Menorah - 1. Menorah

Following a delightful pasta dinner and an overindulgence of icecream, Elijah retired to the common room, determined to take a break from studying for his exams and relax for a while. He had a favourite spot on the couch, and before he'd even managed to open up his novel to his bookmark, Tiger sat down on the other side, shooting a gorgeous smile. Elijah blushed merrily, making sure to look away from the handsome Aboriginal teenager. As he looked down his book, Tiger slipped a folded paper note across the upholstery and Elijah, heart beating in his chest, dared to open it up.

Can I kiss you, please?
Unless someone sees!
To my room, then?
Eager to know when!

Elijah laughed out loud. Tiger's poetry was pretty bad, but that was never the point. Earlier in the year, a secret admirer left Elijah cryptic poems. Sweet and sincere, but they didn't seem to make sense until he finally cracked the code and realised it was Tiger all along! And now, as he looked at the first letter of each line, he turned crimson. When he dared to meet his sweetheart's eyes, he giggled. Banjo Connors, known to all as Tiger. He was very handsome, too. Dark-skinned with high cheekbones, a wide, flat nose and black hair streaked with orange highlights that inspired his nickname.

"You're going to get us found out!" Elijah bit his lip, pocketing the note and folding his legs.

"Nah. I wouldn't do that to you! Not until you're ready," the Aboriginal teenager reassured him, keeping a distance so none of the other boys would notice.

Elijah had never noticed how little privacy he had at Oakfield until he discovered a mutual attraction to one of his friends. There were fellow students everywhere, from the dormitories to the classrooms and the school grounds. Elijah shared his room with his best friend Cường Nguyễn - who chose Reggie as his English name - so he rarely had time to himself. The same held true for Tiger, who shared with the fourth member of their group, Owen Marsh. It wasn't as though Elijah wanted to break any school rules. He just wanted some alone time with the boy who stole his heart, and he wasn't ready to let everyone else know about him. What would Mum and Dad say?

"Oi Silverman," Reggie's voice was as loud as he was small, and Elijah spotted him immediately as he jaunted in from the corridor, Owen in tow. "We got you an early Christmas present!"

Elijah closed his book with a slight frown and put his feet on the blue carpet. "You know you don't have to do that. Neither of you is my secret Santa."

"As far as you know," Owen reminded him, his swimmer's arms folded over his chest.

Reggie skidded to a halt in front of him, almost losing his comically oversized spectacles from his small, round nose. He was holding something behind his back, and Elijah was almost fearful. Reggie's festive spirit bordered on the psychopathic. November had barely crept onto the calendar before the miniature plastic Christmas tree appeared on Reggie's desk. Elijah watched in curious awe as the weeks went by, and his Catholic friend cluttered up his workspace with more and more Christmas decorations. Now, in the second week of December, Reggie's excitement had reached a rabid fever pitch.

"Okay! Okay, I know, but I wanted to!" Reggie presented his friend with a small, clumsily wrapped box that appeared to be more sticky tape than it did gift paper. "Open it now!"

With a chuckle, Elijah began the awkwardly long unwrapping ceremony. A few other boys looked over the back of the couch or Reggie's shoulder, curious about what was so important that it needed to be presented right now. When at last he yanked the box from the vicelike grip of what had to be half a roll of tape, Elijah curiously pulled off the top of the box and his mouth opened in a joyous grin.

"Guys--" The words caught in Elijah's throat.

"Do you like it?" Reggie's narrow eyes shone with joy.

"Yeah. I love it! Thank you so much!"

"Marshy bought it, but it was my idea!" Reggie had to assert, causing Owen and Tiger to exchange light-hearted eyerolls.

Elijah beamed at his friends, taking the plastic nine-branched candle tree from the box and holding it up. It was a cheap ornament, of course, but that didn't matter. It was one of the most thoughtful gifts he'd ever received. Reggie and Owen were good guys, of course, but they weren't typically sensitive. He never would have expected this from them.

"What is it?" Chad Stone, an Eighth Year with strange, wiry blond hair asked.

"It's a Jewish thing," Tiger explained, leaning forward to look at it closely. "What's it called?"

"A hanukiah," Elijah couldn't shake off the grin on his face. "Mum, Dad and I put one of these up on our mantle for Hanukkah every year."

"Yeah! And it comes with little fires you can attach to the tops of the candles! Look!" Owen pointed to the eight small flames and Elijah's grin widened ear to ear.

"That is so cool," Tiger applauded from the side, and Elijah had to agree.

"I love this. It's amazing, Reg. Thanks a bunch," the Jewish boy closed his book and placed it beside him, leaving it forgotten as he played with the plastic fires and attached them.

"Yeah! Now come and put it up on the tree!" Reggie urged him, grabbing him by the forearm and yanking him unnecessarily hard to his feet.

"The tree?"

Elijah turned to look at the huge pine tree in the corner. It was the pride and joy of the Oakfield dormitories. Every one of the forty-three boarders contributing to decorating their common room for the Christmas season. Cutouts, ornaments and tinsel covered the walls and hung from the ceilings, but the Christmas tree was something special. It was immense, covered in hundreds of beautiful blinking lights, and every branch had something attached to it. Underneath, dozens of wrapped gifts of all shapes and sizes littered the floor for the annual Secret Santa event.

"Yeah!" Reggie was almost a blur as he ran across the room to the coveted Christmas tree. "Come and put it up here somewhere."

