The bus pulled up to the school,  Malachy and I disembarked. Ryan was waiting. While I had shot up to almost 5’10 already, Ryan was still at 5’6 with a little pudge, it made him self conscious that he wasn’t keeping up with me, he’d tell me often he wished he could. He was wearing a red t-shirt with a blue collar, jeans, and new white sneakers like mine. “ Hey Raleigh, over here!” He waved as we walked up to him.“ I think we have the same homeroom, Mrs Larken.” he showed me his schedule. 

“Oh, yeah, I have Mrs Larken too, what about you Malie?” 

“Who’s this?” Ryan asked, a little suspicious of the new kid. 

Malie looked at his schedule, “ I appear to have this Mrs Larken as well.” He said, ignoring Ryan’s jealous stare. 

“ Ryan, this is Malie, he’s from England. I invited him to hang out with us to get to know the school.” 

“Oh… ok.” Ryan had been my best friend all our lives, we shared the same initials, Me being Raleigh Matson and he being Ryan Mason, we’d been together as pals since kindergarten. Recently things started to change, and he admitted feelings for me a few weeks ago. I wasn’t sure how to deal with it, it wasn't that I didn't feel the same way, I know I am different from the other boys in class, I liked both girls and guys, but I wasn’t sure what we were supposed to do with this feeling. I could tell right away Ryan didn’t want there to be someone else, especially Malie  in my life, why he seemed jealous I didn’t understand. “ We’d better get going before the bell rings.” The three of us walked through the air conditioned halls. Above the lockers the walls were  decorated with signs from staff welcoming the students back, blue and white crepe paper streamers hung everywhere. 

Girls waved and said hello to me, not going to lie, the attention was flattering, guys from last year’s basketball team shouted their hellos through the crowd, I was a shoe-in to play this year as well. The one thing my dad was proud of me for was that I helped win championships- if I wasn’t a jock, he’d probably have given up on me completely. I couldn’t wait for tryouts to begin next week. 

“Welcome Class to our new school year.” Mrs Larkin was a stout woman, with pink dew drop glasses and an old fashioned  salt and pepper hairstyle that she’s had since before we were all born, she wore frilly dresses, and was thought to be the sweetest of the teachers on staff. “ I am Mrs Larkin, I am your homeroom teacher, I also run the square dancing and pottery after school clubs. I welcome all of you interested to join after school clubs for extracurricular credit.” Mom and Dad had been bugging me to join the square dancing club, they loved square dancing when they were my age, so old fashioned, I’d die if I had to square dance. “ Let us go around the room and introduce ourselves, tell me your name, and something you like to do, whether it be music, sports, or anything you’d like. We’ll start with Wendy.” Wendy stood up, kids snickered. 

“ I’m Wendy,” Wendy was a beanpole, with floppy reddish brown curly hair, she always let it fall limp into her eyes and wore oversize hand painted sweatshirts. “ I like to play video games and I have a pet pig named Petunia.”  She sat back down and the kids one by one stood up and talked about themselves. Bobby Joe likes to play soccer, Darcy is a member of the school jazz band, and her twin sister Darlene is the head of the French club and so on. Soon it was my turn, I stood up. 

“ Hey everyone, I’m Raleigh. My folks run the Matson IGA stores in the county. I play drums and keyboard, and I love to listen to Elvis.” There was some giggling as I spoke. 

“ Well, I can certainly see a little Elvis in you Raleigh, with your lovely black hair.” 

“Thanks, Mrs Larkin, I want to go to Memphis and See Graceland and then go to Las Vegas.” 

“And I’m sure you will! Who’s next?” Mrs Larkin asked. 

Ryan stood up. “I’m Ryan and I’m Raleigh's best friend.” He proclaimed loudly like proclaiming the Pledge of Allegiance. 

Mrs Larkin sounded concerned, “Isn’t there more than that about you Ryan? What are your interests?” 

“ I like to go camping, but I really like to spend time with Rah, like, all the time.” I started to blush, if this was his form of coming out I wanted to hide under my desk, I felt my cheeks go hot and red and I sank down in my chair. 

“ Well, let's hope you find some more ways to occupy your time than just with Raleigh.” The class erupted in giggles. Mrs Larkin waved her hands signaling for us to quiet down, “Now you, young man, Mal-achy? I’ve heard you are from Merry Old England, why don’t you tell us Yanks all about your country.” 

Malachy sheepishly stood beside his desk. “ It’s pronounced Mal-la-kai, it’s just the Irish form of the spelling.” He corrected her. “ England, well, I can’t tell you all I would like to, but as you know we have a Queen, Elizabeth the Second and Prime Minister. I’m from a village called Woodingdean, it’s in the South in a county called Sussex. I’ve been to London, I like it very much and hope to live there as my sibling Simon already does.” 

“Fascinating, we welcome you to America Malachy,” Mrs Larkin corrected her pronunciation of his name. “ I  hope you enjoy your stay here with us.” 

Ryan nudged me passing me a note, I tucked it in my pocket quickly while the teacher’s back was turned. After homeroom I split from the others to go to math class, before I went in I looked at Ryan’s note. ‘ Do you want to be my boyfriend ? : Yes or No’ I quickly tucked the note back in my pocket before anyone saw it, and sucked in a breath. How do I do this? I’m not sure I’m ready for this sort of thing, I can’t have the whole school know because it’ll get to my Dad and he’ll kill me!

