Within the Lines

5.

Aside from an awkward, quiet car ride to school, I didn't see Atticus again until gym class the next day.

He didn't walk me anymore, vanishing the moment we set foot in the school building. Becky and her friends, on the other hand, seemed to pop up everywhere. 

Mandy, the brunette who had seemed obsessed with my country accent the first day, waved me over when I walked into the gym hall. Before I knew it I was in the centre of another group of girls I didn't know. They all seemed nice enough, however, and Mandy made me say 'country boy' phrases for them, too. She honked and snorted with laughter and clapped like a seal after each word I said. 

At some point I started feeling like a zoo animal on display, but I was grateful she took me under her wing, literally, as she slapped an arm around me when it was time to make duos for volleyball. The gym teacher randomly assigned us opponents by giving us all numbers. 

"Uh-oh," Mandy muttered at me under her breath once we realised our first opponents would be Atticus and Corey."This is going to be a fast match." 

The first to reach five points was the winner of the match. Atticus and Corey were all competitive and focused, despite Mandy and I being potatoes and not even capable of serving right half the time. 

While Atticus said nothing and constantly looked like he was biting a lemon rind, Corey was friendly enough to give us some pointers. He had a tendency to talk but not mention what exactly he was talking about though, so I didn't quite get what he meant with 'do this more with your hand.' 

Despite Corey's best attempts at explanations, the match ended five to zero in a record time. Around us, everyone was still playing so we couldn't shift to our next opponents yet. 

Atticus and Corey predictably hijacked the ball and started playing against each other, while Mandy and I sat down on the benches at the side of the gym hall. 

"You and Atticus are stepbrothers now right?" Mandy asked, sitting down with her legs crossed. "And you come to school together with coach Turner. But you like, don't talk to each other?" 

"Nah, he doesn't want to talk to me," I admitted. "Not sure why." 

Mandy shrugged. "Oh, well, don't take it personally. Atticus doesn't really talk to anyone outside his football team. Even at the Student Council he doesn't say much during meetings, but Becky doesn't care because he always gets his tasks done. He's a behind the scenes guy."

That didn't make sense. I was on the Student Council too, and there was no reason for Atticus to act like this. 

I swallowed my resentfulness, and went with a more neutral question.  "Is he ever rude to people outside his circle?" 

Mandy blinked. "Uh, no. He's not rude, just quiet." 

"Oh." 

I wasn't going to elaborate, but Mandy seemed to have caught onto what I was trying to ask. "Is he rude to you?" 

"No," I immediately denied. It somehow felt wrong to accuse Atticus of anything. He didn't owe me his friendship, or anything. "No, not really." 

Mandy leaned a little closer and lowered her voice. "Between you and me, I think he's a little jealous of you." 

"Jealous?" 

I laughed. Sure, the varsity football stud with the bulging biceps, sea-green eyes and perfectly complementing cool, brown skin was jealous. Of me. The not-so-starving artist (I ate a lot of Mars bars) who wasn't sure if he could run more than a mile.

Mandy shrugged and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. Her hair was interesting. Now that we were sitting closely together, I noticed she had these little blond strands here and there, which seemed natural and made her other hair look lighter too. 

"You're coach Turner's real son while he's just the stepson," Mandy stated bluntly. "And like all the other football guys, heck, like the entire school, he really looks up to the man." 

I had not looked at it that way. "If that's his problem," I said, "he has absolutely nothin' to fear. My motor skills are subpar as I just showed you durin' that volleyball game. I'm not takin' his spot on the varsity team any time soon." 

"That's true. You suck almost worse than I do." Mandy laughed as I fake-pouted at her. "But you are already making a rep for yourself really easily here at Pinewood."

"Ya think?"

"Well, yeah!" Mandy raised a finger for each point she made. "The entire Student Council already adores you. The entire jock population respects you for being coach Turner's boy, and you already saved the opening party of year. A fact Becky will surely tell people in her speech knowing her, which will make the rest of the school like you, too." 

I couldn't do anything but laugh awkwardly at the sudden rain of praise. At least the Student Council 'adoring' me and 'saving' the grand opening party of the year were my own doing. Two out of three had nothing to do with my dad being famous. That was a good score. 

"And besides," Mandy said, "don't you think it's like, a little awkward to live in the same house with your dad's new wife and her son while you don't even know them and without much of a warning before? I'd be a bit weirded out." 

On paper, Mandy was right. Moving in with Dad and Chiara had been quite sudden and nobody asked Atticus whether he agreed or not. I hadn't been entirely sure about moving into that household either, even temporarily. But Mom needing that new job and me needing to attend school made me suck it up. 

Chiara was great, though. She made it easy. 

"I guess it's a little awkward," I admitted. "Maybe Atticus cares more about the intrusion than I do."

Mandy stretched her legs, leaning back on the palms of her hands as she looked at Atticus serving the ball. "Well, he's a bit on edge. Atticus had an eventful year last year, anyway. He came out, like, out of the closet."

"I heard." 

"It wasn't a big deal with the football team, really," Mandy quickly assured me, as if she expected me to expect otherwise. "But it kind of was a big deal outside of them. There was a bit of bullying, but if you have the entire football varsity team and coach Turner behind you, well, it helps." 

"Oh." I swallowed. I'd been hassled and some people back at my conservative home avoided me, but being bullied in a school with two thousand students somehow sounded harder to handle. "Is that common here? Being bullied for... that?" 

Mandy peeked at me curiously now. "Nah. There are some assclowns who think they're funny yelling things, but not a lot of actual physical bullying. We have Atticus to thank for the zero tolerance policy - and that it's actually somewhat being implemented." 

I leaned back casually and stretched my legs, too, mimicking Mandy. "Good, because I'm openly gay and I wasn't plannin' on returnin' to the closet here." 

Mandy's  eyes went big and round. She nodded, eagerly absorbing the new tidbit of information. "Oh! So you like, tell people when you meet  them?" 

I chuckled. "I don't introduce myself as 'hey, I'm Kade Turner and I'm gay' like some gay anonymous meeting. It's just not a secret." 

Mandy bobbed her head in understanding. 

The next day, everyone on the Student Council knew.