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“Look,” Flash says, sitting at their table, but still holding his lunch tray in the air, ready to leave at any moment. The trio looks at him with varying degrees of skepticism. “We’re not friends, we’ll probably never be friends. But my mom is going to try to get this book banned from the library and none of us want that to happen. So can we work together on this?”
Peter and MJ exchange a look, Ned continuing to stare Flash down. In scary synchronicity, the pair turns back to face him.
“Alright,” MJ says. They don’t look happy about the prospect of the team up, but they do have that gleam in their eyes. The one they get when they’re told that something is impossible for a teenager to accomplish. “We’ll stop it from getting banned. I’ll talk to the girls rugby team.”
“I’ll talk to the GSA,” Peter decides.
“I’ll talk to the Robotics Club,” Ned finishes.
Flash sets down his tray, and holds up his hand to pause them. “What does the Robotics Club have to do with this?”
The trio give him genuinely confused looks.
“You don’t know?” Ned asks.
“Know what?”
“The only straight person in Robotics Club is Jeremy.” Ned leans forward. “And between you and me, he just hasn’t realized he’s ace yet.”
“Huh,” Flash says. The more you know. “Okay. What do you want me to do?”
MJ looks him up and down. “You still on speaking terms with Jason Ionello?”
Flash nods. He is. Barely.
“Then you’re going for the student council.”
He gulps. This wasn’t going to be easy.
His mom, who up until this point has had no interest in Flash’s education, read on Facebook that some book is grooming kids by the simple act of having queer characters in it. According to their housekeeper Sofia, who Flash eats dinner with most nights, she had her personal assistant call Midtown to see if their library carries the book. It does.
Appalled at the prospect of a book turning her only son gay (Too late for that, Flash thinks), she then ordered her PA, Robin, to challenge the book through the school board.
Sofia had told Flash this like it was everyday gossip. Of course, Sofia doesn’t know that Flash is gay. No one does, except for MJ. He’s not sure how they found out, sometime around when his popularity tanked when he took his (he’ll admit, pretty extreme) bullying of Peter too far. He locked him, naked, in the girl’s locker room for almost a whole day.
Midtown isn’t exactly the most liberal school, with so many children of millionaires in it. People tend to keep their heads down. But for whatever reason, the population of queer students is well above the national average. Something about going into STEM rather than business or politics like their parents want makes it easier to come out.
Some of Flash’s old friends stand by him, but most everyone else gives him a wide berth.
He’s been trying to give it back, especially when he took a step back and realized that what he felt toward Peter most of all wasn’t disgust but jealousy.
But this book banning thing—it feels important. That’s why he approached Ned, MJ, and Peter. Everyone knows that the trio is responsible for the remodeling of four bathrooms, one of each floor, to be gender inclusive. Even if they don’t take credit for it.
Against all his expectations, they agreed to help. Now, he has to prove that he’s in it with them.
“Ionello,” Flash calls, grabbing his friend’s arm.
“Thompson,” the president of the student council greets back, pulling Flash into a brief bro hug, complete with a clap on the back. “It’s been a while, man,” he comments as he pulls away. It’s not a statement of judgment though, just facts. Gotta love straight men.
“I know, man. It’s been crazy.” It hasn’t. “Hey, you hear about how they're trying to ban that book from the library?” At this point, everyone has. The girl’s rugby team, who Flash has been reliably informed is exclusively composed of women who are attracted to other women, plastered the school’s walls with fliers spreading the news. It took a week for the custodial staff to pull all of them down at the reluctant orders of Principal Morita.
“Dude, I heard it was your mom who’s doing it. Fucking nuts.” Jason laughs, and Flash still can’t tell where he lands on the issue. Jason was never shy about using homophobic slurs in middle school, but he mostly stopped by the time they reached high school. Flash heard that his dad came out, causing his parents to divorce, but rumors are often just rumors at Midtown.
Flash nods along. “I don’t even know how she found out that the library carries that book.”
“Oh shit man, it’s actually her?” Jason seems genuinely upset at the prospect.
“It is.” He’s quiet for a moment, deciding how to play his cards. “It sucks.”
Jason looks away. “I heard that the GSA is planning to go to the school board meeting about it.”
“They are. AcaDec too. And the girl’s rugby team…” He swallows nervously. “I was wondering if the student council would join us?”
“Join?”
Flash’s heart pounds. He’s never done this before. “I’m going. I’m- I’m gay, man.”
His friend turns back to Flash. “Shit.” He blinks rapidly, as if realizing what he just said. “Sorry, I mean- shit, does your mom know?”
