Snowy Road - 8. Chapter 8 - A Weird Fellowship

Chapter 8 – A Weird Fellowship

Knots were forming in my stomach as I approached the school parking the day after the fight with Amanda. More people were bound to know my secret by now, I hoped that the rumor at least hadn't reached the ears of the 'cool' kids. I'd thought everything over yesterday night and I realized that a lot of people wouldn't really care, it's not like I was the quarterback of the football team or anything, but I couldn't help thinking that some select few would try to hurt me. Being gay was a very provocative thing to be, at least according to some people. I knew I had to be strong and stand up for myself, weakness wasn't acceptable if I wanted to survive until graduation. I didn't really know if I would be able to be strong when someone planted their fist in my face though.

I'd told Adam everything last night, for some reason I felt like he deserved to know after all the times he'd supported me. Of course, he reacted badly. We almost had a fight about me going to school or not, he wanted me to stay home for the time being but I didn't believe for a second that postponing the inevitable would help in any way. I was aware that he was only thinking of my well being, I loved him for it, but I knew running away wouldn't do me any good. You have to pick your battles and I'd picked this one. There was nothing else I could do, really.

I saw Steve waiting for me at the end of the parking lot, the fact that he'd decided to support me meant a lot. That he stood there waiting, ready to accompany me in public, meant even more. I walked up to him, not sure how to greet him. We'd grown a little closer since yesterday but hugging him could generate more rumors, the last thing I wanted was for Steve to be branded gay too. He quickly solved the issue by giving me a tight hug, I went rigid at first since I hadn't expected it but after a while I patted him lightly on his back.

“Don't tense up on me Mark.” Steve laughed. “I don't care what people think and besides, having a strong guy like me as your 'boyfriend' might keep people away.” He winked at me and I blushed a little.

“Don't flatter yourself, I'd rather go out with Leslie.” I couldn't help laughing as he shot me a look filled with mock indignation.

“Ouch, you're a cruel man. I can't believe we're dating.” He teased me with a big grin on his face.

“Don't decide things on your own, we're not dating.”

“Says you.” He stuck out his tongue and jumped out of reach when I tried to hit him over the top of his head. I think I liked this new side of Steve, at least it was new to me.

We walked side by side towards the school building. He talked and joked around the whole way, I couldn't believe that we'd never really hung out before. I mean, we seemed to have loads of common interests and we seemed to be able to talk about the most random things. As we reached the front doors, Steve turned to look me in the eyes.

“Are you ready for this?” he asked, frowning a little.

I took a deep breath before I nodded.

“As ready as I'll ever be.”

“You could go home if you want.” I shook my head and Steve searched my face with his eyes for a few moments before he gave my arm a light squeeze.

“OK.” he said. “I'll try to be around as much as possible, having different classes sucks.” He had worry etched upon his face. I tried to give him a reassuring smile. Stay strong, you'll get through this.

I was still feeling paranoid when I walked in the corridor but it wasn't as bad as yesterday. I'd figured that it was better to handle things as they came along instead of being on constant edge. Easier to say than to actually do, I noticed. Steve and I made our way through the stream of students and towards our lockers. I almost wanted to grab the back of his shirt, so that we wouldn't get separated, but that would have looked weird so I just followed him as close as I could. We we're almost at my locker when I noticed a group of guys, staring at me. When we got closer they started to laugh and I could hear them throwing around words like 'fag' and 'queer'. Steve noticed me freezing up and gave the guys a dirty look before he grabbed my hand, forcing me to walk past the group. I could hear more laughter from them as we walked away but I didn't let go of Steve's hand. His firm grip was comforting, it made me feel less alone.

After grabbing all the textbooks we needed before lunch, we started to make our way to the classroom. I stared down at the floor as we walked, following Steve. I knew that after this class I would have to make it through Biology without my friends protection, but for the moment I was glad that he would be with me for the next two hours.

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The Social Science teacher, Mr. Harris, looked down at me with narrow eyes. His expression gave away the annoyance he was feeling.

“I'm sorry, I don't know the answer.” I said, equally annoyed.

For the last few minutes, I'd been the victim of several questions that obviously weren't High School level. Mr. Harris usually didn't target students like this but today he was practically using me as a dartboard.

“That's too bad, although, I wasn't expecting much of someone like you.” Someone like me? I had a pretty good idea what this was all about, Mr. Harris had made it no secret that he was of the conservative kind. I had no evidence though so I would just have to endure.

“Let us continue with why the Marxism ideals spread across the continent...”

The sound of Mr. Harris' voice faded out as I stared down at my desk. He was directing his attention to the whole class now. I was biting my bottom lip and my hands were clenched up in fists, shaking.

It was so unfair, I was convinced that he only acted like this because someone told him about my sexuality. In my anger, I envisioned him impaled with a rainbow flag. A suitable end for someone like him. I forced myself to calm down since my violent thoughts scared me a little. I've never thought of myself as a violent person but ever since this whole mess started I'd probably pent up a lot of anger.

