Monday, March 25, 2019; Morning

Monday was the only day of the week that Edison High students had all of their classes on one day, in seven forty-five minute periods, plus lunch. There was no homeroom; attendance was taken and announcements were made at the beginning of the first class each day. Everyone made sure to be at school and in their first class of the day so they’d be marked as present. Otherwise they’d have to go to the Attendance Office and find out if their excuse was accepted so they could be marked as present.

Kevin liked the longer periods they had on the other days of the week. They were more like what it would be like once he was a student at the University of California at Berkeley.

First period Kevin had Algebra 2/Pre-Calculus, and so did Laura. She came in about two minutes before the bell. She saw him sitting in his regular seat in the back of the class and smiled and waved at him before taking her seat next to him. There was, as usual on Mondays, an exam. That took most of the class time. Ms. Arnold reminded them that she would hand back the graded exam sheets on Thursday morning.

The rest of Monday’s classes were typical, just like they’d been before he’d stopped coming to school.

Second period Mrs. Weston did a preview of the next two chapters in the World History textbook, and she reminded everyone that their reports had to be turned in before the end of their class the next day, Tuesday. Kevin had already uploaded his report to School Loop.

Third period in English 2 Mr. Sommers returned the responses to A Rose for Emily. Kevin was pleased with the A he’d received, with a comment from Mr. Sommers that he’d understood all of the hidden meanings in the story. They started to read their responses out loud; he assumed that he probably wouldn’t get to his until Tuesday. The readings were done alphabetically by last name, and Kevin Young was next to last behind Evan Yun. The next time there would be a reading it would be done in reverse alphabetically so no one would feel they were always going to be picked first. On Thursday they’d have the discussion in class about the Prologue and Chapter 1 of The Dream Weaver book. He was ready for that.

Fourth period there was a test in his Chemistry class. He was confident that he’d correctly answered all of the questions. He’d find out on Wednesday if he were right.

Fifth period Computer Science continued with an introduction to the use of the PHP programing language for storing and retrieving data. The abbreviation was for Personal Home Page, which Mr. Curtis used as a way of showing how this programing language had morphed from something simple for quickly developing a website to a tool many programmers used daily for more complex web-based applications.

Monday, March 25, 2019; Early Afternoon

Lunch on Mondays was between fifth and sixth periods. Kevin had decided that from now on he’d bring his lunch every day; Connie would make him bag lunches that were much better than anything from the cafeteria. He sat across the table from Laura. “Did you…?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. He knew what she meant, so he nodded. Laura had ‘reserved’ Kevin’s seat and the seat at his right.

He saw Alex coming across the cafeteria with a tray. He waved, and Alex nodded and headed to the table where Kevin and his friends always had lunch.

Alex put down his tray and sat next to Kevin. He was the first to join them at their table.

“Hi, Alex. Welcome to our little lunch group.”

“Hi, Kevin. So, what’s the surprise?”

“She’s right across the table from me.”

“Hi, Alex,” Laura said.

Alex stared at Laura for a few seconds, trying to place where he’d seen her.

“Oh my god! You’re Laura… uh… Wilkes! Right? I remember you now! You were at a barbecue we had at my house. God, that was years ago. I think I was still in middle school.”

“You’d just graduated from the eighth grade at Alturas Middle School, and the barbecue was for you because you were going to be a freshman at Edison High School in the fall. I’d just finished the seventh grade and was going to be in the eighth grade at Alturas in the fall. My brother Jordan was dating your sister Ruth. That’s how I got invited to the barbecue.”

“Yes, I remember that now. You were very sexy. And cute. It’s nice to see you again. You look different… in a good way!”

Laura smiled. “Thank you. When Kevin told me someone named Alex was tutoring him in chemistry and then he told me your last name I remembered that barbecue and the great pool in your backyard.”

“The pool’s still there. And you’re welcome to use it. Just give me a call so I can make sure I’ll be available when you want to come over. You too, Kevin.”

“I’ll do that,” Laura replied, “and I’ll drag Kevin along, too. I’ll need your cell number.”

They exchanged their cellphone numbers by touching their phones together using Android’s NFC.

“Got it?” Alex asked.

“Got it. Thanks. And you should have mine, too,” Laura said.

“I have it. Thanks back at’cha.”

