“Weird,” Timothy stated.
“Oh, definitely, but welcome to Kansas. Or, are you from out of state?” Noah asked. He just kind of assumed he was. He dressed a little to schoolboy prep for Kansas farm boy attire.
“I’m originally from Connecticut. My dad got transferred here for work,” he said.
The Peters boy nodded, “Cool. I’ve lived in this town my entire life,” he explained.
Timothy nodded back, “I suppose that is cool,” he said as a statement, but Noah questioned if it was actually a question itself. The tall boy looked Noah up and down for a second. “I like your shoes!” he said.
Noah blushed, “Oh, um, thanks. I had to order them. They didn’t have them in stock at the mall.”
“Yeah. I actually have a pair but in purple at home,” Timothy explained.
“So, do you go by Timothy or Tim?” Noah asked.
This made him laugh, “Timothy. Call me anal, but I just like the more formal sounding name. Tim sounds like a guy who works as a manager of a Best Buy. Timothy sounds like a lawyer or a famous person. I don’t know. I know it sounds silly.”
“You want to be a lawyer, then?” Noah asked.
“Eh… Maybe. Either a lawyer or a doctor. My mom is a lawyer. She isn’t practicing right now, though, since we just moved out here. She said she would look back into it after we got settled in,” Timothy explained. He had nice deep eyes. Noah couldn’t deny it.
“Any siblings?” Noah asked.
“Nope. How about you?” he asked right back.
Noah looked at his phone to make sure that they could make it back to the counseling office with enough time. He also had a little jolt of nerves because he had really wanted to spend this time studying for his math test. He hated that his teacher had scheduled a math test for a Monday. “Oh, I have an older brother and a younger sister,” Noah replied. “So, you’re the Jan then?” Timothy started laughing.
“The Jan?” Noah asked in complete confusion.
The brown-haired boy laughed again, “Yeah, the Jan Brady. You know, The Brady Bunch? It’s a classic and just silly fun.”
Oh, that is what he meant. Noah thought he was making a gender slur or something for a minute, and he wondered where that would have come from. Had Mrs. Barker mentioned his sexuality? Noah had never come off as being gay acting. He totally knew that sounded fucked up to say out loud or even think about, but it was true. If he went to a Pride Parade, then no one would think he was gay. At least Noah didn’t think so. He had never been to a Pride event. “I’m not sure if I would be a Jan. I mean, I definitely get the brunt of being the middle child, but I don’t know if I complain about it that much.” But did he? He was sure that Kelly might argue differently. He and brick had always been relatively close, at least to some degree.
“So, what do you do for fun?” Timothy asked.
There were a lot of so’s coming out of this kid’s mouth. He wasn’t sure why. People didn’t tend to want to know much about him. He and Lily mostly cracked jokes about their classmates and talked about The Kardashians.
“I guess just hang out. I work a lot after school at a local bookstore,” Noah replied. Timothy nodded, “Nice. I love to read! Obviously, I love basketball, but I also love music and writing as well.”
“You write?… I also write,” Noah admitted. He had never told anyone about his writing.
“Oh, really? What about?” the East Coast boy asked.
Noah wasn’t prepared to explain his writing to someone, “Just some fiction stuff.” As in a gay romance novel about two college-age boys living in California. He had been writing it for years. Noah realized years ago that the stories being written for gay teens and the shows that depicted most queer relationships were rather toxic or way too woke for his taste. He just wanted to read a book where the guys dated, and it was perceived as normal. So, he wrote it himself.
“Well, if you ever want to share any of it, I’d love to read it man,” Timothy explained.
This kid didn’t even know him. In an hour, he’d be sitting with the jocks in class and making plans for some party at an abandoned barn that weekend where they would all get drunk and pair up with one another. The two of them would probably never speak to one another again. He knew that he was supposed to show him around for the week, but the reality was that the new kid never wanted to stay the new kid for long, and having a tour guide made them feel weird.
“I mean maybe,” Noah said to be polite. He looked at his phone again. “Ok, we should get heading back to the counseling office. Mrs. Barker has a stick up her ass for me.”
“We didn’t make it to the gym, though. Can you maybe show me on your way to your next class?” Timothy asked.
“Oh well, actually, my next class is gym, so yeah, why not?” He had really planned to low-key skip gym to study for the math test, but the math test was just going to be an act of God whether he passed or not.
CHAPTER TWO
TIMOTHY
Timothy couldn’t lie. He really didn’t feel comfortable at this school so far. Mrs. Barker was kind of a bitch, and Noah confirmed it. She had this don’t blame the school or me for any problems that you have attitude. Which was the worst kind of attitude that a school counselor could have. He missed his friends and the rest of his family back home. Noah seemed nice but also stubborn. Every time Timothy asked him a question, he would get all freaked out or act like it was too much for him. He realized that Noah was getting a little fast as they walked to the gym. “Hey, Noah, wait up!” Timothy ran over.
Noah looked to his side at him, “Oh, sorry. Try to keep up. The hall can get filled pretty fast, and they are sticklers for giving detentions for being late.”
The two walked up to the boy’s locker room. Timothy could see Noah take a deep breath as they walked in. He wondered what that was all about. Noah knocked on a door that read Coach Colt. It quickly sprung open. “Peters? You better not be trying to get out of gym class again.”
“No Mr. Colt. I just have a new student here with me,” Noah explained unenthusiastically. Timothy wondered what that was about.
Mr. Colt sized up Timothy and put out his hand, “Nice tall boy. Well, you can share a locker with Noah today. We’ll figure out your locker assignment later on in the week.” He went back into the office and closed the door.
Timothy was unsure what the heck he was supposed to make out of nice tall boy, but he would choose to let it go. He looked at Noah, who didn’t say a word, and just walked down the aisle of lockers with his head down.
“Better not be looking at me change fagot,” screamed a boy. A bunch of guys snickered with him. He chose to make nothing of it. This was how guys talked in a locker room setting. They finally made it back into the final row, where there were no other guys apparently.