PREVIOUSLY ON SKY HIGH: THE PEACE STRONGHOLD
"Are you allright? I mean, your cold."
"Perfect." Warren said, "I always walk around school like this."
Will came over to the remains of the jacket and shirt, "I wish."
"What was that?"
Will shook his head, "Naw, no, nothing. Hey you know what?"
"What? You got a spare shirt for me or sumthin?"
"Hey I might. It'd be nice and small for you. But I noticed that you call your cold a cold but it makes you hot."
"What?" Warren asked as though he thought that was lame. "What?"
"I mean if it makes you hot, you should call it a cold."
"C'm here," Warren grabbed Will's striped red and white shirt and flung him to a corner of the hallway. "Come here!"
Will asked, "What, what I do? What I do?"
Warren took him over to a corner where it was a less traveled hallway, "You're just so innocent sometimes it makes me..."
"War, I don't wanna hurt you so..."
"Hurt me? I wish!" Warren didn't let go of the top of Will's shirt and smacked a kiss onto Will's thick lips, which was unsuspecting and puckered from confusion and ready to ask what himself to Warren.
Will's eyes widened and his penis thickened and jumped in his blue denim pants, "MMMMM!"
It was the he noticed Warren's brown eyes, big and soulful. Not knowing where to put his hands now, Will smashed them as easy as he could given the circumstnaces onto Will's massive pecs, dark and tanned though they were. When he came up for air, "War, you don't know how long I've...man, you're chest is magnificient, you should be the strong one..."
"Shut up and kiss!" Warren planted another one and this time the tongue went in longer and dabbed around harder. Will retaliated and turned Warren toward the lockers, Warren turned Will back to them like a fight. But Will won this fight too and turned Warren back, "Damn, boy, take it easy."
And later: "I mean it, Stronghack," Warren strode away and pointed back at him, "No one knows about us. This, no one knows about this..."
"I hope you feel better...feel me up better," Will said.
"Shut up!"
Nurse Spex speaks with a new girl: "Having been born yesterday, Agless, you know you have to accumulate more knowledge before you can just fit in everywhere..."
"Yes Nurse Spex," the brunette girl with long hair said. To Will, she looked like a girl he was trying to forget..Gwen...Royal Pain. Will ignored her and moved to the bathroom door...Warren was in there.
"Oh yeah, that, oh yeah, yeah." Will looked down at the floor, "I didn't mean to break your confidence or trust by sneaking in there..."
"Of course you did...only you didn't know you were. You were following your heart and your...hormones...but please it's no one's business but your's and Warren's but this could get out. If one knows....and I don't mean me, honey..." She put a bony hand on Will's cheek. "I will protect you and your secret...but you have a lot to think about in the next few days and months and years..."
"Thanks and I'm sorry." Will said and opened the door to go out. He shut it.
Will walked out of the office. Agless was there. Will was surprised by her. "Oh uh, hi, Agless, hello. Didn't see you there."
"I didn't see you either." She smiled. She did so look like a young version of Gwen that it scared him. "In there."
"Oh, that. I was getting a physical behind closed screens," Will said, "Invisible Doctor..."
"Will, I may have been born yesterday...but I don't believe that. Don't worry. I won't tell anyone either..."
"Oh...okay...tell them what?"
"That you are gay."
That was the first time Will heard it out loud. He thought about it since that night at the Paper Lantern. But he never said it out loud to anyone, not even himself. Tonight he was going to have to say it to Layla. "Oh, that."
"Yeah, that. Look,it's no one's business about you being gay. Just as it's no one's business that I was born yesterday and am in tenth grade already and know more than some of them do..."
"Well, if there's anything I can do for you to help..."
"It's my choice...I can be a baby if I want to be but with an extended life span why should I waste it, you know. I can learn all I need to now but I guess it's sometimes hard to live with my choice. But you, you're different...with you it's not a choice..."
"No."
"Your secret is safe with me."
