I was a little embarrassed as I approached the table. Karl is new to our school but he’s already found a couple of other guys to sit with. That was just going to make this a little harder. “Hi, can I sit here?"

They all looked up at me but it was pretty clear who I was looking at. He looked kind of surprised but said “yeah, I guess so.” I set my tray down and looked at him before starting my lunch.

“I wanted to talk to you about the bus yesterday. I saw the way you looked when I had my backpack on the seat so you couldn’t sit with me. I didn’t want you to think I didn’t like you. I do like you and I hope we can be friends and teammates.”

“Then why did you do that?”

“Have you heard about Michelle, the girl who was Mike Evans?”

“Yeah, everybody’s talking about that. Three different guys have pointed him out to me.”

“That’s so gay” Harry Balz threw in.

“Mike and I have sat together on the bus ever since kindergarten. We weren’t best friends or anything. We were just the two boys our age on the bus that first year and we have always been friends. I was worried that she would want to sit with me now too. I didn’t want anyone thinking I was a girl too. So I was happy when he didn’t get on the bus yesterday morning and then you saw my soccer jersey and sat with me at the next stop. All day yesterday guys were making jokes about him and I was laughing too. Then before English class yesterday Gary Mooseby was making jokes about her when she came in. Sorry. I’m having trouble figuring out when the pronouns change. Anyway, Michelle was crying and I realized that it was my friend who was crying. So I knew I had to save that seat for her.”

“So, he really thinks he’s a girl?” came from Zach, a guy I didn’t know very well, “that’s crazy.”

“We talked on the way home yesterday. She wasn’t on the bus in the morning because her parents took her in to see the principal one more time. She said that the reason she has been gone for seven weeks was that she was in a hospital. When he was getting ready to go to his cousin's wedding he just broke down. He was thinking about the nice dresses his sister and the other girls would be wearing while he was about to put on his boxers and he just froze. His dad found him just sitting there not answering when he asked why he wasn’t ready. His dad wrapped a blanket around him and took him to the emergency room. He, or I guess she now, woke up in the car. She just blurted out the truth when her dad asked what had happened. So they sent her to Shady Grove Home to get over the stress breakdown. The doctors there said she had to be a girl or keep having breakdowns.”

“So He’s crazy and queer!” Harry exclaimed.

“I don’t understand it very well either, but I think she has to be a girl now.”

“You’re going to hang around with him. Then you must be queer too” said the other guy at the table. I didn’t know him and he’d seemed to busy eating to pay attention to what we were saying until now. Maybe his empty tray explained his joining in now. Anyway, it looked like I could have not bothered to do this.

“No, I’m not and I don’t know if she is, at least the way you mean it. Anyway, she has always been my friend and now she needs friends. I’ll leave now if you want.”

“Yeah” said Harry. “We don’t want any faggots around”

I picked up my tray and looked around the lunchroom for a new seat. As I stood there Karl picked up his tray with me. “See you guys around.” he said and joined me in walking away.

“Karl, that was cool, but you know you're going to have it hard enough as a new kid here. Hanging around with me right now will make it worse. I gotta stand by Michelle but you don’t even know her.”

“I guess you better introduce me if I’m going to be taking a bunch of flack about her. You’re right, being new may be hard, but I think it will be easier with the right kind of friend. I want the kind of friends who don’t walk away when things get tough.” So we shook hands and walked across the lunchroom to where Michelle was just sitting down. I think she and I have both gained a good friend.