Boseman High School Shenanigans: Episode 1

Zach nods as he hesitates, then enters the office, taking a seat as well but not looking at Ms. Maidstone. "Yes, my sister," he confirms. "She didn't mean to upset me with it or anything. She's actually really supportive. But, uhm, she mentioned something about there being no way that people don't see... you know, when I'm changing. And it kind of locked me down. And I know I've been missing a lot of your classes, but that has nothing to do with you. It's been the same in my old school." He briefly looks at her but then turns his eyes away again. "Can we maybe walk while we're talking?" he asks, hoping it comes across as natural. "Just around the gym or something. This is awkward to talk about and I think it'd be easier if I had something to do while talking."

"He thinks she’s sooooooo hot!" Lily whispers to the others as they watch on.

"He can’t even look at her!"

Zach's shyness was fun to watch. Hadn't they all been there? Of course, they had. She had lusted after Mr.Edge until he went all nutso. Her eyes were now on the keyring and all the keys. Hopefully, they would find the right one and get the door opened quickly.

"Let’s go!" Lily blurts out at the earliest opportunity.

"Key, and then equipment room. Three, two…" and she’s off. She swoops into the office and grabs the ring of keys, before returning to the others and jangling them about.

"Anyone know which one it might be?"

"It was really bad at my old school," Zach tells her. It does help to be walking, even if it had just been an excuse. "I had my best friend, Abby, there. But everyone knew. People were mocking me everywhere, nobody really took me seriously, even as the teachers who had all known me before tried to get my name and pronouns right, often without too much success." He sighs. "Here, I feel normal, like I just fit in. I already found some great friends and all. But every day, I'm scared that someone's going to notice something and it'll all crumble down around me."

He shrugs, still unable to look at her as he's talking. "I don't think she meant to hurt me or anything," he says. "She just... We grew up together. She knows me better than anyone in the world. It's probably harder for her to see me as Zach than it is for people who only met me now. And she's just the kind of person who says whatever comes to her mind."

He glances back towards the direction of the office but they're out of sight of it now. He hopes Lily and the others can make proper use of this opportunity. He then forces himself to look at the teacher's face. Scratching the side of his neck nervously, he asks, "Can I ask you something? Advice, I mean. On something personal."

"No, we will have to try them all but for fuck's sake, keep it down will you, Lilly? Do you want Maidstone to hear that?"

Hustling along with Lilly toward the equipment room, her mouth suddenly becomes so dry she can barely swallow. Things were getting serious and she was nervous as hell. This situation was getting more and more unreal by the minute.

Freddie follows the others.

This whole plan to weapon up is exciting but he's ultimately unsure they even needed them. After all, isn't weaponing-up before they knew the threat what got Debbie in the hospital?

Still, he's got their backs, cuz that's how he rolls.

"Rosie has changed a lot," Zach says. "And I worry about her. She... I think she always felt she was growing up in my shade and now that I'm... different, she's figuring out who she wants to be. But I think she's not being careful about it and I'm so scared that she'll get hurt one day." He frowns as he thinks about his sister's questionable relationship to Marco.

He then takes Ms. Maidstone's nod as encouragement to ask his question. "There is someone I really like," he says. "And he - they..." he tries to correct himself but it's already too late, so he lets out a sigh. "And he likes me as well. We kissed last night." He bites his lip as he remembers that moment in Aaron's car, in the truck parking lot. "I want to tell him the truth about me, everything. But I don't know if I can." Zach is well aware that Ms. Maidstone is probably not qualified or prepared to have a discussion like this with him and ordinarily, he would never have approached her with it. But since he already got to talking with her for this distraction, it's now all coming out. "I know what my parents would say, to keep it all secret. But if I like him, don't I owe it to him to be honest with him?" He lets his shoulders sag as he turns to his teacher. "And there is someone else as well. Lily. Lily Palmer. We're friends and I think I can trust her with it as well. But should I?"

Emily homes in on the baseball gear bags, finding and removing a few bats, feeling the heft of them and then choosing a heavy one. She has some experience with these as a weapon and 'nuff said.

"Bats are probably the best weapons here unless someone can find a javelin. If you think we will need helmets, looks like there are a bunch in that big bag over there," she says pointing to some larger canvas bags that are labeled helmets.

Was she serious? A javelin could kill someone. "Yeah just grab some bats, I think."

Freddie nods, and grabs a 32 inch aluminum bat emblazoned with EASTON, the sign of superior quality and general awesomeness. He swings it lightly a few times and then looks in the bag. "Wrestling helmets or batting helmets? Oh, there are football ones over there." He takes a batting helmet, because its important to match.

"I know, I..." Zach sighs. "I shouldn't be putting this on you. That's not really your job or anything. But I felt bad about missing your class so often and wanted to apologize, I guess. And you've always been really understanding so I guess when I had to talk to someone..." He shrugs uncertainly. Of course she couldn't just give him a clear answer. "Thanks, Ms. Maidstone," he then told her. "You're one of my favorite teachers here, to be honest."

That suddenly puts a different thought in his head and he asks, "Ms. Maidstone, have you noticed that some of the teachers have been acting... more than odd - creepy? - recently. Romanov and Gromn." He looks at her face to see her reaction, whether she knows anything. "And Mr. Edge as well."

"Yeah, I guess I shouldn't keep you," Zach shrugs. "And I'm glad it's being addressed, you know. Gromn and Romanov really freaked me out yesterday, and it doesn't seem like Romero did anything about them attacking us, to be honest." He hesitates, then moves in a bit closer. "I don't want to name any names because I don't know if she'd want that to be known, but Edge, uhm, after class today, he touched one of my friends. Like, groped her."

He then lets out a breath. The bell should have alerted the others to the fact that people would be coming into the gym, so hopefully, they'd have cleared out by now. "Thanks, Ms. Maidstone. This, uhm, helped. It's good to know I can talk to you."

With that, he walks out of the gym, taking out his phone and sending a text to Emily.

Zachary: She's coming back. Where are we meeting up?

"I'll tell her," Zach says. "I don't know if she will. She doesn't trust Romero anymore, I think, after he failed to do anything about that attack yesterday. But I'll tell her." He shrugs, then thanks her again before he leaves.

Lily tests the bats for herself, and grabs up a helmet, copying Fred. The bell rings, and she looks around the room.

"Crap." she moans, as she looks around the room.

"Lets stuff the stuff in here!" she says, grabbing a gear bag off the floor. She dumps the contents, and stuffs her helmet and bat inside. Then she holds it open for the others.

"Grab something for Zach, too!"