He shakes his head. “Just you now. Maybe a couple others, but I didn’t tell them. Apparently gaydar is like… a real thing,” he laughs, and even he can't tell if it's genuine or not.
“Hey, man, thanks for telling me.” Jason is surprisingly kind as he says this. “If you want StuCo there, we’re there. Consider it done.”
Flash stands uncomfortably in the corner of the room. He’s never been to Peter’s apartment before, for obvious reasons. He’s kind of glad that Peter’s aunt isn’t home. He has a feeling if she was, he wouldn’t have made it through the door.
Peter is leaning over the edge of the top bunk while MJ takes his desk. Ned is in the kitchen, grabbing snacks.
“Cindy just emailed her testimony to me, which makes twelve,” MJ is saying.
“And the time for testimony is only like an hour, right?” Peter asks.
MJ nods, swiveling around in their chair to face the room. “Three minutes per person, that leaves us with twenty-four minutes we still need to fill.”
As Ned comes back into the room, carrying pretzel sticks and Nutella, MJ faces Flash. “You’re sure you don’t want to testify?”
He nods. “If my mom wants to get a book banned just because it has gay characters… I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to go against her.” It’s not exactly his mom he’s worried about. But what happens if she gets his dad involved…
MJ doesn’t press him on it. He remembers that for a few weeks, she and Peter arrived at school at the exact same time, even though before they came from opposite sides of Queens. They weren’t sleeping together, even if that was the rumor spread. It happened right after MJ changed their name in the school system, and Flash always wondered if those two events were connected. If MJ’s parents learned something about their kid that they didn’t want to hear.
“What I’d really like is for us to have twenty five or thirty testimonies lined up. In case someone needs to drop last minute, and so that we can hopefully outnumber any supporters of the ban.”
Peter makes grabby hands at Ned and his boyfriend obligingly holds up the pretzel bag. He carefully reorganizes his pretzel sticks so that they won’t fall to the floor while he says, “I got in contact with some of the gender and sexuality alliances in the district. One of them is called PRISM, which is sick and we should re-brand. I mean GSA is great and all, but a lot of people still hear it as gay-straight alliance, which—I mean I love allies don’t get me wrong, and the historical threat to them-”
“Peter,” MJ interrupts.
“Right. Washington’s PRISM group and Northwest’s Rainbow Alliance both agreed to share the call for testimonies with their groups. A couple others I got a hold of said they would ask their leadership teams and get back to me.”
“Jeremy from Robotics said he’d be happy to testify to give the straight perspective,” Ned offers, sitting on the edge of the bottom bunk.
MJ snorts at that. “Jeremy’s going to have a weird time in college,” they comment.
Gaydar is a scary thing, Flash decides.
“If May can get the time off, she said she would come as a parent. I don’t know if she would testify though. She hates public speaking.”
“Guilt trip her,” MJ suggests.
Peter shakes his head. “Nah, she’ll do it if I ask. I just don’t want to text her about it and she’s been on night shift for the past month. But! She got moved to the maternity ward and she said she could get me onto the waitlist to hold babies!”
Peter hangs down the hand not holding pretzels and Ned high fives him.
“Abe asked if we can spend the first ten or so minutes of AcaDec calling school board members,” Ned mentions dipping three or four pretzels into the jar of Nutella.
MJ squints at him. “Why didn’t he just ask me?”
“You’re scary,” Ned responds, mouth full.
MJ doesn’t seem bothered by this response.
“We have about half the testimonies that we want lined up, we’re calling representatives, Ned started a hashtag about it on Twitter,” Peter summarizes. “What else do we need to do?”
Flash looks up. “We should probably read the book.”
It’s easier said than done. Apparently the library’s copy is being passed around the girl’s rugby team faster than mono.
They go to the public library, but it’s waitlisted there too. Finally, MJ drags them all to a small queer book store in Southern Manhattan. Flash buys them each a copy.
The four of them end up finding an unoccupied shade tree in Washington Square Park. Ned had the foresight to bring a quilt, and they settle down on it. MJ leans against the tree and Peter puts his head in Ned’s lap. Flash stretches down against the side of the blanket furthest from the tree.
They read for hours, long enough that Peter tracks down a falafel stand a few blocks away and long enough that MJ finishes the book.
Flash is about halfway through himself. In the past when he’s bothered to read the books assigned in class, it’s taken him weeks to get through them. But this one is a surprisingly quick read. Or maybe he’s just connecting with the characters for the first time.
