie Stone and Johnny Douglas for they’re not even like part of the schools LGBT group.”

Selina looked at her. “Because they’re actually doing stuff other than just meetings and talking about stuff Bobbie and you kind of need to chill out.”

Penn nodded. “Seriously you’re being Jelly.”

“I’m not jealous…but I have problems and stuff.”

Selina looked at her. “Problems?”

“Johnny…it’s right there in the name, their trans? Really? If they were trans then they’d change their name.”

Penn looked at her. “Is that you talking or is that DGR talking and stuff?”

Selina rolled her eyes. “Seriously you’re getting into Radical feminism now?”

Bobbie looked at them both. “I read it; it says a lot of good things y’know. Women have been held under for all of our lives and more because there’s a sexually based caste system and we’re at the bottom of it. No guy can get what that’s like to live and to grow up like that.”

Penn frowned at her. “Well personally what little good is offset by the sheer huge piles of bullshit that they create. I was dating a demi-guy for a while and there were several radfems in their school and they gave me shit and them shit for just not “Stopping and just be like real lesbians.”

Selina nodded. “Yeah fuck that and the ‘real lesbians’ crap I put up with that with part of the lesbian crowd in Florida and I wasn’t even dating anyone that was trans or like non-binary they just would not shut the fuck up about stuff like that and especially when one of the lesbians we had been hanging out with found stuff out about herself and she started to transition. Like called her a sell out and shit.”

Roberta shrugged. “Okay, okay it’s just that I’m not like comfortable around her and like that Jessie either because he definitely has a dick.”

Penn grinned as she sipped her coffee. “Definitely if the word around school is right.”

Selina raised an eyebrow. “Are the breasts real?”

Penn nodded. “And nice looking to I guess which just added insult ti emasculation when the big reveal happened in the locker room.”

Selina looked at Bobbie. “Besides he’s dating Kenyon.”

She nodded and sighed. “I don’t know it’s just all changed?”

Selina texted Honey sort of feeling the need to be elsewhere because Roberta was getting on her nerves. Honestly she was about two hundred percent sure it was because she was pissed off at not being the centre of attention with things anymore and had to endure taking orders from someone else.

And she was texting honey because she had felt that thrum of connection the other night and it hadn’t really gone away instead she was right there in the zone.

That zone where someone you know has sort of just became in your life or on your radar and while you’re not exactly crushing on them they’re really easily in your thoughts.

And then there was the fact that honey was one of those insanely attractive girls with an incredibly curvy body and an incredible set of breasts but she also had the prettiest smile that she had seen in a long, long time.

And it was beyond different that Honey apparently liked her singing over her looks and over being edgy or being ‘exotic’.

It was so much more than cool and unexpected to be asked to go to breakfast at Honey’s house and to have in be a date.

It was actually so much more than nice being asked.

That’s the trouble with being the ‘edgy’ lesbian girl and everything they all seem to think that they don’t need or want to be asked out. For Selina she’d been kind of done with all of that too since it really was tiring having to keep putting herself out there on the line over and over.

Plus as an edgy person there was this whole expectation of sex or even sexiness and being ‘on’ all the time was tiring too.

That’s why the whole brunch date with Honey at her house was so appealing, it was different and it was unexpected and it was kind of new and sweet.

She went to one of the open grocery super chains and bought some flowers and she bought some cupcakes because you could eat cupcakes in small doses whenever and well…they were cupcakes and who didn’t like cupcakes?

She was not expecting the way that Honey rocked that whole casual look and a smile and then when she had given her the mini sunflowers it was just a little sort of crush inducing when she saw the eyes light up in surprise and then real pleasure.

It had been right next to never since she’d seen a girl do that for her.

And then the food.

A corn flour tortilla that was freshly cooked and then you put some sour cream on that had some lime in it and then this longish patty of spiced grated potato with just enough cook on it to be toasty and just enough pliability to be able to bend with the tortilla and then drained and dry loose sausage with more spices and then there was some Pico de Gallo for like on top and then some shredded cheese.

They were so good and Honey cooked and fed all three of them while her mom was making some big pork roast with roasted vegetables and chilies and pineapple? It looked both spicy and it looked good.

It was nice and she asked questions about the food and what they were doing with the roast and what the pineapple was for and that she’d seen sort of the same thing in Florida with the Cubans and how they used sour orange a lot and how good Cuban food was down there.

She even helped with the breakfast dishes and sort of short of knowing what they should do next she looked at Honey. “Do you want to go for a ride with me?”

Her mother asked. “Do you have a second helmet?”

“Yes ma’am I usually do have one with me.”