Later in the hallway: Will refers to a new boy Scales while talking to Layla:
"Except maybe Scales there, he can turn into a fish any time of the day, dead, I'm I mean day or night, dead of night, that whole thing..."
Layla came closer to him as if to kiss him, "Will, there's...something you are not telling me..."
And later at the Paper Lantern: Outside their window, a butterfly hovered, in this still warm night.
"Layla, I think pretty strongly that I'm ...I'm not into girls. I'm gay, Layla."
A bird flew into the restaurant and past their table, "Lookatthat!"
Warren opened his closet. "What to wear?" He looked at all his raggy clothes. "What will impress?" He shrugged. "Will likes me just the way I am..." He put his hand on his dad's tuxedo, thinking it would be the thing he would wear. "Naw..." He shut the closet, unaware that the tux began to move...with some kind of life of its own...
AND NOW ON SKY HIGH: THE PEACE STRONGHOLD
PART FOUR
Zach and Ethan stepped off their flying bus. Zach was ranting non stop about how he used light in an alleyway to stop an old man from being robbed. "He was a drunk," Ethan smiled, "But still all the same, you did save him."
"Yeah, shoulda seen me!" Zach said as he walked toward the school with Ethan. "Ethan, Ethan, let's not go directly to class for once..."
"But we'll be late," Ethan pointed with his books.
"Oh, we can for once, for once."
"But why?"
"I wanna spread my fame around."
Ethan nodded, "For once," he straightened his glasses with his free hand.
"I know I don't brag much but..."
"No, not it. You don't have much to tell most of the time."
Zach's face dropped. "Okay, okay, go to class like we do every morning, every day, every week...I'll stay out here and find someone to tell and spread it around..."
Ethan nodded, "No, no." He smiled, "I'll help you." He smiled. "Who first?"
"Hey fag boy," tall Stefan passed by them. He had short blond hair, dressed conservatively and was from Norway. "How's your pal hanging."
Zach watched as Stefan wandered away, heading for the front doors. "Now he...he 's doing the same ole thing, going right to...class. Hey, what's he mean by my pal?"
Ethan shrugged, "Me I guess. Who're we gonna tell first?"
"Tell what? That your pal Will is one of them," another boy, dark haired, leather jacket wearing Rollin and smaller than Ethan but tougher than Ethan and Zach put together, made a limp wrist motion. Rollin kept moving and had a cigarette in his hand.
As he moved off, Zach waited, then called, "Hey, put that out before I put it out for ya, cigar-etteies are not allowed on Sky High, doofus."
"He couldn't hear you." Ethan reminded him.
"Aye, ahh, he's crazy, Will's not..." Zach hesitated, "You know that's the same thing that Norway--gen tried to tell us."
Ethan thought about it. "I...nawww. Then again. He and Layla have cooled down a bit now..."
"Yeah and maybe that's why!"
"He's gay. So what?" Ice Girl passed by. "Your friend Will is gay. You have to support him. He's gonna need you now, with all the jerks at this school."
"Look, over there, let's catch up to them," Ethan pointed.
Magenta made her way along the path to the doors of Sky High. Layla called to her, "Mag, wait up."
"Did you hear?"
"Hear what?"
"Warren's sick. He's staying home from school today." She laughed. "Can you imagine?"
Layla's eyes grew wide, "No way. Warren is NOT staying home from school today or any other day. I mean cutting yeah, that's more a reason for him not to show up but sick? He'd never let anyone on that..."
Ethan and Zack caught up to the pair of them. Zack looked befuddled and Ethan was just talking non stop about anything and everything. "Hey man, what's up Layla, Magenta, Zack...Zack's here got his tongue bit by a cat so he..."
"Really?" Magenta asked.
"No, not really," Ethan went on and on, "He's just dumb founded at the news Ice Girl just told us that you know Will is gay and all that, no biggie in my eyes I say, more power to him...he's all oh, I mean, Layla surely you know by now I mean he's told you and...I just assumed that..."
