School was to start the following week. That meant shopping trips to the city for school clothes and supplies. Dad bought me a laptop as a reward for helping Mr. Turner. He must have mentioned that to the other dads because we all ended up with a laptop. I was anxious to be back in school, summer breaks are fine but there are times when I miss school. This year would be different with Donnie being my boyfriend.
The first day was generally when we find out our class schedules and where we meet. After lunch there's a general assembly where rules are discussed and a handbook is past out. I noticed this year extra emphasis was placed on cruelty, both physical and verbal. I wondered what happened over the summer. I was soon to find out.
Waiting in front of the school for our bus, one of my friends asked if I heard about Jim Lodge. I told him I didn't and he told me the story. Jim Lodge was one year behind me but I knew him because in his freshman year I tutored him in math. That was his first year in our school and he was a little behind, I was asked to tutor him after school. I was glad to do it and I found it to be fun. Over the summer he was with one of his friends from his previous school and evidently Jim was gay as well as his friend. A few of the boys from our school found out and decide to do something about it. They cornered Jim and the result was ugly, Jim spent the summer in a hospital and then in therapy. The boys who hurt him were arrested and sent to a boy's home. Their parents tried to turn people against Jim saying a lot of anti-homo comments and of course brought the Bible into it. The people they tried to sway knew Jim as a lovable guy who would do anything to help his neighbor and his parents were very active in the community. Jim decided he'd return to our school but would miss the first week. The guys decided that they'd make sure Jim didn't have to hear one negative word about his sexuality and Donnie and I would befriend him.
I later found out who the boys were that ganged up on him. I was glad to see them go, they always tried to pick on the smaller boys which led my dad to seeing I got self-defense training.
School took off like a gunshot. Donnie was in all my classes and it seemed that Angie was in most of Dave's classes. I share math and history with Dave, english and Spanish with Angie. Brian and Sammy were in some of my classes, I think they were in all of Dave's classes. All of a sudden school became fun. Donnie and I had lunch with Jim, at first he was a little concern with all of the support but after he found out Donnie and I were boyfriends, he attached himself to us.
"Jim, we got to find you a boyfriend. What kind of guy do you like?"
"I like Donnie, so can I have him?"
"You could except I have it on high that he's taken. How about that blond with the green shirt? He has beautiful eyes and he's sitting alone. Let's go and sit with him."
Jim looked like I just shot him. "No, we can't just barge in."
"Sure we can, come on Cal we'll sit with him and then you sort of join us."
That's what we did. "Hi I'm Cal and this is my boyfriend Donnie. We saw you sitting here alone and decided no one should eat lunch alone. What's your name?"
He looked very shy and a little frightened, stuttering, "My name is Louis but my folks call me Lou."
"Then it's ok to call you Lou as we're now your friend." He nodded his head yes. That was when Jim sat down next to him.
"I was looking for you guys, hey my name's Jim, what's yours?"
I wasn't sure the kid was going to answer, "Jim, this is our new friend Lou."
"Cal and I decided Lou needs friends because no one should eat lunch alone. So we'll share his table or he'll share ours, right Lou?"
Lou looked at us as if we were crazy, then he smiled looking at Donnie and I, we were holding hands, then looking at Jim. Jim was a good looking kid, I really liked working with him last year.
Donnie whispered in my ear, "Did you see the spark that flew between them? I think we did our job." As it turned out we did do our job, Jim had most of his classes with Lou and they became best buds. We found out that Lou had a crazy sense of humor and that was just what Jim needed. By the end of the first 6 weeks, Jim and Lou were an item, only Donnie and I knew that.
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