Past
Even though I was the assistant principal’s daughter, I still had to fill out all the forms for the gay club I wanted to start at Oak Grove. I was stuck on the line for faculty advisor.
“What about Mr. Everett? He’s pretty cool and he knows you’re gay,” Haley asked.
“He’s old,” I said.
“So what? Old people can’t support gay and lesbian students? My grandmother loves you.”
“I’m pretty sure choir and band take up his schedule. He doesn’t have time to add another club to his schedule. Do you think your grandmother can get a job up here? Then we can just sign her up.” I was nervous to ask anyone.
“What about your dad?”
I shook my head. “Against school policy. I already asked.”
“Let’s just ask Mr. Everett. The worst he can say is ‘no’ and then we’ll ask someone else. Oh. We can also ask Ms. Hill, the librarian.” She nudged me down the hallway to the choir room.
“I don’t think the library is the best place for us. We won’t be able to be quiet.” I didn’t mention that the library was in the middle of campus. If we met there, anyone could see who was in the club and hassle us. I wasn’t as worried for myself because I had the football team behind me, but I didn’t want to put anyone else in a bad position.
“Then we should try to get the choir room. It’s carpeted and virtually soundproof,” Hayley said.
“Does getting the choir room have anything to do with Zay being in the choir? You’re not going to do some weirdo ‘oh, my God, he stood right here in this spot’ or ‘his fingers were all over this piano.’” I made my voice high to emphasize I was pretending to be her. Truthfully, her voice was deep and raspy for a girl. I smiled when the red splotches appeared on her cheeks. It was fun to tease her because I rarely got the chance.
“Stop it,” she muttered.
I gently squeezed her cheek but refrained from saying anything more. She was sensitive and I knew when to back off. “You’re adorable and I love you. Let’s go find Mr. Everett and see about the room. You should probably let me do the talking.”
“What does that mean?”
Hayley was a bit much at times, and even though she was wonderful, I thought it best coming from the assistant principal’s daughter. “Because nobody’s going to tell the assistant principal’s daughter no.”
She nodded. “Good point. Okay, you schmooze him instead. I’ll go touch the piano keys.” We both laughed. “Serious faces. Ready?” At my nod, she knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Mr. Everett said. He ate his lunch in the choir room partly for quiet, but also, he wasn’t friendly with the staff. When my dad thought I couldn’t hear, I heard him talk about how disagreeable Mr. Everett was.
“Mr. Everett, hi. We’re starting a new club at the school and we were wondering if you would be our faculty advisor. It would be every other Tuesday at lunch. I already checked with Ms. Clarissa and it’s the one day you don’t have practice.”
He looked suspiciously at me as though I had an alternate agenda and after a seven-second stare down, he said “What’s the club?”
We didn’t have a name yet so I threw one out that I had seen online for other high school and college clubs. “Gay-Straight Alliance. We need a safe place.”
“That’s interesting,” he said. He showed zero emotion which was better than disdain or disgust. “I guess that’s fine but no food in here.”
I looked down at his sandwich and smirked at him. “We’ll clean up any messes. I’m pretty sure my father would kill us if we destroyed any school property.”
He folded his arms in front of him and leaned back in his chair. “If you need my help with anything, let me know.” I got his first genuine smile. It was short-lived because Hayley started tinkering on the piano. The scowl returned.
“Please don’t touch that,” he said.
Hayley looked guilty and held her hands up as though at gunpoint. Mr. Everett didn’t know that she could play the shit out of a piano and as much as I wanted her to show him up, I wanted to get back to the front office so we could get rolling on our new club. I gave him the form to sign. He filled out the faculty portion.
“Thanks, Mr. Everett. We promise to take care of things and not touch the instruments.” I grabbed Hayley’s hand and we ran out of there. We managed to get all paperwork finished and turned in before lunch was over. When we came out of the office, I bumped Hayley’s arm. “Look, there’s Parker.”
“Okay. So?” Hayley wasn’t a fan of the new cheerleader.
Parker was on my radar because she was so nice, smart, and gorgeous. Plus she jumped to help me when I desperately needed it. We’d spoken a few times since she was part of the cheer team and in my AP English class. I was so nervous around her. I wanted to get to know her better.
“She seems cool,” I said.
Hayley gave her an up-and-down and pointed her nose up in the air. “She’s straight as an arrow. Let’s find you somebody who won’t emotionally destroy you. Is there anybody else on your radar?”
“At this school? Not really.” That wasn’t entirely true but just because there was another lesbian here, didn’t mean I had to date her.
I gave Parker a small wave when we walked by. She smiled at me. It was a genuine smile and I felt it flutter around inside me. Nobody else gave me that feeling. Hayley was right. I was crushing on the new girl.
“Don’t do it. That girl is going to break your heart.” Hayley clucked her tongue and shook her head. “She’s trouble. Plus, she has the attention of every single dude at our school.”
“So?” I was offended that Hayley wasn’t open to the idea that maybe there was a chance that Parker was into me.
“Invite her to the first Gay-Straight Alliance meeting. If she shows up, she’s at least open to the idea of gayness. If she doesn’t, then she’s straight.”
Great idea. “Hey, Parker.” I turned around and jogged after her.
“Hi, Sutton.” She brought her books up to her chest and held them close.
“Hayley and I are starting a new club at school and we’re looking for people to join or help make posters to spread the word. I wanted to know if you were interested in either?” I loved the way she nervously bit her bottom lip. If she only knew how nervous I was asking her, she would know she had the upper hand here.
“What’s the club?”
Oh, boy. If I was wrong about this, Hayley would never let me live it down. Before I had a chance to launch into the description, Hayley jumped in.
“It’s called the Gay-Straight Alliance. I’m the vice president because I’m an ally. So even if you aren’t on the rainbow somewhere, you can still join in support.” Hayley either sensed my nervousness or wanted to give Parker options.
“I’d be more than happy to help make posters. We had so much fun making them for the football games. When’s the first meeting?”
“It’ll be every other Tuesday in the choir room at lunch. We haven’t been approved as a club yet, but when we are I’ll be sure to let you know. Does Sutton have your phone number?” Hayley asked.
I couldn’t tell whose face was more angelic: Parker, because she was perfect, or Hayley who knew exactly what she was doing and was playing innocent. I leaned up against the locker for support when Parker looked at me with her piercing blue eyes.
“No, but I can give it to her.” We watched as Parker tore off a corner of a history study guide and wrote down her number. She handed it to me and I held it as though it was the most precious thing I’d ever held.
“Thank you,” I said.
“We’ll let you know final details.” Hayley shoved me away. “Could you please embarrass yourself more?” she hissed when we were out of earshot.
I shoved the number in my jeans pocket and couldn’t stop grinning. “Thanks for doing that.”
Hayley shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. “Now you have her number, and you can text her. Maybe strike up a conversation.”
I threw my arm over her shoulders. “Come over tonight and we’ll design a flyer that we can pass out and hang around school.”
She stopped and spun me around to face her. “Just be prepared for some people to be dicks about this. Not everybody is supportive. I know most of the school knows about you, but some people won’t support us. They’ll tear up the flyers or throw them in the trash.”
“I’m sure it’ll suck, but think about the kids who don’t have the football team to back them. I think it’s worth it.”
She leaned her head on my shoulder as I walked her to class. “I love your attitude. It’s going to get you far. Just not in high school.” She veered off to the left for chem lab and I continued on to Pre-Calc.