I didn't pay attention at all for the next hour and when the bell rang I started to gather my things, eager to get away from Mr. Harris. Steve joined me as I walked out of the classroom. I was still angry at the teacher. He was...

“He's Sauron.”

“Huh?” Both me and Steve turned around and my eyes fell on a short mousy girl. She was wearing big round glasses and her blond hair had several braids in it.

“Mr. Harris. He's like Sauron. Evil.” the girl said with conviction. “And you're like Frodo, fighting Mordor with only Sam” she pointed at Steve “to accompany you.”

Huh? Is this girl for real?

“I'm sorry” Steve said with confusion apparent in his voice. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Don't worry.” the girl said while looking me in the eyes, ignoring Steve's question. “The fellowship will protect you.” She seemed happy now but instead of returning her smile, I just stared at her like she was some kind of alien.

“I think what Trudy is trying to say is that you have supporters.” A guy with dirt-blonde hair and a serious case of acne approached us. Like the girl, Trudy, he was smiling.

“Hey, I'm James.” he said while flashing his braces at us. “Mind if we join you for Biology class? I mean, since... Uh, your Sam... has another class to go to.” He smiled at Steve who just frowned at being called 'Sam' twice.

Before I could say anything, not that I knew what to say, Trudy grabbed my arm and dragged me through the corridor. I looked over my shoulder at Steve who just shrugged and gave me a thumbs-up sign. As Trudy dragged me to Biology, James explained to me that I shouldn't mention Lord of the Rings in front of her since she could talk for hours about it. I didn't answer him, I was too busy trying to understand what was going on. James didn't seem to mind though as he started to talk about video games. After a couple of minutes we reached the classroom, earlier than anyone else, and I noticed that the teacher was already waiting behind his desk.

Our Biology teacher was a young man, probably not even in his thirties yet, with brown hair that was cut in a stylish way. He was tall but not very muscular and it made him look wiry. He was also the only teacher that insisted that the students called him by his first name, Kim. When we entered the classroom he looked up from a stack of papers and his gaze landed on Trudy as she took a step into the room.

“Fellowship!” Trudy called out in a loud voice while she did a salute, looking like a soldier. I stared at her with horror. What the hell is she doing? To my surprise the teacher stood up from his chair with a smile on his face.

“Fellowship!” He returned the salute, still smiling.

This is weirding me out... big time.

“Kim is like our Gandalf.” Trudy said matter-of-factly, like that explained everything.

I turned to James, waiting for an explanation since he seemed to be the most sensible one in the room. Including Kim. Before he could say anything though, other students started to enter the classroom. I stared at him for a few seconds, he just smiled, before I sighed and seated myself at a desk in the front left corner of the room.

Halfway through the lesson I realized that it had been a bad choice to sit there. Someone was frequently throwing little balls of paper at me but I didn't dare to turn around and face the culprit. It was getting a bit frustrating though when something hit the back of my head for the millionth time.

The thrower seemed to have amazing patience, I mean, it had been nearly twenty minutes since the first ball of paper hit me. The whole class jumped as Kim interrupted the lecture, facing the back of the room.

“Johnson! If I see you do that one more time, I swear I'll bribe the lunch lady to spit in your food.”

The whole class chuckled but the laughter soon died out when they saw the look on Kim's face. His expression seemed to be dead serious, as if he would actually do it. After a few seconds he turned his head slightly in my direction and if I didn't know better, I'd say he winked at me.

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“They were really weird!” I said as I watched Leslie chew her food, her eyebrows raised questioningly. “I mean, that girl Trudy and the Biology teacher seemed to think they were part of a fellowship destined to protect me...”

“I think Trudy's just a hardcore fan of the Lord of the Rings.” Steve said, looking amused. “And that Biology teacher, Kim... maybe he just played along with her? You know, he's like a friend to some students.”

“Trudy sounds fun.” Leslie said with a grin. “I'd like to get to know her.”

“She's sitting right there.” Steve pointed at the 'nerds table'.

As the three of us looked across the cafeteria, we saw Trudy looking in our direction. I was about to turn my eyes away from her when I saw that she, and at least four others at her table, raised their hands in the same salute she did before while looking intently at me. My eyes widened with surprise and I quickly turned to face Leslie.

“Did you see that?” I said with disbelief. “What are they doing?”

“Looks to me like you have a fan club.” Leslie giggled, apparently enjoying this immensely.

“Relax man.” Steve said while chuckling. “If she wants to help you fight Mordor, or whatever she said, then why not just let her?”

“Shut up, 'Sam'.” Steve just rolled his eyes at that. “OK... maybe you're right. At least she doesn't seem to be a homophobic football player in disquise.” She was just kind of weird.

