“Hey, you can follow me,” Tina smiled. She opened the door to the teachers room, walked across it, opened another one and entered a corridor students didn’t use. It was a corridor with meeting rooms for the staff to use. She opened the first door and saw the room was empty. She gestured for Bette to go inside and take a seat.

“So,” Tina said as she sat down herself. “How are you?”

“I’m fine, ms Kennard, thank you.”

“Right. I’m going to be straight forward here – excuse me for my choice of words. Anyway, I don’t want you to blame ms Peabody or ms Lerner for anything. Ms Peabody showed me your most recent paper. It is not her habit to show student’s homeworks around, she only let me read it because she thinks very highly of you and after all, she is my best friend. I have heard ms Lerner has already contacted you about the LGBT group ms Peabody and I want to start and about you helping out. I have understood you weren’t really feeling like doing that? Look – I don’t blame you, nobody does. Well, your paper, Change… am I correct in assuming that you are gay?”

Bette nodded shyly, her cheeks reddening again and she looked away.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, really.” I envy you because at least you’re sure, Tina added in thought. “Well, as you might or might now know, so is ms Peabody. I would appreciate it if you kept this to yourself. Anyway, ms Peabody and I came up with the idea of starting an LGBT group to help lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people with all sorts of things. We could organise this… well, you could call it a help line, but live. Every evening after school, member of the group take shifts and sit there. If anyone feels like talking about their feelings, they can just go there and be assured that their secret will be kept and let it out at the same time. We would also organise activities with the group members that are out and proud or just out. We can make a list of books and movies on the subject that we highly recommend, we can make trips…. there are so many possibilities. We’d also organise meetings and go beyond the boundaries of our school. I know how good a writer you are, but I also know – well, heard, that you don’t like speaking in front of a public. There should be enough people willing to do that, so if you could just join us and help us starting everything up and writing texts we can maybe publish in the school paper and so on, you wouldn’t have to contribute in a way you don’t feel comfortable in. I realise ms Lerner probably overwhelmed and maybe this plan seems more like your thing?”

“I… I would like that, but… why me? I mean, why don’t you approach Shane or Alice or… or anyone like them? They’re special and everybody knows them and most like them. People don’t know me and if they do, I’m the nerd. It’s not like it’d be good for the image of the group.”

“We don’t care about image, we care about message and fun and helping. I understand if you don’t want to do it, but I really think you should consider it. It’s a great opportunity for you to do your thing in a way you like and maybe it’ll help you open up.”

“Is it okay if I think about it?” Bette looked nervous.

“Why are you so anxious?”

“It’s just… I don’t think… I don’t think my father would like this,” Bette almost whispered. “He doesn’t know about me being… different and I’m really toast if he finds out. He would disown me, just like my sister and abandon me and I’d be all alone.” Tears were forming in Bette’s eyes.

“And your mother?”

“She died in a car accident four years ago. My father was behind the wheel.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Tina said sincerely. The way this young woman sat in front of her, crying so softly, it broke her heart. She put her hand on Bette’s shoulder, wishing she could hug her.