The sun isn’t close to setting though the air is getting chillier. Flash pulls the edge of the quilt over his shoulders.
“Should’ve brought my fake ID,” MJ says quietly, tucking the book in their bag.
It doesn’t really surprise Flash that MJ has a fake ID, although he’s pretty sure they wouldn’t use it to drink. Probably to buy spray paint. “What?” he asks anyway, startled that they’ve brought it up at all.
“Stonewall is five minutes that way.” They point up the street. “I’ve never been, but it feels right to go now.”
“Black transwomen?” Peter asks, equally quiet. Ned is absentmindedly playing with Peter’s hair.
“Black transwomen,” MJ agrees, smiling.
Flash dog ears his page. “We could go,” he offers.
MJ’s eyes flick over to him. He expects them to deny him. They probably don’t want a dick like him at what sounds like a special moment.
They surprise him, their smile only growing. “Let’s go.”
Three days before the school board meeting, Flash runs into his mom.
He says ‘runs into’ because he hasn’t actually seen his mom for about a month. He’s pretty sure she was in Japan for some of that time, but he knows she’s been home in between because Sofia has seen Robin with armloads of drycleaning.
“Eugene,” his mom grins, as if she’s genuinely happy to see him. “I’ve missed you, baby.” She gives him a hug and he forces himself to wrap his arms around her.
“Hi mom.”
“How’s school going?”
“Good.”
“That’s great!” Her voice is pitched higher, the way it is in interviews. Fake. “I saw that you got an A on your last chemistry test.” Robin saw and told her, but Flash doesn’t say anything. He’s searching for the quickest route out of this conversation.
His mom grabs his shoulders, the way she would when he was little and she was prepping him to talk to his dad’s business partners. “Now, honey, I added something to your calendar for Thursday. I’m going to pull you out of school for it, but since you’re doing so well, I know it won’t be an issue.”
Flash swallows. Thursday. He was already planning to skip half his classes that day.
“I had Robin write up a statement for you to read at a school function.”
His limbs feel numb at his side. “What school function?” he asks, throat suddenly dry.
“There’s a board meeting for your school. Your library is carrying books that turn kids gay, Eugene. Isn’t it horrible?”
Flash doesn’t really remember what he says after that. Mumbling some excuse about homework before running up the stairs two steps at a time.
“I set out an outfit on your bed for you to wear on Thursday,” she calls after him.
By the time he makes it to his room, his heart is pounding and his head is swimming. He barely manages to lock the door before crumbling next to it. He sucks in air, wiping tears out of his eyes.
He doesn’t know why he didn’t expect this. He’s been a puppet for his parent’s endeavors for as long as he can remember. The button down and khakis on his bed mock him, the light from his window a spotlight on the outfit.
Before he realizes what he’s doing, he has his phone out. He doesn’t even need to scroll to pull up their latest texts.
He picks up on the second ring.
“Flash?”
“Peter.” Relief floods his veins, even if he doesn’t know why he called him in the first place. Why would Peter care about this, after all Flash has done to him?
“Are you okay?”
Flash explains what happened through stilted words, still in shock about his mom showing up and about Peter caring to listen. At some point, Peter interrupts him, saying that MJ is there and asking if he can put Flash on speaker phone.
He must agree, because when he finishes, MJ suggests, “You could fake sick.”
Flash shakes his head, pushing to his feet so that he can pace the room. The panic and the tears have mostly stopped, and now he just feels deeply afraid. “No. I- I can’t. I have to testify. If I don’t, I-” He cuts himself off. He doesn’t know what will happen. But he remembers that eventually, MJ started coming to school from the direction of her apartment again. He doesn’t think he’ll get that chance.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Peter says firmly. “Your safety is important. If the safest option for you is to testify, then that’s what you do. I was about to text you before you called—we’re up to forty testimonies lined up. Even if you get the chance to testify-”
“I will.” He knows his mom.
“-you’ll be outnumbered. Ned has been following the parent groups for the district. Most of them don’t even know about the book banning.”
Flash runs his hand through his hair. He doesn’t know what he did to deserve Peter’s support on this.
MJ speaks up. “You do what’s safest for you,” they reiterate. “We’ll take care of the rest.”
Flash feels deeply humiliated, his blue button up tucked into his ugly khakis. His mom sits beside him in the car, her nails clacking on her phone as she types out a text. Robin sits in the passenger’s seat beside the driver.
Peter had texted him that morning, promising him that after the school board meeting, he, Ned, and MJ would make sure everyone knew the role he played in organizing the opposition.