Elijah closed his novel and crossed to the tree with more poise than his friend did, the plastic menorah in his hand. With pride, he stood high on his toes to let it hang high from one of the branches. It looked good up there, he thought. Elijah didn't celebrate Christmas with his family. Still, he did enjoy being a part of the holiday cheer at the end of the school year. He'd already bought and wrapped his gift for an Eighth Year boy and placed it under the tree when nobody was around. Elijah's eyes also found a gift from his own Secret Santa, a small, neat package that looked suspiciously like two or three news books - not that it was a bad thing!

"You didn't have to do that for me, Reg," Elijah put a hand on his friend's shoulder, looking happily up at the menorah.

"I wanted to! Everything's all about Christmas right now, but I know you don't do Christmas and I didn't want you to feel left out or anything." Reggie wrapped up his friend in a 'bro hug' - a real hug might have damaged his masculinity.

Elijah couldn't put into words how much Reggie's gesture meant to him. The school accommodated Elijah's Jewish faith. If pork was on the menu for dinner, then the cook prepared something else for Elijah - usually something delicious like chicken or pasta. During the beginning of Passover this year, Elijah was permitted to refrain from attending class on Friday per his parents' wishes, so long as he caught up on everything he missed. But Reggie was more intuitive than Elijah would have guessed. Indeed, it did get lonely when everyone observed Christmas, and he didn't. It wasn't his holiday. It was a small gesture but powerful enough to make Elijah feel recognised and included.

That evening, Owen and Reggie teamed up against Bernard Veal and Lane Ericsson, two other Ninth Year boarders, in an increasingly aggressive game of table tennis. Meanwhile, Elijah was content to read a novel with the boy who wrote him such sweet things. Eventually, Mr Sanders hijacked the television to put on another Christmas movie. Tiger and Elijah's conversation about the writing style present in the novel they read together came to an abrupt end. Reggie forced himself on the couch between them, eager to watch his movie with his friends.

~

Later on that evening, before curfew, the two gay boys stood together in Tiger's room, enjoying their precious few minutes alone.

"You don't need to worry, Eli. I promise I'm not in any rush. Just being with you when you read your book or take forever to finish a cupcake is enough for me," Tiger reminded him again. "I love you! I love you so much, and I think I'm the luckiest guy in the world every time you hold my hand."

Elijah never tired of hearing those words. He often felt guilty about his budding relationship with his friend. He hadn't explored his feelings as much as he would have liked to during the school year. With the lack of privacy and the anxiety brewing inside about how his friends and family might react to the news, he thought it best to focus on his studies until he knew what he wanted. But these small moments with Tiger, the sweet notes, beautiful sentiments and gentle kisses when nobody was looking, went a long way to diffusing the boy's doubts. He felt the same way. Through the confusion and uncertainty, he knew that much.

"I love you too!" Elijah beamed, then he absent-mindedly covered his mouth with his hand.

"Why do you do that?" Tiger pulled his hand away.

"I hate my teeth," Elijah shrank back slightly, wary of his braces and that one pimple that just wouldn't go away under the left corner of his bottom lip.

"I suppose I can't legally stop you from hating your teeth, but it's a shame because when you smile, it's like the sun shines from you," Tiger kissed him on the lips again. "They're only braces. You're so gorgeous, and I wish you'd accept it. Can I kiss you again tomorrow?"

"Yes!" Elijah's heart pounded with excitement. They would part ways on Friday as school finished for the year, and would not return until the beginning of February. Elijah intended to kiss him as much as he could! "Goodnight. Sleep tight. Don't let Owen bite!"

"But he will snore. That's for damn sure. What an uproar. Against the law! " Tiger's smile widened as sweetheart laughed at his silliness. "You, I adore. Forevermore. Am I a bore? Please reassure. Don't just ignore! Bad rhymes galore! Want an encore? Tyrannosaur!"

"You're an idiot! The cutest idiot!" Elijah, laughing heartily, broke away and left before Owen caught him out.

He had already brushed his teeth, filled a cup with water, changed into his pyjamas and tucked himself into his bed by the time Reggie arrived, escorted by the Eleventh Year prefect, Christian Li. The Vietnamese boy would stay up all night and sleep the daylight away if allowed. Sleepy, thinking of Tiger, Elijah closed his eyes after lights out, but as usual, Reggie's heavily accented voice disturbed him.

"I don't really want to go home this year."

"Home? To Lào Cai?"

"Yeah. I wish I was going home with you."

Elijah sighed, sticking out two of his limbs from the covers. It was a hot night. "I wish you were coming home too. The farm is so boring by myself. But what about Christmas? I can't help but notice you've been looking forward to it for a while now."

"Yes! Of course! But it won't be the same without you. I know I should be excited about seeing my parents and my annoying sister again, but... I don't know. I'm just not."

Elijah could sense from the flatness of Reggie's usually energetic tone that he was unhappy. "No, man. I get it. I think. I mean, we're living in each other's pockets, what? Forty-five weeks of the year? And how often do we see our families? Ninety days from three hundred and sixty-five. Or thereabouts. I don't know. I'm not good with numbers."

"A hundred and twelve," Reggie, talented in different ways than Elijah, was a whizz at mathematics. "For you, that is. It's forty-six for me."

"Then Tyson goes home every weekend. I wish I could do that."