Honey nodded and bit her lip then smiled. “I’d love to I’ve never been on a scooter before.”

*Lindsey…………

The date or dates were fine.

In fact going out with penn actually had been nice once she’d toned down everything and they had had a pretty decent time together.

Then there was Andy and Danny who were out of a date with them and Danny had decided to go waaay the heck out on a limb and had changed and become Dani.

And there was no putting that genie back in the bottle for Lindsey.

She liked Danny they talked and had fun together and they just sort of clicked in a lot of ways. And Penn was a good date too but penn was penn and still a girl and she sort of hit the same kind of thing as all of the times Lindsey had looked at other girls and looked at guys and it was nice but that was it, it was just nice.

But Dani.

Dani was something else entirely and she didn’t know exactly what it was since she knew that Dani and Danny were the same person but also at the same time Dani acted like Dani which was still at their core like Danny with the quips and puns and being fun and everything but like that, dressed like that she’d noticed.

Lindsey noticed Dani a lot.

When no one else really made her feel like she was attracted to anyone before like not really.

So most of the night after the date had been talking to Dan and trying help them work through his feelings too about Andy who Dani or Danny liked despite their past and all of the bullying and they had even talked about how they sort of liked each other too.

And that she though that she like Dani too that night.

She was sitting in the shower, literally sitting since like she had gotten up at like ten or so after talking way into the night and she was just trying to get things all sorted around in her head and it wasn’t really working.

She liked Dani, she really like Danny too because he was kind of her closest friend. Like Johnny was neat but kind of pushy and stuff and honey was sweet but she kinda of tweaked her body image insecurities and inconsistencies. And then Danny or Danny but liked her but liked Andy as well.

She was a little surly when she got out of the shower and there were things going on at the house with her cousins/sisters and everything and they were doing the whole spa thing with it being Sunday and her Aunt/Mom was cooking a roast chicken and her Uncle/Dad was finally home after being out on the road.

She dressed and went down and looked for him until she found him outside in the side driveway with his truck and he had stuff to clean it up and she went over. “Want some help?”

“Sure but it’s really grimy.”

“I think I’ll survive.”

She took a sponge that hat one of those plastic scrubber mats on one side and dipped into the water and she began to do the front using the soap suds and the scraper to get rid of the dried and caked on bugs.

Her dad looked over at her while doing one of the fenders. “So what’s wrong?”

“Well I don’t think that I’m like other girls dad.”

“Who said that you had to be?”

She looked over at him. “Thanks but it’s kind of becoming a deal with kind of thing.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“I think my sexualities all fucked up.”

He stopped and looked at her, she didn’t tend to swear so he cut her some slack and it usually meant that she was really upset. “Okay how so?”

“I wasn’t attracted to anyone?”

“Wasn’t?”

“I’m still kind of not, I went out on a double date last night and it was with a girl that really wanted to go out with me and I asked her to be the wing girl of a friend of mine. And that date was okay but at the same time other than like me being the one that asked her and sort of playing the guy roles and stuff it was sort of just…okayish.”

He nodded.

“Well this friend of mine was going with a guy and the thing is that they’re a guy or usually a guy and I kinda sort of like him. Well I like him more than other guys that are just sort of meh too but this friend dresses up as a girl and they’re a cute girl and that well sort of was like wow.”

He looked at her.

“And then there’s the fact that my friend liked the date that they were on with the guy that they were with.”

Lindsey exhaled finishing. “And to top it all off I’m pretty damned sure that I have no idea or desire to really ‘be a girl.’ I don’t have the drive to be one or the foggiest idea of how to either.”

Her dad looked at her. “Wow…I’m gone for ten days and a whole lot happens.”

“Dad it’s probably been going on with me for more than ten days it’s just it’s all sort of come to a head now.”

“You ever think that you’re just Lindsey?”

“Oh well that helps dad.”

He shook his head. “Look I’m no genius or know a lot about gay and lesbian and bi and the trandresser stuff Linds but I do know that people really don’t fit into boxes or like use those boxes in the same way.”

She looked at him. “Okay….I don’t get it but it’s transgender.”

He nodded. “Right gotcha I’ll try to do better and stuff. Okay…using the boxes is sort of like to me people in cars. You have types of people that are like in their society like boxes and stuff and some of those are cars or trucks and motorcycles and stuff…you follow?”

“Kinda sorta.”

“Well no matter who is driving what or even if all of those things are the same type of thing everyone in them drives differently.”

“So that means…?”

“It means Linds that you can be attracted to no one or someone or even things about someone and that’s okay it’s not a bad thing.”

“Okay?”