It makes Flash feel a little better. He’s getting tired of being known as a homophobe.
The car pulls up to the backside of the building where the school board meets. Robin is quick to exit, circling the car so that she can open the door for his mom.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” she says, slipping her phone into her purse. She retrieves a folded piece of paper from the purse. “Here’s your testimony for today.”
Flash swallows, taking the paper from her outstretched hand.
Robin opens the door and Flash follows his mom inside.
They’re early.
Only about half the school board members are there, who Flash now recognizes from researching their likely positions on the issues. None of them have made public statements about it.
Flash knows that the Midtown students are still on their way, MJ having organized a walk out to take place during second period. Flash wishes he could have been there. To be as brave as his peers. To show that he isn’t afraid of who he is. Not so much, not anymore.
Instead, he takes a seat beside his mom, reading over the statement she’d given him.
It’s horrible, containing three slurs, one of which he’d honestly forgotten about. He feels sick just looking at it.
As he refolds it, the front doors to the building open. Dozens of Midtown students crowd into the space, some of them holding signs in protest of the book banning. At the front of the group are Ned, MJ, and Peter. Their eyes are bright and calm. They look ready to take on more than just a school board meeting.
His mom rolls her eyes at the display, her attention quickly returning her phone.
His classmates stay relatively quiet, not chanting like he expected. They fill up half of the seats. More students that Flash doesn’t recognize file in. Probably students from the other school’s GSAs. Bringing up the back is Jason, slipping in almost unnoticed except for the sign he holds.
My life would be better if my dad learned he was gay in high school.
Maybe rumors aren’t always that far off.
Jason waves at Flash and the latter quickly excuses himself. His mom doesn’t look up, recognizing the name as one of the friendships she helped orchestrate back when he was in elementary school. Jason’s mom and her studied abroad together, he’s pretty sure. Socialite things he doesn’t really care to track.
Jason gives him a real hug, not a bro hug, when Flash reaches him.
“Hey man,” Flash grins, gesturing upward. “Love the sign.”
Jason laughs. “Just speaking my truth or whatever.” He sobers quickly, and continues quietly, “MJ told me about your mom making you testify. That’s fucked up, man.”
Flash shrugs, his cheeks suddenly feeling warm. “You know how it is. Parents say jump, you jump.”
Jason nods. Out of everyone here, he probably does understand the best the position that Flash is in. “I’ve got your back, dude. Whatever happens.”
“Thanks,” Flash answers sincerely.
Jason excuses himself to join the group of people MJ is giving final instructions to about testifying. Until all this, Flash didn’t realize that half of their absences were because they were bussing three hours north to Albany.
Flash rejoins his mom. She doesn’t say anything to him, so he gets on his own phone.
There’s a text from Ned. MJ, Pete, and I are getting ice cream after school, no matter what happens. If you can get away, you should join
Flash smiles despite himself. He sends a thumbs up emoji. Across the room, Ned receives his text and nods to him. Flash nods back.
The meeting starts soon after. The book banning motion is slotted third, but the first two issues move forward quickly. Only one person is there to testify for each, and the board seems to know them, so they must come to these meetings a lot.
The board briefly introduces the book banning motion, then asks for testimony. A line quickly forms. A few parents testify first. It’s mixed, some for, some against. Peter’s aunt is there, the passion in her voice as she calls for the board to strike down the motion makes Flash’s chest feel tight. Flash is set to go after a few students from the other schools. Behind him is the captain of the rugby team. Peter, Ned, and MJ are closer to the front of the line. Flash is within the first fifteen people though. There’s no doubt that he will testify.
Once the parents are done, the students move through quickly. MJ is the only one who takes the full three minutes.
Suddenly, it’s Flash’s turn.
He steps up to the microphone, trying to flatten the paper his mom gave him against his pant leg.
His fingers tremble, and he can barely focus on the letters when he holds it up.
“Whenever you’re ready, son,” the board member who’s been keeping time says, not unkindly.
Flash nods, taking one last look around the room. His mom, who already testified, is watching him. From the other side, Ned and Peter are holding hands and give him a brief smile. Permission to take care of himself. He can hear MJ behind him, preparing one of the more nervous Robotics Club members to speak.
Flash looks down at the paper one more time, then lowers it.
“Ready,” he tells the board member. She taps on her phone and Flash crumbles up the piece of paper, shoving it in his pocket.
He turns to the side, to the woman who started this whole mess. “Before I get into it, I need to do this.” He locks eyes with her. “Hi mom, I’m gay.”