"Well, it could be worse. Dong doesn't go home ever."

Circumstances were very different between the thirty students who boarded at Oakfield, a private school for exceptional students. Elijah, Tiger and Bernard's families lived quite some distance away. Reggie was a student from overseas! Tyson Belmont-Lovett spent the week at school, then went home with his foster family during weekends. Dong Hoon Kim was once a daytime student, but now he was a permanent boarder because he had no family to go home to anymore. But the differences paled to what the boys had in common. They lived together most of the year, and a bond existed between them that the daytime students could never understand. Elijah wasn't an only child - he had twenty-nine brothers.

"Would you still want to come home with me, even if it meant you wouldn't get to do Christmas?" Elijah asked his friend curiously.

Reggie was silent for a while. "I don't know, Silverman."

"I know I'd do Christmas with you! And Mum, too. I just don't know about Dad. He's happy to take you to Mass on Good Friday, but I think both Christmas and Easter might be too much for him."

"Is Hanukkah as much fun as Passover?" Reggie's bed creaked as the boy clumsily turned over.

"No, because you're not there to hit on my cousins!" Elijah poked fun, and Reggie's giggles echoed around the room. "Man, I'm gonna miss you so much. I wish you could stay with me all year round. I know Mum, at least, would say yes if we asked. She loves you - so much it almost makes me uncomfortable! When we go home she's like 'oh hi Coo-wong darling sweetheart, look how big you're getting, I missed you so much, it's so good to see you - oh, yeah, gday Eli.'"

Reggie's laugh turned into a small series of snorts - a sign that he thought something was really, really funny. "I love the Easter holidays. Especially being with you guys during Passover. I like it more than Christmas with my own family. But don't ever tell my mum I said that."

"How could I if I wanted to? I've never met her. I suppose I could track her down. I mean, how many Nguyễns can there possibly be in Vietnam?"

But Reggie wasn't interested in more jokes. "Shut up, Silverman. I'm trying to talk to you here."

He grimaced to himself. "Sorry, Reg. Go on."

It took the other boy a little while to decide what he wanted to say. "I just don't feel like part of my own family anymore. We have nothing to talk about when I'm over there. They don't know anything about me. But I'm not a part of yours. I don't know where I'm supposed to fit in. So, yeah. I'd give up Christmas to come and hang with you all Summer."

"You know, I always wondered why I never had a brother. I always wanted one. Being alone on the farm gets so lonely without someone to hang out with," Elijah admitted, sitting up in his bed and pushing brown curls behind his ears. "Then I met you, and I realised I was lucky because I could choose my brother! Maybe if Mum and Dad had another kid, they'd be a complete pain in the neck! I mean, you're also a pain in the neck, but you're the best brother anyone ever had."

"Wow, that's gay," Reggie deflected, shielding his masculinity as emotion made his voice crack. Elijah wished he wouldn't do that, or at least, make gay jokes, but he wasn't sure how he could address the issue without giving himself away. "I s'pose I feel the same way. I'm gonna miss you so much, Silverman. No homo."

"I'll miss you too, mate. You better text me all the time. I'll be so bored. So will Herbie. He won't have anyone to bully."

"Don't talk about him! I hate that racist goat!"

"Not as much as he hates you!"

Elijah giggled, remembering the last school break. Herbie genuinely despised Reggie for unknown reasons and charged at him on sight. The poor Catholic boy found himself marooned on the trampoline in the back yard while Herbie circled him with bloodlust in his eyes. It was a scene straight out of Jaws. Elijah rescued him, of course, but not before laughing himself stupid. His smile faded when he realised he, like his friend, wasn't excited to go home for the five-week break. It was going to be lonely.

~

The next morning, as Elijah watched in increasing disgust as Owen squeezed enough honey to drown his over-buttered toast, Reggie appeared. He flew through the doorway and slammed his hands on his friends' table hard enough to spill Owen's overfilled tea mug. Tiger snickered from behind his chapter on comparative text responses, doing some last-minute cramming for their exam today.

"Careful! What is wrong with you?" Owen scowled at him irritably, never in a good mood until he'd finished his breakfast.

"Your menorah's gone from the tree!" Reggie furiously informed Elijah, who looked at him strangely. "The one we gave you last night! Me and Marsh! Someone's taken it off!"

"What?" Elijah screwed up his nose. That seemed odd.

"Are you sure it didn't just fall or something?" Owen put in, analysing his toast to find where he could pick up his toast without getting honey all over his fingers.

"It's not there! I looked everywhere, but it's gone!" Reggie insisted. "Come and see!"

Elijah would have been much happier to finish his sweetened porridge and decaf coffee, but he knew that Reggie would only get increasingly agitated if he didn't indulge him. With a sigh, he put down his mug and let an outraged Reggie lead him to the common room, where some of the more introverted boarders preferred to have their breakfast rather than in the busy, noisy dining room. Elijah passed Artie McDonald, a very shy Seventh Year, Rajesh Laghari, and Dong on his way to see that, indeed, the hanukiah was missing from the branch he'd hung it on.

"Who would do that?" Reggie flared, brown arms folded across his chest.

"I don't know," Elijah frowned. If someone did indeed take it down, that was very disappointing. "Maybe it was an accident."

"I'm telling you I already looked everywhere down here in case it fell! But it's not here! Someone took it! Rrrgh!" Reggie spun around to look at the three other boys in the room, all of whom were curiously eyeing them off. "Did you take down Elijah's menorah from the tree?"