I made it to math class and could barely pay attention, thankfully Mr Rollins was more interested in talking about Indiana University basketball than math. Kids figured this out quickly and kept asking questions about basketball until the bell rang. I knew I could avoid Ryan for at least two more classes and then it’s lunch period. No way to avoid him then, he’ll want an answer. 

My heart was pounding when the bell rang and lunch period began. I couldn’t ignore the note, but I wished I hadn’t read it, then I could pretend not to know. Ryan  found me in the hall before I went through the doors of the cafeteria, the other kids passed us. We stood in the middle as they flowed around us like water until they’d all gone in. “ Did you read my note?” he asked blushing a bit. 

“Well, yeah.. Kind of um, glanced at it. I can’t answer it here, not now. Ryan we could get in a lot of trouble.” I felt my body going numb and soaked in a cold sweat. 

“But you feel the same way right?” His eyes were big and pleading. “You l-”

“ Shh! Yeah but, I can’t afford to make my dad upset right now. If he finds out I could be sent to live with my Grandma Lu  on my Mom’s side. She’s super strict, it’d be non-stop Church and plowing fields with an iron chastity belt on! I’d never be let out to see anyone until I’m eighteen. We’d never see each other.” 

“ But-So you like me?” He asked. 

“ Please Ryan, can we talk about it later, this weekend, I’ll ask Dad if we can go camping, we can talk about it in private.” 

“Really? Ok, promise? Just you and me,right? No one else, ok?” 

“Yeah sure, no one else, just you and me.” I felt relieved to at least be able to avoid it a little longer. Malie came walking up to us, Ryan coldly walked away towards the cafeteria. “ Hey, Malie, are you hungry?” 

“ This where the school dinner is served? ” Mal asked. 

“You mean lunch? Yeah. Come on, it’s in here.” We walked in together and got into line, Ryan was a few kids ahead of us. Malie and I were given our trays, and then I grabbed some milk and handed him one. 

“This is American lunch?” he seemed astonished. 

“Yeah, why?” 

“ It looks awful.” He frowned. 

“Boy, you always look on the bright side don’t you?” I teased him. 

“Life is disappointing, Raleigh, sooner you learn to live with it the better, but this hardly looks fit for human consumption!” Kids around him laughed, they thought he was telling a joke. 

“It’s always a surprise what’s in the meatloaf!” one kid piped in. 

“I heard it is kangaroo meat!”said another.

“Hardly, Kangaroo meat is rather expensive, y’know. ” Mal replied.

Someone laughed saying to Mal “That kid talks funny, where are you from kid, France?” 

“ France?I'm not a frog!” He snapped. 

They all continue to laugh except Mal, he seemed exasperated. “Come on, Malie, we just like to have fun and joke around, don't take it seriously. Kids never met someone from Europe before.” We went to the table where Ryan was sitting. I made a point to sit beside him so he would not feel left out.

Samantha  Bowers and Casey Dobbins came to sit down by Malie. I introduced them, “Malachy, this is Samantha and Casey, Girls, this is Malachy.” 

  “ We heard you are from England.” Samanath said to him, giving him these teenage flirty eyes. 

“ Yes, that's true.” Mal replied, hardly looking at her. 

“Do you have a girlfriend back home, Malachy?” Asked Casey. 

“ Why would I?” Malie snarled as he poked around at the meatloaf with his fork. I noticed he held his silverware oddly. Then I realized what he had just said, my mouth dropped open.  

“Are you saying you don’t like girls?” Samantha held a shocked look on her face. 

“ I don’t like girls, I like boys, I don’t understand why you would just assume.” There was that arrogant, dismissive tone of Mal’s again. It was a trainwreck about to happen and I could do nothing to stop it. Ryan grabbed my arm, he could see it coming too. 

I stammered, “Uh, girls, Mal is a bit..um, direct. You’ll get used to it. Just be nice okay? All of you.”

“You’re a weirdo!” Casey snapped. “ Boys who like Boys get beat up around here.” she snarled, grabbing her tray and heading off to another table. 

“Just be careful Malachy, people don’t understand that sort of thing around here. Maybe in your country but not in these parts.” Samantha said in a kind but worried voice, as she too took her tray and went to follow Casey. “ You should be careful Ryan and Rah, you don’t want trouble.” She cautioned. 

“Sam, it’s okay, we’re all made differently but in God’s image.. It’ll be fine.” I tried to assure her, maybe I was more open minded than the others and it began to worry me. 

“You’re gay?” Ryan said to Mal. 

“ Aren’t you?” Mal returned with a snort and I nearly choked on my food, starting to cough. 

“I..” Ryan sputtered. 

Malachy looked Ryan dead in the eyes. “At least I am willing to say it, and be out about it. It is called Pride y’know, you accept this as who you are and fuck everyone else.  I’ve been beaten up loads of times, it doesn’t matter as I always survive, I’m a bloody good punching bag. I’ve learned to take a punch, you’d be amazed at the things I can do when threatened with physical violence.”

“Let’s bring it down a notch can we?” I offered, acting as a peacekeeper. 

“What about you? Boys or Girls?” He asked me point blank.

“Yeah, Rah is it Boys or Girls?” Ryan joined in ribbing me. 

“ I’m already in enough trouble as it is, just consider me nothing.” I replied. “ No comment.”

To be continued.