About a Boy

On Thursday, after lunch, the boys filed into their RE classroom. Mrs. Porter was already sitting at her desk, and stood up when they started to go into the classroom. Kellin walked to his seat on the far side of the classroom, right in front of Mrs. Porter, and unpacked his exercise book, seeing as the school didn’t have enough money to afford enough textbooks for each student.
“Good afternoon, boys.” Mrs. Porter said, the teenagers immediately taking their seats. “Alright, so books out, write the title in the ‘Ethics’ section of your books.” She ordered, flipping through her PowerPoint to a title slide reading ‘Gay Marriage’.
“Great.” Kellin muttered under his breath, writing down the title. He glanced across the room to Vic, who was already muttering to Jaime, looking annoyed.
“Leviticus 18:22 reads: ‘Do not have sexual relations with man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.’ So- Oh, yes Vic?” She stopped when Vic raised his hand.
“So is being gay wrong in the Catholic Church’s point of view?” He asked dryly. Kellin couldn’t help but smirk across the room at the other boy, who smiled wickedly back at him.
“Um… No…” Mrs. Porter shook her head.
“That’s what the quote suggests.” Vic crossed his arms, smiling again as Jaime laughed silently next to him.
“No! No-“
“Does the Catholic Church dislike gays?” He continued.
“No! Homosexual tendencies-“
“I mean, they won’t change the meaning of marriage so gay Catholics can marry too-“
“I- I’m aware-“
“So they don’t like gays.” Vic finished. Mrs. Porter watched him with a frown on her face for a moment, before sighing and turning away.
“You’re argument is… Valid, Vic. Also… Strong, but perhaps we, erm…”
“I get it. Can we just go back to how being gay is ‘detestable’ now?” Vic shrugged and copied down the notes on the board.
“I… Yes. But there are also many people and quotes that support homosexuality…”
____
“You’re insane.” Kellin said amusedly, walking slightly behind Vic as they made their way to Spanish.
“I mean, it’s true,” Vic shrugged. “Catholics clearly hate gays. I felt the need to express that.” Kellin smiled and shook his head in amusement, reaching forward to grab Vic’s hand. The other boy’s fingers entwined with Kellin’s own and they continued downstairs to the language corridor.
“Yeah, but… I dunno, I just kind of block it out. Ignore it.” He suggested, stepping into the Spanish classroom and walking to his seat, closely followed by Vic.
“I suppose…” Vic sighed. “It’s hard, to know you’re being discriminated against, I guess.” He shrugged and unpacked his bag slowly in preparation for the last lesson of the day.
____
Last period on a Friday was always Kellin’s favourite. He had Latin, and seeing as Dr. Stump was probably his favourite teacher, he enjoyed the lessons, regardless of the fact that it was one of his worst subjects.
“Alright, boys, settle down!” Dr. Stump called from the door, signalling that the lesson was to begin. The class immediately fell silent, and the teacher smiled as he logged into the slow computer and set all his folders onto the desk. “Good afternoon, boys.”
“Good afternoon, Dr. Stump.” The teenagers all chorused, and the man gestured for them all to sit down.
“I know it’s last period on a Friday, and normally I try to make this as painless as possible, but you guys… Aren’t my strongest class-“
“Hey!” Alex shouted, outraged. Dr. Stump simply laughed and continued.
“And I think you need a slight recap on your case endings.” He concluded, closely followed by a chorus of groans.
“Title: the ablative case.” He started, flicking through a PowerPoint with the title at the top. Kellin bit back a sigh and copied the title down. As much as he hated grammar, Dr. Stump was right: he knew that he at least (and probably most of his peers) needed to revise the ablative case. He didn’t even know what it was.
“How do you actually translate the ablative case first?” Dr. Stump looked expectantly around the room, met by a sea of blank faces. “Have I taught you nothing in four years?” He sighed dramatically and slumped in his seat.
“By, with or from.” Vic muttered, face covered by his long hair. Dr. Stump looked up gleefully.
“What was that, Vic?”
“By, with or from.” Vic repeated, faintly blushing as Kellin squeezed his knee supportingly.
“There we go!” Dr. Stump said delightedly, changing the slide so that a sentence saying what Vic had just answered appeared. “Someone’s going to pass.”
The boys copied down the notes boredly, all getting sick of doing grammar, until Dr. Stump asked another question.
“Somebody give me an example of a first declension noun.” He said. “Austin?”