“Alex, let me introduce you to the rest of our lunch crew,” Kevin said as the rest of the kids arrived. “We’re sometimes known as the motley crew.” That generated a few groans, but everyone seemed glad to be introduced to Alex. He looked around, then back at Kevin who did the introductions, including Laura who he described as being a motormouth, which made her and Alex laugh.

“That motormouth part I definitely remember!” Alex said, and he grinned when Laura stuck out her tongue at him.

Everyone wanted to know more about Alex and his family and what classes he was taking. They were surprised that he was a junior and knew Kevin and Laura, and pleased that he was sitting with their group of sophomores and freshmen. Some of the freshmen knew Alex’s brother, Rick.

At the lunch period started to wind down, Alex said he would join the group for lunch every so often; otherwise, he’d be at the table with the lacrosse players because he was on the team. That generated questions about lacrosse. He told them their home matches were played at the football stadium; anyone could come and watch for free; and they could find the team schedule posted online in the sports section of School Loop. He told them they played the same schools as the Edison High football team because they were in the same league.

“Lacrosse is an exciting sport. It originated with Native Indians in what it now Canada and is most popular in the Northeastern U.S. All of you should come out and watch one of our matches. I think you’ll get hooked and come to more of them.”

There were a lot of questions about lacrosse and how it was played. Alex was eager to talk about his sport, and his enthusiasm was contagious.

After lunch, Kevin went to his sixth period Spanish 3 class, then to PE. They played two matches each, then Coach Grant gathered the team for a discussion of their upcoming tournaments, and when league play would start and which teams they’d meet during the first two weeks. He also handed out the practice schedule.

Kevin checked to see if there were any conflicts with his meetings with Dr. Ranse, and he was pleased that there weren’t any.

Monday, March 25, 2019; Early Evening

When Kevin got home from school he remembered that he had to update his list of ‘Things I Need to Do’ for Dr. Ranse. He had started it, and there were more things to include now.

He skipped having a snack since he was having dinner with the Burneys. Next he finished his homework. There were twenty Algebra 2/Pre-Calc problems to solve, so he decided to finish them first. When they were done, he went back and reviewed his answers. Satisfied, he did the reading assignment for World History, then reviewed the new vocabulary words for Spanish 3.

The four o’clock WhatsApp chat call went through without a hitch. It was fun for Kevin to hear his cousins bantering with each other. Before getting into anything serious, they did a lot of catching up. They even talked about the current weather where they lived. It was almost four-thirty by the time they finished chatting about school and what movies and TV shows they liked, and so on.

Don started the serious part of the discussion by bringing up what he wanted to talk about. “Hey, Eve, I need some advice. I’m gay, I have a boyfriend, his folks know and are fine with it, but I haven’t told my folks yet. Kevin thought since you and Flo came out to your families that maybe you had some suggestions about how I could do it. But first, tell me how you did it.”

Eve described how she approached her folks and had some suggestions for Don.

“What I did was to separate the being gay part from the having a girlfriend part. For you, that would be the having a boyfriend part. Do the ‘I’m gay’ part first. Assuming they’ve accepted that, then a week or two later bring your boyfriend home with you from school to do your homework together and to play video games so he can get to know your folks. Arrange to have a dinner where you can invite him. But no overnights. Then later, maybe even several weeks later, bring up the boyfriend part.

“Don, let me ask a question. What do your folks do? I mean, their jobs.”

“My dad’s an architect, and he has his own firm. He designed Kevin’s house. My mom is a nursing shift supervisor for day shift at Burrard Children’s Hospital here in Vancouver.”

“Okay,” Eve continued, “so what I did was talk to my mom first. I suggest that you do the same. I have another question. What’s the age range of kids that are treated at the children’s hospital where she works?”

“From infants through teens. Probably up to sixteen or eighteen; I’m not sure about the exact upper age,” Don replied.

“That’s perfect,” she said. “Your mom should know all about gay kids. I think it’ll be a slam-dunk. Does she get home before your dad?”

“Yeah, usually about an hour before he gets home,” Don replied.

“Seems to me that you should tell her tomorrow as soon as she gets home and is in the kitchen about to start dinner,” Eve suggested.

“Eve, since we’re three hours earlier than you in Boston, I think I’ll do it when my mom gets home tonight. No need to wait until tomorrow night. That way I won’t have a chance to think about it too much. That’s what Bryan says I do all the time, that I overthink stuff.”

“Who’s Bryan?” Eve asked.