Artie silently shook his head no. Dong shrugged, pausing his game of Street Fighter on the big television to turn and watch. Rajesh, an Islamic student in Tenth Year, looked appalled from the table, where his cornflakes slowly went soggy in their bowl of milk.

"I saw it there last night," Rajesh put in, his voice quiet. "But I didn't see anyone take it down."

Dong swallowed his bite of toast before speaking. "That's a jerk move. Do you think someone was upset that you put a Jewish symbol on a Christian tree?"

"I hope it wasn't like that," Elijah mumbled, going cold. "That would be... disappointing."

"I'll find out who it was and I'll give them a piece of my mind!" Reggie vowed, turning on his heel and storming back out as quickly as he'd arrived. "Disrespectful! I'll show them disrespectful!"

"Oh, dear," Elijah grimaced as he followed at a much more subdued pace. "This isn't how I wanted to end the school year."

"Is it really a big deal?" Artie asked innocently in a small, falsetto voice that hadn't broken yet. "It's just an ornament."

"It is. Perhaps to you, it's just an ornament, because Christmas is so widely celebrated here. Elijah is the only Jewish person here. That ornament means a lot to him," Rajesh softly and patiently explained, his voice fading as Elijah returned to his table.

"So it's really gone, then?" Owen's perpetual frown seemed to be of concern rather than general moodiness. "Really?"

"Yeah. It is," Elijah sat back down. "What happened to Reg? I thought I was following him."

"No, he didn't come back this way," Tiger mused, closing his textbook and stabbing his poached egg so that yolk trickled down onto the blackened toast. "Are you alright, Eli?"

Elijah's eyes combed over the other boys in the dining hall. Could one of them have been offended by his attempt to join in on their holiday? The thought was troubling. Only last night, he'd been reflecting on how inclusive and tightly knit the boarders were. He thought they accepted him the way he accepted them. All of them. The idea that someone would reject him because he was Jewish was an upsetting one. Could it really be true? He didn't want to believe it of them, but he couldn't deny that it had been taken. It certainly hadn't fallen or been placed elsewhere.

"Ahh, it's nothing," he mumbled, his spirits dampened. "We have exams all day and Secret Santa tonight. I don't want to ruin everyone's day with it."

"But what your day, Eli?" Owen snapped. He'd managed to eat his main course of honey with a side of toast and, as Elijah predicted, made a mess of his tank top. "Screw that. You had every right to hang your menorah thing on the tree. It's not like anyone owns the tree!"

"Seconded. It's almost 2020. Religious discrimination belongs in the last century," Tiger's usually calm, flippant expression had turned sour as well.

Elijah felt awful. "Please don't make a fuss."

But of course, when Reggie returned, his eyes full of fervour behind his huge glasses, the Deputy Principal followed him. Elijah felt like a deer in the headlights all of a sudden. Mr Kingston permanently resided in the Oakfield dormitories and remained in charge of the students in the school's care. Most trivial infractions were handled by the Eleventh and Twelfth Year prefects, who mediated arguments and enforced minor disciplinary measures. If the strict and rigid Mr Kingston appeared, however, then he meant business.

"Good morning, boys. Spoons down and eyes on me, please. We need to have a little talk," Mr Kingston raised his voice, firm and full of authority as it drowned out the chatter in the room.

Elijah wanted to die. To fall into some void or disappear into the aether. This was the last place he wanted to be, and as Reggie sat down with his friends again, Elijah shot him a confused look and received a pointed shrug in return. Mr Kingston continued, now that he had everybody's attention.

"I got some disappointing news. We had an ornament placed on our big tree in the common room yesterday - an important, meaningful Jewish symbol. I saw it for myself last night when I turned everything off and locked up before bed. It's not there now. I had a look around, and it sure didn't fall off somewhere. It's gone. I'm not happy about this, boys. This kind of discrimination has no place at Oakfield. Does anyone have any information?"

A slight murmur rippled its way through the room as Elijah looked down at his near-empty bowl, red with embarrassment and shame. He didn't want to go home when he woke up. Now, he would have done anything to flee back to the remote farmhouse in northern Victoria. Nobody had anything to say, and Mr Kingston's expression darkened. He was intimidating as he began to slowly pace between the tables.

"It's a plastic menorah. It's like a candlestick with eight extra branches. Silver coloured with blue candles with candlelight screwed on top. Quite a lovely ornament, I thought. It's a real shame that someone disagreed enough to take it down. This type of thing is unacceptable, and it can get you into a lot of trouble. So, I ask the one who took the menorah from the tree to come and see me before school or during recess or lunch period. If nobody has come forward by then, you will all come back to this dining hall after the last bell for detention."

This wasn't received well at all. Objections sounded from every corner of the room.

"What?" James Watson bellowed from behind.

"But I have swimming after school!" Owen pleaded.

"I need to go to the shops!" Chad whined.

"What about Secret Santa?" Lane asked.

"Quiet!" Mr Kingston raised his voice again, loud but not yelling. That didn't make him any less scary. "I will not tolerate any kind of discriminatory behaviour. I expect the student responsible to own up to their actions by the end of lunchtime. If not, we will all sit here in the dining hall until they do. That's my final word."

The bitter energy that started with Reggie and spread through his friends had now infected every boarder in Oakfield. After the Deputy Principal left, angry chatter filled the hall.