“From what I've heard she seems cool, doing her own thing.“ Leslie said with a genuine smile. “I want to join their fellowship.”

“Yes, please do that. And when you've infiltrated them, find out what they're all about.” I said, actually being half serious. I must admit that I was curious about the group Trudy called a fellowship.

“Maybe I will.” Leslie said while winking at me, her face froze though when she saw something behind me.

I looked over my shoulder, seeing Amanda waiting in the line. She was staring at us, before she realized that we'd seen her and turned her eyes away. I faced Leslie again and she was looking at both Steve and me with concern. She seemed to be having some kind of internal battle, probably deciding if she should say something or stay quiet. After a while she apparently decided on some kind of middle road when she grabbed our hands and gave both of us a gentle one-handed squeeze. We stayed silent for a while. For some reason I hadn't been prepared to see Amanda, I don't know why though since we even shared some of our classes. Maybe I'd just pushed her out of my mind a little bit.

I turned to look at Steve, his jaw was clenched but he didn't seem angry. He looked sad but resolute at the same time and I felt that I was supposed to do something. After all, he'd done so much for me only this morning. Without knowing what else to do, I took one of his hands in mine and did the same thing as Leslie. He squeezed me back, only really lightly, as if he was lost in thought. After a few seconds, he seemed to come back to the real world and he gave me a slight smile.

The rest of the lunch was kind of quiet. At least, Steve wasn't really saying anything except 'yes' or 'no'. Leslie and I tried to keep up a conversation but Steve's condition worried us. I said goodbye ten minutes before the bell was supposed to ring. My classroom was at the other end of the school so I needed the extra time if I didn't want to be late. Walking to my locker in a quick pace, I tried not to look at anyone else in the corridor. I was hoping to blend in with the crowd.

I reached my locker without any mishaps, it was kind of an relief, even though I wasn't safe yet. The corridors seemed dangerous as I walked towards my next class. Walking alone made a big difference in the atmosphere for me, I would've preferred being dragged by Trudy. As I came closer to my Physics classroom I noticed a pile of boxes walking towards me. Well, I was pretty sure that there was a person behind the boxes. The hands gripping the bottom box seemed to be straining against the weight and I quickly rushed to help out. Kim looked at me with surprise as I grabbed the box at the top. It really was heavy, that surprised me since Kim wasn't known for being muscular.

“Thanks Mark.” he said while breathing heavily. “Could you help me by carrying that to my office? It's not very far...”

“Sure, Gandalf.” I said without thinking but Kim just laughed while trying hard not to drop the boxes.

“Hehe, I see Trudy rubbed off on you.” He said, still chuckling. “She's kind of unique, but really kind.” We started to walk towards his office and it took me a minute before I opened my mouth again.

“Uhm... I didn't really mean to call you that...” I said feeling pretty embarrassed. Most teacher would've scolded me for calling them something like that.

“It's OK, Trudy calls me that all the time.” He grinned at me, I noticed that he was kind of attractive despite being older. “Especially since she came up with the fellowship idea.”

“Yeah... about that.” I said, unsure how to phrase my question. I decided that being blunt was the best approach.

“What's the deal with this fellowship? Trudy kind of just mentioned it before she took me by my arm and dragged me to your class...” Kim looked a little surprised for a second before he started to chuckle again.

“That sounds like Trudy, I thought James would've said something though.” He shook his head with amusement but then his expression turned serious.

“After Trudy heard the rumor circulating about you yesterday, she came to my office.” Kim said while looking sympathetic. “She said that she wanted to help you and asked me to at least keep you safe in my class.” I was staring at Kim, trying to see if he was telling the truth. Trudy doesn't even know me.

“Before I knew it, she'd gathered a group of people wanting to support you.” Kim flashed me a smile. “She even had the group name and special greeting ready.” he added with a laugh. Yet again. it took me a little while to respond.

“Why would they support me? I've never even talked to them.” I couldn't help feeling a little skeptical about all this.

“Well... they're all people who've had it... rough.” Kim said, frowning a little. “They understand your situation, and maybe... they want you to have the support they never had.” He looked a little sad when he said this.

I thought it all over, what he said was logical. Or at least it kind of made sense. We carried the boxes in silence and it didn't take long to reach his office. I was just about to say goodbye and leave when I suddenly thought of something I'd forgotten to ask.

“Uhm... why are you supporting me? I know that you're a teacher but, is that your reason?”

“That's part of it.” he said, giving me a slight smile. “But mostly, I have the same reasons as Trudy and the others.” It took me a little while to realize what he meant by that.

Oh.

“Thanks you for your help, Mark.” Kim shot me a grateful look and I just nodded. When he did that special greeting salute towards me I looked around the empty corridor before actually returning it. I felt a little silly doing it but Kim was the only person in sight so it didn't bother me too much.

Maybe 'the fellowship' was kind of cool after all...