Wrestling Against Myself (31 page)

“Him,” Henry corrected.

“Yeah.” Peter gave a knowing nod to his brother. “We don't want that kind of stuff at our school. So you sit back, don't get your hands dirty so you can remain on a first name basis with God, and we'll take care of the rest.”

“How about you guys leave her alone and let her be.”

“Him, him,” Henry corrected again.

“You can't be so blind Tiny. Something like this is right up your alley. God wants queers to go to hell.”

“Back off. Even if what you said was true, it's not your place to judge. Judge not lest ye be judged. With the same measure you mete it shall be measured against you.”

“How can you quote the Bible and not stamp out this evil? I've never known you to be a hypocrite before Tiny, don't start now.”
 

“I'm telling you, leave her alone.”

“Him,” Henry corrected.

“In your heart, you know I'm right, you just don't want to admit it. Come on
Henry; let's let Tiny pray about this. I'm sure God will open his eyes and he'll stay the fuck out of our way.”

Antonio heard the implied threat as Peter walked away, but wasn't going to continue the conversation. He had a test during first period and wanted to clear his head of the bully’s nonsense.

Tony thought he should have known how the day was going to go by the exchange in the parking lot, but ever the optimist, he thought the day would only get better from there; he was wrong. Countless people approached him with the same bit of information. While waiting for his first period class a dozen people stopped by to tell him Courtney was male or ask him how he could hang out with a transvestite. It was frustrating to combat the same rumor over and over.

The intensity peaked as the day grew. The closer he drew to lunch, the more people came up to him to spread the same rumor. What did they expect the poor girl to do, show up naked just to prove the school wrong? The other thing that bothered him was that as the periods were swept away, he realized this problem had gotten beyond his control. He hoped that when people saw that Courtney was part of his circle they would relent on the teasing. It worked a year ago when he invited Dave and Ted to sit along with him when they were teased for being nerds.

“Stay the course,” Tony told himself as he walked towards the cafeteria. “You know what they want, but you know what's right. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.”

“Talking to yourself Tiny,” Roger said as he straddled alongside him. “You know, I think that's the first sign of going crazy. Are you going crazy, Tiny? It could be bad influences in your life.”

“Nah,” Peter joined in on the other side. “He's got one of those little angels that is sitting on his shoulder. I bet that angel is fuming mad, but the little devil guy is real happy. Look here, the great Christian Tiny is being all kinds of evil and hanging out with a little queer boy in a dress.”

“You never give up, do you?” Antonio addressed Peter who was behind all the drama.

“I think you got Tiny upset,” Roger said as the trio slowed their gait. “His face is turning red.”

“That's because this time I'm right and he knows it. Who would have thought, Tiny is the sinner now?”

“I've always been a sinner,” Tony said, trying to turn the conversation to something that wouldn't appeal to either Peter or Roger. “But my sins have been paid for by the blood of another. You can have your sins forgiven too, would you like to know how?”

“I bet the first step would be to not hang out with little queer boys who wear dresses,” Peter said. “Oh, wait, I already got that one covered. How about you Roger?”

“Yeah, I don't hang around fags either, and I don't make them my friends and give them rides home in my cute little sports car.”

Tony stopped. This was getting nowhere and he wanted the conversation to come to an end. “What do you guys want from me?”

“We want what you always give,” Peter said. “We want you to do the right thing.”

“I think our definition of the right thing is different here. If you think the right thing is spreading lies about a small defenseless girl then we're way off.”

“I'm not lying, damn it!” Peter all but screamed.

“Watch that,” Tony took a demanding tone, something he wished he did sooner.

“You're so certain that we're wrong, right?” Roger said, taking up the mantle for his friend.

“I'm positive that you're wrong.”

“Have you talked to the little queer boy about it? Have you asked him if he's got a little pecker in his panties? I'm sure he's going to lie about it, but Tiny knows how to use his super powers to smell a lie.”

Tony laughed. “You want me to ask a girl if she's a boy? I'm sure she won't be offended.”

“It's not like it's going to be the first time he's heard it today,” Peter said. “Go on Tiny, ask. Maybe then you'll believe us. Watch him squirm in his seat as he tries to lie to the great Tiny.”

“Back off,” Tony said as he continued to the lunch room.

“You got him there,” Roger said to Peter. “He doesn’t want to admit it, but he's going to ask and then he'll be on our side and the school can be a freak free place again.”

“I think you're right. Let's get out of here. I think Tiny is about to pop a gasket.”

Both Peter and Roger peeled away and went towards a different entrance to the cafeteria.

Tony got in line and grabbed a tray of food. He was tired of having hamburgers and fries everyday and thought it might be time to start bringing his lunch with him from home. At least he would have some variety and something that was healthier.