"It's just an ornament! Why would you take it down?"

"Who cares?"

"I don't want detention because of some idiot!"

"Whoever it was, don't be such a pig!"

Elijah couldn't handle it. He felt responsible, and he rushed his way out, forgetting to wash his bowl and spoon and leaving them behind. He kept his eyes low as he dressed in school uniform and tied his brown curls into a bun. As he straightened his tie, Reggie came in, and Elijah couldn't bear to look at him.

"Yo, Silverma--"

"Just don't. Please. Everyone probably hates me now thanks to you," Elijah mumbled disconsolately, grabbing his dictionary and pens for his English Literature exam and pushing his way past.

"Elijah!" Reggie called out after him. Elijah knew that Reggie only ever called him by his first name in exceptional circumstances, but he couldn't bring himself to look back.

~

Exams were stressful as a universal rule, but for the boarders, there was an extra edge of duress. The day students noticed this, but beyond a few probing questions in the name of gossip, they mostly stayed out of it. There were forty-eight Ninth Year students, but only seven of them were boarders. Elijah wasn't especially close with Lane, Dong or Bernard, but in classes, the seven always stuck together. The day students generally perceived the boarders as snobby and tribal and preferred to leave them alone. Similarly, the boarders looked down on the day students as privileged and ignorant. They had no idea what it was like to leave their family for weeks at a time.

Throughout recess and lunch, the boarders were desperate to find out from each other if anyone had come forward. Nobody seemed to have an answer one way or another. After the final bell, Elijah's worst fears came true when he returned from the main building to the dormitories and passed an angry Mr Kingston. The Deputy Principal, glaring and lurking by the corridor, directed his charges to the dining room. How could this have happened? Who would go to so much trouble to exclude Elijah from the Christmas holiday? And why were they prepared to make everyone suffer through detention? Surely there had to be a mistake. He didn't want to believe that anyone in the dormitories could be so malicious. Or cowardly.

Thirty boys sat silent and sulking in the dining room by half-past three, after all of them had a chance to go to the toilet, to have a snack from the daily fruit platter on the bench and fill a bottle with water. This was all so unfair! Twenty-nine innocent students had to give up their last night in Oakfield and sit in the dining hall because of the actions of one person! As the clock ticked by and Mr Kingston came down on anyone who whispered to their neighbour, Elijah only got more upset. Eyes flickered to him over and over, and Reggie stared at him from across the table, trying to mouth an apology to him. An hour in, Elijah couldn't stand the thought that this was all because of him.

"I'm sorry, everybody. About this," Elijah spoke up, and everyone's head turned to look at him.

"Nobody blames you," Bernard gruffly told him two tables away.

"It's not your fault, Elijah," Mr Kingston himself reassured him from his desk. "Now, no more talking, please."

"So if you recognise it's not Elijah's fault, then why did you give him detention with the rest of us?" The haughty, indignant words of Tyson Belmont-Lovett made Elijah's heart skip a beat when they broke the tense silence.

"I said quiet," Mr Kingston's tone was icy cold.

"Actually, sir, I think that's a great question," Owen raised his hand and ignored Elijah's frantic whispered pleas for him to desist. "Can Elijah go?"

"No," Mr Kingston glared at him.

"But he didn't do anything wrong!" Chad protested.

Christian Li, the rule-worshipping prefect whose rigidity had become a running joke among the younger boarders, surprised everyone when he spoke up. "Sir, with all due respect, I don't think punishing Elijah for being a victim is fair."

"Where's the lie? It makes no sense," Lane added as more boys began to find their voices.

"Quiet!" Mr Kingston yelled, looking livid, and the buzzing of voices abruptly stopped.

That didn't stop Tiger, though. His courage was inspiring, and Elijah could have kissed him in front of everyone. "So, hands up everyone who thinks Elijah shouldn't have to be in detention right now."

Half the room raised their hands immediately. Others took a few seconds longer, and a big purple vein in Mr Kingston's temple began to pulse. Even the four prefects were in agreement. Everyone was. Just like that, the weight on Elijah's shoulders was lifted. He'd been worried all day about alienating his brothers, terrified that they would resent him.

"Put your hands down, stay in your seats, and keep your mouths closed!" Mr Kingston roared, standing up from his desk. "The next person to speak might well find themselves in detention all night long."

"Hands up anyone who would stay here all night if it meant Elijah was allowed to leave," Tiger defiantly put his hand in the air again. Rebelling against the establishment was in his blood. Both of his parents loved to challenge authority, and the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Tears filled Elijah's eyes when everyone's hands, a little more slowly this time, reached for the spinning ceiling fans above. He thought they'd resent him, that they might think to accommodate his Jewish faith was more trouble than it was worth. Now, more than ever, he found it hard to believe that one of these guys could be so hateful. Everybody in this room was willing to go through detention with their Deputy Principal to spare him. That message touched his heart.

"Nobody leaves until the guilty person comes forward," Mr Kingston reminded them, knuckles white as he gripped the far side of his desk. "Hands down! And Banjo, you can report--"

"I did it," Dong Hoon Kim stood up, and his chair scraped along the floor, and everyone gasped. Elijah's eyes bugged out of his skull. He couldn't believe it! "I took it this morning. I'm sorry."

The guilty student hung his head and slumped his shoulders. Mr Kingston looked incredibly pleased with himself, having located the culprit.

