Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Because You Suck: Chapter 11: Part 3

The very next day, the schoolground was littered with rainbow flags and brightly colored posters. Gentry had to admit that it was quite a sight to behold the brick wall of the library covered by a mess of purple blue green yellow orange red flyers. The big old brick building now had walls of rainbow strong enough to severely wound the eyes of any homophobe by neon brightness alone.
Gentry leered at it, wondering whether to be in awe or to feel contempt for this paper graffiti. Just then, Zach brushed past him with another stack of rainbow posters clutched to his chest. One by one, he pressed and taped them to the wall, covering the stubborn-few areas of visible brick. He pulled the tape from the roll and snipped it off with a safety scissors, then palmed a paper with rainbow text against the red brick wall. It read “We’re Here, We’re Queer, We’re the Kennedy High GSA! Meetings are in RM 350; Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at lunch. Leadership Positions are available!” After securely taping each corner and making sure the poster was at a right angle to the bricks, Zach wordlessly moved on to the next portion of wall and repeated this unexciting task. He knew damn well Gentry was staring, he didn’t have to look up to see… he could feel him.
“What are you trying to do, make a rainbow barricade?”
Zach wordlessly hung up another poster. One moment, then two, then three passed. When Zach reluctantly raised his head to look up, it only confirmed what he already knew. Gentry was still there, standing with crossed arms and a skeptic look on his face. Zach found he just couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
“I’m trying to make a difference…I want to change things.”
“Are you getting credit points?”
“No. But I don’t care about those, because I believe in what I’m doing.”
Gentry sighed and swiped the remaining posters out of Zach’s hands.
“Covering the school in rainbow paper won’t change that it’s a school. It won’t make it any better either, because people will still wish they were over it. All everyone cares about is graduating and getting into college, and you’re an idiot if you do extra work for nothing.”
“I’m not trying to change the school, I’m trying to change the people.” Countered Zach, reaching for the pile which Gentry hid behind his back.
“You’ll have better luck changing the buildings. Go home.”
Zach grunted and made an unsuccessful attempt to reach for the posters.
“Give them back, Gentry.”
“Stop putting them on every building. I don’t want to see them.”
“You can’t always get what you want, now hand them over!”

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