The table was somber as Tony sat down. Everyone was already there, including Stephanie, so he knew Peter and Roger delayed him long enough to make him the last person to sit down when he was usually one of the first.

“Hey guys,” Tony said after a brief prayer over his food. “Everyone bummed out from taking tests all morning. I know I wish I took a little extra time studying this week.”

No one responded, and it didn't take rocket science for Tony to realize that everyone at the table was getting the same treatment he was and it was wearing them down.

The meal was eaten in an eerie silence, not two words of idle chitchat floated across the table as the noise from the cafeteria was the only thing to drown out the silence. Tony knew this wasn't a good development, but it wasn't the time to bring it up either. He sat, just as silent as everyone else and ate his hamburger under the weight of persecution from his fellow schoolmates that had a bone to pick with one of his own.

“I'm out of here,” Shannon said as he finished his second chicken patty sandwich. He stood up abruptly and walked to the other side of the cafeteria where the football players ate together.

Tony watched. He wished that Shannon would have stayed as a sign of solidarity. It was another item on a growing list of things he couldn't do anything about at the moment.

“We should have went to the library and worked on the game,” Ted said, as if he was thinking out loud.

Dave looked up and shot his friend a look and then returned his gaze back onto his meal.

“Sorry,” Ted said.

Mercifully the bell signaling lunch was over sounded and the group stood up and made their way to empty their trays. Courtney weaved quickly through the sea of people and before anyone realized it, she was gone.

Tony was the last of the group to leave. Carl and Tracy were waiting for him.

“This isn't good, Tiny,” Carl said as soon as Antonio was in earshot.

“You're telling me.” Tony tried hard to hide his frustration. “I've never seen our table so affected by outside influences before.”

“There's talk of a mutiny,” Carl continued, “at least there was before Courtney sat down with us today.”

“A mutiny? What in the world are you talking about?”

“Dave, Ted, Shannon, and Stephanie were talking about making their own table until this whole mess blew over or something happened to change things.”

“Really?” The sadness and disappointment was evident on Tony's face. “I thought we were better than that. That we would stick together through thick and thin, not succumb to some idiot and his rumors.”

“It was just talk, really,” Tracy said. “We've all been hearing about Courtney all day and it gets old.”

“The girls are in on this too?” Tony was surprised.

“Yes, the girls are getting in on this too,” Tracy said, trying not to sound mocking. “It's kind of weird. Usually girls go about this kind of thing differently, but this is like a school wide cancer and it's all pointed at one person.”

“Did Courtney say anything when she sat at the table?”

“No,” Carl answered. “But we could tell she was upset when she got to the lunchroom. She got better before you showed up. They already started with singing the song as she walked down the hall, the whole school thinks this is some sort of big joke, but they're really destroying the little thing.”

“It's not just the song,” Tracy added. “Other girls are making an effort to keep Courtney from using the bathrooms.”

“The girls' bathrooms?” Antonio asked.

“Well, yeah.”

Tony exaggeratedly rolled his eyes. “Don't people in this school do any thinking for themselves? If the rumor was true; that Courtney was some kind of boy wearing a dress and pretending to be a girl, there would be no way the school would let her use the girls' bathroom. Further proof she isn't a dude.”

“I don't know. Maybe the school doesn’t know.”

“You don't think someone would realize a boy was going to school dressed as a girl and using the girl’s bathrooms,” Tony said, his voice raising much to his chagrin. “You don't just go to school. They have records, birth certificates, the whole nine yards. The whole thing is preposterous.”

“Either way,” Tracy said in a much softer tone, trying to bring Antonio down a few notches. “There's a petition going around the girls to get Courtney banned from using the bathrooms. Also, I don't know who did this, but between second and third period every girls' bathroom had a big note on it that said 'no boys allowed.'”

“For Pete's sake.”

“We didn't tell you this to upset you, Tiny, but we thought you should know,” Carl said as the group began to make their way through the corridors.

“I know,” Antonio said, getting his rage under control. “When has Dunedin High ever been like this? We've had our bullying and petty stunts pulled in the past, but that's been minor stuff. This is like a wildfire and the school is burning.”

“And you're going to put this fire out?” Carl asked.

“Alone, if I have to.”

“You know I'd never do that to you Tiny,” Carl said as he put an arm around his teammate. “I'll stand beside you know matter what you do.”

“Yeah, if I only knew what that was.” Tony said, almost sounding defeated.

“You'll do what's right,” Tracy said as she paused with the group in front of the building she had her next class in. “I think we're going to need more than just some dumb high school students to figure this one out.”

“Pastor Bob?” Carl asked.

“He might have some suggestions, and having someone like him praying for Courtney wouldn't hurt. Also, we better be sure we know all our facts.”

“What facts are those?” Tony asked.

“We better know for sure what we have on our hands with Courtney. I'm not saying I believe the rumors, but we better know they're lies before we decide on a course of action.”