"Did you indeed?" The Deputy Principal asked him, a slight gloat evident in his tone. "Go to my office, Kim. Quickly." Dong didn't stay long. He rushed from the room as though everyone was ready to tar and feather him, and with him gone, Mr Kingston looked at everyone else. "Had it been any other day of the week, I would keep the lot of you here for a while longer to teach you some manners. But it's the end of the year, and you've just completed your exams. We're all tired and stressed out. So you're all free to go. I'll see you at eight o'clock for Secret Santa."

Mr Kingston did not apologise for anything. Even if he did, Elijah knew that not one student in that hall would forgive him. The whispering turned into a dull roar as the students discussed the day they'd had on their way to the common room or their bedrooms. It wasn't too late for the boys to follow up on their plans, so Owen went to the pool, a few of the others ducked out to the nearby shops, and Tiger pulled out his easel. Elijah didn't like the thought that Dong would so something like that. There was no ill-feeling between them, at least none he could think of. Dong seemed so friendly and civil, sullen at times but never mean. Why would he do it? He didn't have anything to gain. Maybe he just didn't think it would go so far.

Or he was covering for someone, Elijah realised suddenly. Owning up to something he didn't do so everyone else could go free.

"It wasn't him, was it?" Elijah asked Bernard the moment he found the acne-scarred farmer's boy in the kitchen, brewing up a pot of his flavoured tea. "Dong didn't do it."

"Nope. He took one for the team," Bernard's voice was always gruff even with his best friends, making him sound as though he'd prefer to be talking to anyone else. "I mean, it's not like he's got parents for old Kingston to call. I guess he figured they'd go easy on him because of... yeah. You know."

Elijah bit his bottom lip again. "I should thank him."

"Yeah. He'd like that," Bernard gave a small grin, but he did not offer his friendly acquaintance any tea on his way past. It wasn't his style, it seemed.

Elijah returned to the common room with his Nintendo Switch, and he took his favourite spot on the couch. He hooked up Mario Kart with Owen as well as Harry Kenna and Liam Weiss, two Seventh Year boys. As the minutes ticked down to dinner, Reggie, Tyson and Artie took turns playing for each other on the piano. Tiger returned and played some billiards with Christian, who became comically competitive as his opponent hustled a bar of chocolate from him. Chad, Lane and Rajesh all rushed in to toss their Secret Santa gifts under the tree at the last minute. How anyone could stomach the stress of procrastinating for so long was another mystery Elijah would never solve. Like who took the hanukkiah. He shot a loving look to Tiger, being cute as he bantered with a flustered Christian. To be fair, no mystery would live up to his first one.

~

Following a delicious dinner of far too many roast potatoes and lamb, then two servings of vanilla slice for dessert, Elijah looked forward to Secret Santa. Yet when all had gathered near the tree, he noticed someone was missing.

"Where's Dong?" He asked, and tall, muscular, future-athlete Lane glowered.

"Eh, stuck in his room tonight. Kingston says if he won't respect other religions, he's not allowed to participate in Secret Santa," said the fair-haired jock.

Elijah felt guilty again. No, not guilty - angry! When would the punishment fit the crime? Mr Kingston might have thought he was doing the right thing, but he was only making everything so much worse. He turned and saw Reggie looking forlorn and uncomfortable ten feet away, and he couldn't help but approach. It had only been half a day, and already he missed his best friend so much.

"I'm sorry," both boys said in unison, and then all the tension vanished when they grinned and started laughing together.

"No, no, no! I really am sorry! You were just trying to do the right thing," Elijah recovered first and finished his apology. "I'm sorry I was a jerk today."

"I should have asked first before I got Kingston. Man, I wish I never did that," Reggie's mouth formed a hard, frustrated line. "I'm sorry. I just couldn't deal when someone was disrespecting you like that. And Dong!"

"It wasn't Dong. I don't know who it was, but it wasn't him," Elijah hugged himself with his arms, hoping it would make that bad feeling go away. "Thanks for showing that you care, Reg. It means a lot."

"Gay," Reggie smirked.

"...Yeah. Maybe."

"What?"

"Gay."

"I know, Elijah" Reggie's magnified eyes were impossible to read behind his huge glasses. His voice was quiet and solemn, which wasn't like him.

Elijah, burning, bit his lower lip. "You know?"

Reggie nodded. "You were way too happy when Admirer X sent you all those love letters and sketches. I might need glasses, but I'm not blind, you know."

"Oh."

After a pause, Reggie spoke again. "Whatever happened with Admirer X? Did you ever find out who it was?"

Elijah almost panicked. It was one thing to come out Reggie, but he didn't want to throw Tiger from the closet too. "No. I'm pretty sure it was all just a joke."

"Ah. Bummer."

"So... does this change anything?" Elijah asked nervously, not ready to change the subject until he knew where he stood. "Would you still want to come home with me, even if it meant you'd be hanging out with someone who's... gay?"

"What kind of dumb question is that? I've already been going to the farm with you," Reggie's smile was everything Elijah wanted to see. "Plus, we're brothers, right? As long as you protect me from your devil goat, we're cool. Always. It just means more hot chicks for me!"

Elijah had almost drawn blood chewing on his lower lip, but now, he was relieved. He felt so much better. "I'm so happy we're brothers, but please don't sleaze all over my cousins next time we bring you to the Seder. And, also, can you please stop making gay jokes? I mean, I know you're only messing around, but I don't like it."