“And it means a sports car is a sports car but there can be different kinds of sports cars in the same models.”

“Lost me again dad.” But he was trying; it was why she was living here really more than anything the fact at no matter how different she was they still tried.

“I mean if you’re not a girl in your head or heart Lindsey you don’t have to be you can be whoever you need to be.”

“Okay…but how do I do that?”

“Honestly?”

“Yeah please.”

“Stop doing the stuff that is driving you nuts about it not being you.”

“Like the girl stuff and the clothes and stuff.”

“Exactly all of that and whatever else.”

“And about the guy…girl I sort of like?”

“Be there…be their friend Lindsey and either it will happen or it won’t, either you’ll get to where you’ll want to be with them over being afraid of the might be stuff.”

“That’s really Yodaish.”

He grinned at her and started washing the tire and wheel. “Do or do not there is no try.”

“Wow…Danny would so enjoy that.”

He looked up at her. “I’m off for three days so how about we go through the stuff that’s bugging you and we can get rid of it and if we have to we can get other stuff to replace it that You are alright with.”

“Really?”

“Yes really after we get the truck all done and detailed.”

“Sure thing!”

She started scrubbing really hard her mood sort of lifted at maybe actually feeling right in her own skin for the first time in years.

*Danny…………

As usual Dan was different than most of his friends and after that long strange talk with Lindsey and still being sore from the stuff with Keith and working with Jessie and helping with all of that stuff and the dancing and the parties and the date.

Sleep came hard and fast for Danny.

Which was so welcomed because it was a rare event for someone who had trouble sleeping at the best of days.

But still that really never stopped his dreams from being messed up.

Dreams and memories.

Lindsey helping him get ready for a date with Andy and she liked him and she was giving him that shiny penny look all the while and then it was Andy picking him up for their date.

How messed up was that?

And then there was Andy.

A guy that was an utter shit to him back in middle school and who had apparently like this really rough time but was soooo into him and nice and stuff and liked Dan and liked Danny and being liked and wanted was really surprising as much as it was cool.

And Lindsey too.

And Andy.

And Lindsey.

And Andy.

And kissing Andy…that was really a surprise and so was everything else that had happened and when he woke up he was alone in the house his parents already gone for church and their usual Sunday stuff.

Him sleeping deeply was enough of a different thing that his parents would let him sleep anytime that he could.

Between the insomnia and the migraines he’d weeks when things were Danny Reilly home of forced humour and laughter.

Because curling into a ball of nerves and tears isn’t really socially acceptable.

He took a shower and made himself a large travel mug of tea. He drank both because he really didn’t mind either but some mornings he could just sort of feel if coffee was going to have a morning that would make him wish that he didn’t and sometimes that whole queasy stomach stuff set off his migraines.

Big mug of tea with a little bit of half and half in the bottom of the mug so the pour would do the stirring and then to the kitchen where he made one of the things that he was actually pretty decent at and that was French toast.

He had a killer trick too cut yourself bread so you could control how thick it was and then cut it one inch thick. That inch sort of made the whole one inch per egg rule and then there was the milk. You know no one got how the perfect egg to milk ratio for French toast and scrambled eggs is to actually use the eggshells as measuring cups and put in exactly the same amount of milk as there was egg.

And for Danny perfect was by the time you flipped the bread over in the egg wash it would suck all of it up in a one inch slice of bread.

Toss a little butter in a hot pan and then put the bread on the butter before it melts too fast and burns and then after like a minute all the egg wash stuff has sort of left the top of the bread so if you’re moderately careful you put a pat of butter on it and then there’s butter there for when you flip it.

The last little thing was when it was done just the tiniest sprinkle of salt before the powder sugar went on because that brought out all of the taste even more.

He had just sat down to eat and to check his phone for the downloads and stuff when he saw some texts from Andy.

[I had a really great night with you.]

[I liked kissing you.]

[I think that you were really pretty Dani.]

All of those had been sent after he’d been done talking with Lindsey and had crashed really hard.

He really liked Lindsey, she was likely one of the…no she was out of all the girls that he knew the best friend out of them and he did like her more than that he thought?

But then there was Andy.

Who was a really tough guy, and someone that wasn’t really that good of a guy and not really from a good part of the area. A guy that he had only bad memories of until last night, well more than that but really recently.

And they went out on a date.

And he went as Dani.

And that was something that was…there were times when he just didn’t know who or what he was or how he fit into things and all of that stuff and he…when Andy kissed him and knew everything and all of it that really was something.

And now he had the call me stuff after the date.

Which really felt like super good.

Just getting something other than the nothing.

He chuckled at the whole Rockbiter bit from The Never-ending story that just went through his head.