“Erm… Polyspaston?” He suggested. Dr. Stump groaned lightly before shaking his head. The rest of the class laughed at the blushing boy, silencing instantly when Dr. Stump offered them a stern look.
“Not quite. Anyone else? Tino?”
“Portare?”
“How about a noun? Portare, to carry, is a verb, Tino.” Dr. Stump sighed and waved the rest of the hands down. “How do we recognise a first declension noun?”
“There’s an ‘a’ at the end.” Vic muttered, yet again.
“Why don’t you put your hand up?” Kellin asked, curiosity getting the best of him. “You always know all the answers.”
Vic shrugged. “I’d rather not attract loads of attention. I wanna just… Fly under the radar.”
“Okay boys, clearly you all need to come to Latin clinic… There’s usually an ‘a’ at the end. A good example is, therefore…”
“Puella!” Jesse called.
“Yes, Mr. Lawson!” Dr. Stump said, a small, tired grin on his face. “Okay… Does anyone, and for some reason I kind of doubt any of you do, does anyone know the singular ablative ending for a first declension noun?”
____
The class filed out of the Latin classroom, all excited for the weekend, but slightly annoyed as Dr. Stump had set them homework to recap the all the endings for the genitive, nominative and accusative cases for all five declensions, to have a test on Monday.
“This weekend has taken way too long to come.” Kellin sighed, leaning his head on Vic’s shoulder as they walked back to class.
“We’ve not even been back for a week, Kells.” Vic pointed out with a chuckle.
“I know. But I’m so sick of school. When’s Easter?” He perked up slightly at the thought of their next holiday.
“Four weeks.” Vic smiled at Kellin, who gasped slightly.
“Only a month left? That’s awesome.” He grinned.
“Yeah, but then we’ve got an eight week term.”
“What?” Kellin’s jaw dropped. “Isn’t that, like, illegal?”
“Sadly, no. Come on, I wanna go home.” Vic tugged Kellin into their form room, where Mr. Wentz was standing by the door, twisting a white board marker in his hands.
“I’ll miss you…” Kellin murmured quietly, following Vic to his desk. He hadn’t, however, wanted the other boy to hear him.
“Aww. Kells, I’ll miss you too.” Vic leaned forward and kissed Kellin for a moment, before pulling away and smiling. “Better?”
“Shut up.” Kellin muttered, blushing slightly. That blush deepened when Jesse clapped him on the back proudly, congratulating his friend for ‘finally getting some’. “Call me?” He continued to Vic, who was consulting his planner to see if he needed his History textbook.
“Of course I will.” He said shortly, shutting his desk lid and lifting his chair up. “I’ll see you on Monday, okay?” Kellin nodded and pecked Vic again on the lips.
“Alright. I love you.”
“I love you too, Kellin.” Vic said quietly, waving to Kellin and leaving the classroom, saying good bye to Mr. Wentz as he did so.
“Kellin? Are you okay?” Kellin snapped his head up to see his form tutor looking down concernedly at him. It was only then that he realised that he was the only student left in the classroom.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just… Day dreaming.” Kellin shrugged and went to pick up his own bag.
“Hmm. You two are good for each other. You and Vic.” He clarified when Kellin feigned confusion, already knowing who the man was talking about.
“Oh. Um, thanks.” Kellin smiled genuinely at the thought of his boyfriend.
“It’s always good to have someone like that in your life…” Mr. Wentz continued, more so to himself than to Kellin.
“Like Dr. Stump?” Kellin asked unthinkingly. Mr. Wentz blinked at him before a small frown creased his face. “Sorry… I didn’t mean…”
“No,” Mr. Wentz sighed. “I suppose it’s obvious?”
“I- I… Everyone sort of, thinks it… But no one really thinks it’s true.” Kellin said, stretching the truth only slightly, happy that two of his favourite teachers were actually together.
“You aren’t planning on… Telling anyone this, are you?” he continued, somewhat nervously.
Kellin shook his head, only vaguely disappointed at the fact he couldn’t confirm everyone’s suspicions. But he respected his teacher’s wishes, and wouldn’t want to put him into a situation he didn’t want to be in.
“Well, thanks. You can, erm, go now.” Mr. Wentz nodded and ushered the boy out of the room so he came face to face with Dr. Stump.
“In trouble again, Kellin?” Dr. Stump asked, oblivious to the conversation Kellin had just had with his… Boyfriend?
“Something like that.” Kellin smirked and walked away, waving to his teacher as he made his way home.