Magenta corrected him, "Never assume, it makes an..."
"Yeah, old saying," Layla waved her long reddish hair back, "Ethan, of course I know but Ethan, who told you? Will?"
"What difference does it make?" Magenta shrugged, "I think it's hilarious."
"You do, do you?" Layla turned to her and stopped walking.
"Oh, honey, not for you." Magenta put her hands on Layla's shoulders, "I...I wasn't thinking."
"It's no biggie, like Ethan said," Layla shut her eyes, wishing it all away, "I've kinda known even before Will did, I mean how could I not. I'm his best friend, right?"
"Right," Zach stared, "His female best friend. I'm his male best friend."
"So?" Ethan asked, "So what?"
"What the hell are peeps gonna think about me?"
"Hey fag," a passing by student with a gang of other students, said.
"That's what." Magenta took out a sippie juice from her lunch box and began to sip it. They all looked at her. "What? I get thirsty when I'm confused and not knowing what to think."
"Look, Mag, Will is gay. He's not an alien..."
"Yeah, hey and they're okay, too," Ethan put in.
"He's really going to need us now," Layla said, "Now that someone told everyone...oh my God, I hope he doesn't think it was..."
"You?" Mag asked, "No, no way he'd think that."
"So was it you?" Will stood there, hands on hips.
"What? No!" Layla said.
Zach started to inspect Will, rounding on him and staring. "Will..."
"So who did?" Will asked.
"How the hell should she know?" Mag asked.
Zach asked, "Will?"
"Mag...please..."
"Someone told everyone! Everyone fucking now knows! Who if not you knew?"
"How the hell should I know!" Layla yelled.
Mag rolled her eyes. "Look, let's not fight about this here and now, everyone 's clearing out now, let's wait until lunch..."
"Will...?"
"Zach wait!" Mag snapped.
"Where's Warren?" Will asked, then turned red and had to cover, "I mean when he finds this out, he's gonna just ostracize me."
"Warren knows what it's like to be different."
"Yeah sure!" Will flung his arms up and dropped his book bag.
A rubber boy passed by, running late, "Hey homo boy, or home boy? Want that I should carry your books for you? Too weak..."
Will grabbed rubber boy's arm and stopped him and stared into his eyes, looking up, for this rubber boy was taller and getting taller and taller as he stretched his neck. But rubber boy still looked scared, "Hey!"
"Weak?" Will gasped, angry. "I'll show you weak!"
"Didn't mean!"
"Fuck off!" Will said.
"WILL!" Layla yelled. She pulled Will's shoulder back. It didn't move. " WILL! STOP IT!"
"I AM gay, not weak!" Will lifted rubber boy by his arms and then put him down. "Get outta my face!"
Ethan picked up Will's book pack, "Here."
"Thanks," He scoffed, "for the gay boy."
Mag rounded on him. She was about to say something when Will put his books back on his shoulder using the strap. Will stood again with his hands on his hips. Zach began again, "Will, you really shouldn't..."
"Shouldn't what? Be in school today? You're right, it's bad enough to be here at all and now this..."
"No, I mean...I mean I shouldn't even mention it but..."
"Just say it!" Will said, "You mad at me too now cause I'm fucking gay?"
"No! Not that!" Zach said, "You really shouldn't put your hands on our hips like that, it just gives credence to that old cliché about gay people doing that shit."
They all stared. Then they all laughed. It was going to be a long, long day. A late bus flew down and landed. Warren came out of it...
"Oh shit!" Zach said.
"Oh shit's right!" Will blushed, "He's not gonna like this..."
"Let's get out of here!" Ethan suggested.
"We've got to tell him sooner or later and before someone else does!" Layla held Ethan's arm and Will's shoulder.
"I'll tell him..." Will said. The others split right away. Will turned to look at them. Layla was there and opened her arms, "No, you go, I'll do this alone..."
To be continued...
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