He swallowed a mouthful of French toast and texted back. [That was really sweet what are you doing?]

He got a reply right back. [Lifting weights thinking about you.]

[Thinking about me?]

[Yes a lot.]

[You want to come over?]

[Yes I do, would you like to have me pick you up and go for a drive?]

[How do you want me to dress Andy?]

[Anyway that you want, it’s not the clothes Danny/Dani.]

[Really?]

[Yes really.]

[Okay, come and pick me up it’d be really nice to go someplace.]

[I’ll be there in an hour.]

[Okay.]

Danny looked at his phone and finished eating and smiled some as he thought about what Andy had said. It was nice, really nice and it was scary too which again was sort of nice because he hadn’t even had like this much before in his life with like something that kind of sort of might be serious.

He ate and did the dishes and then wrote his parents a note and then went up and got changed and by the time he was downstairs Andy was there with his car looking freshly showered and wearing clean clothes that suited him. Just a plain white t-shirt and jeans but for him it worked he was just one of those kind of guys.

Danny was just in a Macross t-shirt and his favourite hoodie and sweat pants and Andy still looked glad to see him and actually still opened the door?

“Are we going on a date?”

Andy shrugged. “I have no idea I’m just sort of doing things by like default.”

“I can handle that.”

Andy had a relieved smile on his face then. “Good.”

*** Monday…………

Pulling into the parking lot of the school even though the big meeting was still far off you could feel the tension in the air. Not tension but tension and differences and there were definitely people that seemed to know it too and then there were the people that were getting involved.

Jessie looked over things and saw the Alphas there sort of doing this side mingle holding court outside of the main doors for the cafeteria and some of them had rolled up poster boards and they looked like they were watching everything with the seniors actually out in force together that were part of that group.

Then there were the young republican types in another area looking like they were being ready for something to yell at and then there were “The Wholesomes” who were that mix of Tea party meets hard core religion and some of them had signs saying “No big brother in our schools!” and “Obama stay out of our classrooms!” and then there were “The Cammo kids” with their signs saying. “No Big brother!” and “Respect My Liberty!”

He got out of the car and so did Donnie and Nick and Sam and they put their stuff for later in the trunk out of sight. And in Kenyon’s and Brian’s too. It had been agreed that they couldn’t leave things in the cars themselves because they’d smash the windows to steal and or destroy things.

Johnny came with Brian in his car and not too long after they had all pulled up then Selina showed up on her Vespa with Honey and They stowed their things in Brian’s car trunk too and Selina was wearing a few LGBTQAI+ logoed things and a black shirt with white drawings on it of two very butch women with shovels standing on top of what looked like a sort of a dam and on it was the phrase. “D#ke pride.”

He grinned. “Admin and the haters might not like it but that’s totally within the dress codes.”

She nodded. “This isn’t my first rodeo.”

And Kenyon… “Cue the gay cowboy!” Jessie smiled at him and actually raised any eyebrow as Kenyon put on a denim jacket with the white fleece and had a DVD case of Brokeback Mountain around his neck with string and take.

People looked for sure.

Then Danny showed up with that Andrew guy who actually drove past some of the alpha’s and the haters as he came up and he revved the engine up loud and menacingly as they did and parked and both Danny and Lindsey got out of the car and…

….and Danny leaned into the window of Andy’s car and gave him a kiss in front of everyone there and then walked over holding hands fingers interlocked with Lindsey as Andy pulled away and out of the school and then Danny and Lindsey ended up leaning with Danny on Brian’s car and leaned over and kissed Danny too.

There were whispers… “Fag, faggot…freak…” and then as those two kissed… “What the fuck?”

Selina spoke up sort of at the haters. “Twelve inch dick.”

More talking.

And Donnie helped Yasmine out of the car and Jessie took a breath as they all locked eyes with her and she nodded even though she was shaking and they all sort of did one final check on things to make sure that they were safe and they headed inside the school and some of the other’s like Penn joined them and there was a whole sort of hush and then outraged yelling as they went inside and The Wholesomes and The Cammos and the Young Republican types seen Yasmine take off her shirt and she was wearing a yellow guy’s sized t-shirt and on it was the rattlesnake of The Gadsden Flag and the “Don’t tread on me” was written in Arabic.

Danny grinned as there were pissed off people headed in after them. “Tilt, tilt, tilt! Baby!" sort of like Austin Powers.

Honey picked it up and then Selina and it sort of became a thing as security came out and administration came out and then Jessie and Kenyon and Brian and everyone with them were saying it too….chanting.

“Tilt!”

“Tilt!”

“Tilt!”