MUD - An LGBT+ Story

Darkness Is For The Stars

The new year was here and it's the year for GCSE's, January was just a blur as the days and weeks passed quickly with homework, revision and preparation all building up. We had explained our ideas to the Drama teacher and thought it was a good, agreeing to let us use the lighting for the play, actually it was fairly easy to slowly increase and change the colour and brightness which could be all preset with timing, this put pressure on us to actually keep to the times as the lights will cut out after 15 minutes no matter where we are up to, also the sound effects have been found and fit perfectly. We have a full rehearsal in the hall on the stage with full lighting and sound in a few weeks, it's going to be exciting and have asked just Claire and Jen to watch so they can share their opinions. Also I never did get my gloves back and just decided not to make a big deal over it and let Him have them, at least they went to a good home.

Morning form the time to fully wake up whilst waiting for Mrs Smith to arrive "Are you still okay to watch our drama practice after school tomorrow?" turning around to Claire "indeed! Meet you in the hall?" She looked at both me and Him and He nodded in confirmation "Yep" I added "Cool, I'll double check with Jen, shall we grab some food after?" She suggested, and I looked over to Him in a way to say it's okay with me, you decide "sounds great!" He enthused "good idea" I was able to quickly say before having to turn back around as Mrs Smith arrived with a box full of envelopes "Delivery" she exclaimed and promptly started to walk around the classroom, each of the envelopes had our name written on it, looking over to Steve curiously he shrugged his shoulders then tapped Noah on the back and he and Andy turned around "any ideas" I asked trying to find out any information possible yet both of them shook their heads. As others received their envelopes and began opening them it soon became clear it was our school photos, they had arrived! Opening mine I looked at my individual photo and rejected it but knew Mum would have it framed. The group photo was better and I could see me standing next to him, both of us smiling and knew it was because we were holding hands, seeing this made me feel so happy and glanced to Him and He look back and we both knew we were thinking about the same thing in the way we exchanged glances. Noah and Andy turned back round "lets see your photos guys!" Noah said excitably and between the three tables we all passed around the pictures, commenting, laughing and teasing "Hey that means you can start your Art project now?" Andy ask Him "sure can, not much time but can put it together" He said there was relief in the way He spoke "going to need a favour from you all, well everyone to be honest" we looked at him interested as to why "why's that?" Claire was the first to ask "will need you to sign some collage paper and write a little message as I'm going to layer this around the group photo" He explained "wow sounds so sweet" Claire commented "sounds good" I already knew the idea, He had explained it to me and encouraged Him to continue but did warn there might not be much time to finish. The hand in day for our Art Projects is the last lesson in March which isn't long and only give Him a little under 2 Months to do everything! My project was making good progress, the story has been completed and is really just the written version of our Drama play, there were just making a few changes and updates to the digital design which still needed to be completed. When printed I was thinking how to make it look like a well worn magazine so plan to carry it in my bag for a few days, hopefully this will scruff up the edges and make it look just how I want it.

The next morning He was going around the class handing out various colours of paper or magazine and newspaper cuttings of various shapes and sizes along with a selection of marker pens, also He was explaining the Art Project whilst going around the classroom and if we could write a message, phrase or little drawing along with our signature. It was a fun idea and everyone in the class looked like they were all intrigued by what He was asking them to do, "this one is for you" He smiled passing me a red piece of paper shaped like a heart and I immediately blushed, Claire leaned over the table and spoke lightly "you get the cute one" this made me blush even more and I could feel being overwhelmed with shyness. It took me a few minutes to decide on what to put, twiddling the black marker pen gave me time for ideas to go through my mind, eventually choosing to draw heart shapes within each other that became increasingly smaller and in the centre I signed my name. Looking around I saw Claire writing a long message on her paper and there was a buzz in the room as everyone was putting down their own unique message, He sat down at his desk and I passed Him my paper, He looked shyly "Thanks, this is awesome!" He smiled sweetly as a few others returned their papers to Him "Its going to work out great!" I encouraged him "Yes! I'm excited. We can practice Drama tonight too so everything's good!"