"Yeah, man. I'm sorry. I didn't think about it that way," Reggie kicked the floor with his toes. "How about this? If you keep that racist goat away from me, I'll never make another gay joke again!"

"It's a deal!"

Mr Kingston kickstarted Secret Santa by picking up the first gift - for Joe Cross, a simple box of chocolates that he was more than grateful for. Tiger received a small collection of new paintbrushes, and he held them triumphantly in the air as though it were baby Simba at Pride Rock. Reggie enjoyed his t-shirt with a risque woman in a bikini printed on it, even if Mr Kingston certainly did not! Owen got a confusing present of a deodorant gift basket which left him asking people if he smelled. When Tyson opened up his gift, Elijah tried to hide his excitement. His heart sang when Tyson's eyes lit up with joy as he found the books of sheet music for the piano and flute that Elijah picked out for him a week ago. The Eighth Year lad thanked his Secret Santa from his heart. It was lovely.

Elijah was one of the last to receive a gift, but to his surprise, it wasn't the book-shaped package he'd been eyeing off for a couple of days now. This was a ball of candy cane paper and tape, not unlike Reggie's clumsily wrapped present the day before. His look of confusion was shared by Rajesh, he noticed. He unwrapped the gift to reveal a small box, and inside was a little plastic menorah, not unlike the one that had caused so much trouble in the last twenty-four hours. This one was smaller and copper-coloured, and it held no candles. It looked very cheap.

"What?" Rajesh blurted out. "That's not the gift I got you."

"Wow. Spoiler alert," Owen remarked, drawing a few laughs.

"This one," Rajesh grabbed one of the two remaining gifts from under the pine branches, the rectangular prism with a neat bow and Elijah's name written on the little card in beautiful calligraphy.

"So who got this one for you?" Reggie asked, perplexed.

Mr Kingston reached for the final gift. "The last one here is for Dong, so nobody's got someone the wrong thing. I guess this must be an apology from Mr Kim."

It wasn't from Dong. Everyone except Mr Kingston knew that the Korean-Australian took the blame to spare everyone detention, though Elijah suspected that Mr Kingston knew that too. He was swift to believe that Dong, who had never hurt a soul in his life, took that ornament from the Christmas tree in an act of antisemitism. Perhaps he saw it as a convenient way out when the boys in detention began to put pressure on him for being unfair. But he was pretty certain sure he knew who this anonymous gift was from. Not Secret Santa, but from someone who wanted to make amends. He searched the crowd, and when he found the pair of eyes he was looking for, the guilt in them as they peeked back only confirmed his suspicion.

Elijah was thrilled with the gift from his real Secret Santa. He shook Rajesh's hand as he hugged the three new hardcover copies of Maze Runner, Scorch Trials and Death Cure. He'd already enjoyed the trilogy, but he'd borrowed the water damaged and crinkled copies from the library. These were his! And he would take excellent care of them. With the game finished, the boys were free to spend the evening how they wanted to. Elijah needed to speak with one of them, though. He leaned in close to the boy's ear and whispered.

"I know it was you. Can we talk by the library for a minute?" When the younger boy looked mortified, Elijah spoke again. "I'm not mad. I just want to know how it happened."

The library was long closed. Elijah was almost positive nobody would disturb their conversation down here. He didn't want to get anyone in trouble. But the boy had been curious about the hanukiah when he saw it unwrapped. He was alarmed when Mr Kingston mentioned detention because he wanted to go to the shops - quite urgently. He was one of the people who threw in a gift for Secret Santa moments before the deadline. Sure enough, Chad Stone sheepishly poked his head around the corner. He looked like a ghost! His strangely wiry blond hair stuck out in weird angles, making it look like he'd just been hit by lightning. Elijah made sure to smile at him.

"Hey, Chad. It's not as nice as the one Reggie and Owen gave me, but it's the thought that counts," Elijah held up the menorah.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Chad was almost shaking, and Elijah was shocked. Why was he so scared? "It was an accident!"

"What accident?"

Chad swallowed. "I only wanted to look and I... was going to put it back, but I broke it. I didn't mean it, I swear!"

"Aww, you could have told me!" Elijah couldn't help but laugh in relief at such an innocent explanation.

"I didn't want to hurt your feelings! You were really happy when you got it, and I broke it, and... uhh..." Chad leaned against the wall and let the back of his head hit it with a thunk. "I was going to replace it but everything went wrong! I didn't think anyone would notice, but Reggie did, and he brought Mr Kingston into it, and I couldn't go to the shop to get a new one because we were in detention!"

"Why didn't you go to Mr Kingston and tell him the truth? That it was just an accident?" Elijah asked him.

"I wanted to, but he said all that stuff about how much trouble I'd be in because he said I was doing religious discrimination and all that! I didn't know if he'd understand!" Chad sniffled and covered his face. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry! This is all my fault, and I didn't know what to do."

"Mr Kingston didn't make it easy for anyone to come forward, did he?" Elijah leaned against the wall next to the poor, scared kid. "Really, it's okay. It was all a misunderstanding. No hard feelings from me. But please, mate, next time something like this happens, promise me you won't try to cover it up! Because you're awful at it."

The light-hearted comments cheered Chad up, and he chuckled, but he still looked worried. "I guess I should own up now, huh?"

"Yeah, man, I think that's for the best. Don't worry, man. The guys will understand! Even though it got messy, you tried to make things right."

Inspired by Elijah's forgiveness, Chad quickly found the courage to clear Dong's name by telling the unfortunate and remarkably harmless truth to the Deputy Principal. The youngster was sentenced to an early bedtime for not owning up when his peers were being punished for his mistake. Still, in Elijah's opinion, it was a rotten thing for Mr Kingston to do in the first place. Dong's face returned to the common room, greeted by a mild chorus of grateful and impressed cheers, and everyone crowded around to watch him gleefully unwrap an Xbox Gift Card from his Secret Santa.

"That was an awesome thing you did today," Elijah told his video game obsessed friend. "Thank you."

"No sweat. A night on my own isn't much trouble. There's a reason I keep a secret 3DS and charger under my mattress," Dong bragged, smiling merrily as he sunk his teeth into the chocolate bar Tiger had shared with him. "Thanks for getting Chad to speak up. How'd you figure out it was him?"

Elijah smiled modestly, covering his teeth with his hand. "It wasn't too hard. I only had to look for the person trying to fix everything, and he was there in plain sight."

"You should dead set be a detective one day. You're always into those puzzles and mysteries and codes. I owe you one."

"Why?"

"I mean, do you think Chad would have said anything if you didn't work out it was him?"

Elijah's brown eyes flickered. "I'd like to think so. He was just so anxious and scared. He messed up, and Mr Kingston turned it into a witch hunt."

"LOL," Dong had a unique habit of using social media abbreviations in conversation. "Thanks anyway."

"Hey, I know we're not super close, but if you're not doing anything these holidays, you can come and stay with me on the farm at some point. If you like."

Dong's sad eyes lit up like Elijah hadn't seen in a long time. "I'm actually going to stay with Bernie on his family's farm, but that's really cool of you, Eli. We should hang out more next year! Five weeks between now and then. You have plenty of time to get better at Mario Kart, you scrub."

~

Later, before bed, Elijah and Tiger held hands during their nightly rendezvous. It would be their last one before they both went home to their families. Melancholy hung in the air as they stood together in a long, warm embrace and slowly rocked back and forth.

"You know you can come and stay over. Or I can come to you," Tiger reassured him, nuzzling his face against Elijah's neck. His hair smelled of his apple-scented shampoo. "Five weeks is a long time."

"I'd really like that. Maybe we can spend some actual time together without our nosey friends all up in our business."

"You know, if we told them why we wanted to be alone, they'd probably understand," Tiger suggested in a gentle, patient voice.

"I told Reggie," Elijah informed him, and Tiger leaned backwards with that familiar look of delighted intrigue. "Yep! Earlier. He was... a bit awkward, but actually really cool with it."

"The thick plottens! You didn't tell me you were going to come out to anyone."

"I didn't plan on it! It just happened. Everyone proved today how much they have my back, so... I wasn't scared to tell him. It felt great, actually. Maybe tomorrow, I'll tell Owen too!"

Tiger sat down on the foot of his bed. "Wow! I didn't see this coming. Look at you!"

"Because I'm cute?" Elijah smiled, but this time, he didn't cover his teeth with his hand.

"Oh, you have no idea," Tiger beckoned with his fingers, and Elijah sat down next to him on the bed, eagerly leaning into the intimate embrace. "I'm proud of you."

"Thank you," Elijah rested his head on Tiger's shoulder. "Perhaps you could tell them too - if you want. I can introduce you as my boyfriend."

Tiger let out an ecstatic gasp, grinning from ear to ear. "Did you just say the b-word?"

"Maybe," Elijah shyly hid his face in his boyfriend's neck.

"Elijah Silverman is my boyfriend!" Tiger squeaked happily. "I like the sound of that!"

~

The next morning, Owen and Reggie stared across the dining table at their newly outed gay friends, their jaws hanging open.

"YOU were Admirer X the whole time?" Owen pointed an accusing finger at Tiger, who smirked back.

"Yep. Ran circles around the two of you, didn't I?" He gloated as Elijah smiled shyly into his fruit salad.

"And you've been together ever since?" Owen asked again, the honey dripping from the toast in his hand onto the table underneath.

"Sort of?" Elijah turned to look fondly at his boyfriend. "We made it official last night, but we've been... well, close since I figured out it was him."

"And you never told us!" Reggie flared excitedly, hitting the table with his hand and getting a stern look from Christian. "I thought it was weird that Admirer X just vanished out of nowhere when we were getting so close to working it out! I knew you were hiding something from me, Silverman. And Tiges, I would never have guessed!"

"Well, I'm fairly confident we've run out of secrets," Tiger drummed his fingers against the tabletop.

"Wow, so many of my friends are coming out as gay. What gives?" Reggie's eyes bounced between his friends, then he turned his head to Owen. "Marshy? Anything you wanna tell me, mate?"

All four boys laughed heartily as Owen and Reggie began to play-wrestle until Christian once again told them to settle down. Elijah looked around the room at all of his fellow boarders. He was going to miss them all. He shot a comforting smile at Chad, who was still shaken by the whole debacle. At least he did the right thing in the end. He beamed at Rajesh when their eyes met, grateful for the very thoughtful gift. Never had Elijah Silverman ever felt so comfortable with himself than when he knew he belonged. He couldn't wait for the next school year to start.