“My boyfriend. He keeps telling me to tell my folks that I’m gay instead of just thinking about telling them.”

“Tonight sounds perfect,” Kevin said. “Assuming that your mom’s okay that you’re gay, you can ask her if she thinks your dad will be okay with it, too.”

“Okay, now let’s talk about how Flo came out to her folks,” Eve started that discussion, but Don interrupted.

“Hang on. I heard the garage door opening. Either my mom or my dad just got home. Let me see who it is.”

Don stepped away, then he returned. “It’s my mom. I’m going to say goodbye and talk to her. I’ll email both of you and let you know what happened.” Don signed off WhatsApp.

“Well, since this call was for Don, unless you have something new for me I suppose we can say g’bye and you can do your homework, and I’ll review the Chemistry chapter that I’m going to be tested on by Alex tomorrow morning,” Kevin said. “Oh! Hang on… I almost forgot. Alex’s mom invited me to dinner at their house tonight. He lives on the next street, so it’s a short walk from my house.”

“That’s nice of her,” Eve said. “When are you going to leave?”

“I’m going to leave at six-twenty to be there at about six-thirty,” Kevin replied.

“Well, I’ll let you go so you can get ready. We should have these kinds of calls more often. Of course, this was the first of these calls, so more often would be at least more than once. Let’s think about how often to have them, and then on our next WhatsApp chat we can talk about the how often part,” Eve suggested.

“Sounds good. I’ll send you and Don an email with suggested date and time for our next call. So, for now, I’ll say goodbye, and we can sign off.”

“Okay. And if you hear from Don and he hasn’t copied me, let me know how it went with his folks.”

“I will. Bye for now.” Kevin ended the call.

At five forty-five Kevin heard the tone that meant he’d received an email. It was from Don, and Eve was cc’d. He opened it and laughed. There was a red heart emoji at the beginning of the message.

  
Hi Kevin and Eve,

They know I’m gay and that’s okay. They know I have a boyfriend and that’s okay too. Everything is fantastic. Bryan and his family are coming over. We’re all going out for dinner. Together! I attached a selfie of Bryan and me.

Don

Kevin replied, with a cc to Eve:

Congratulations, Don! I’m so glad it worked out for you. Thanks for the picture. You two are winners. And you’re both mega-hot! I’m sure Eve agrees.

Kevin

Then he updated his ‘Things I Have to Do’ list updating the call with Don and Eve. He’d print the list on Tuesday night before he went to bed and bring it on Wednesday so he could give it to Dr. Ranse when they met after school, with an extra copy for him to add notes and any comments she offered.

Monday, March 25, 2019; Evening

For some reason, Kevin was nervous about meeting Alex’s family. It was just dinner… there was no reason to be nervous. But he was, anyway.

Kevin knew that having dinner with the Burneys meant he might be a little sad since he’d be with a family that had two boys and a girl. He also knew he’d be happy because he expected that there’d be joking and friendly banter and conversations about what everyone did at work or school, things which his family had always done during dinner. He missed that, and even if it was with someone else’s family, that was fine with him. He was looking forward to it and preparing himself for any sad feelings he might feel.

He was a little scared that they might not like him. Or they’d be concerned because of how his family had been murdered just a couple houses away from them, even though Alex said they wouldn’t bring it up.

He was hoping they would like him as much as he liked Alex. Alex seemed excited that his mother had invited Kevin for dinner with their family. That was positive. Definitely positive.

He wondered what Dr. Ranse would think about his… apprehension was probably the best word. At their next meeting on Wednesday, he would tell her about the dinner and his apprehension about it, and how it actually turned out.

When he arrived at the Burney’s home, Alex’s dad opened the front door. “Hi. You must be Kevin. It’s nice to meet you. Welcome, and come on in.”

They shook hands, and Kevin said, “I brought you a bottle of white wine.”

“Thank you. Husch… that’s very nice. We like their chardonnay. Let’s go in the kitchen, and you can meet Alex’s mom.”

“How are you doing?” Mrs. Burney asked after introductions had been made and she’d hugged him.

“Good, thank you, Mrs. Burney. And thank you for inviting me for dinner.”

“Please, call me Becky. It’s less formal that way. And Alex’s father is Tom.”

“Okay, I’ll try to remember to do that. But it’s so ingrained in us at school to address teachers and staff by their last names, I might fall back to using Mrs. and Mr. Just remind me.” He smiled.

Alex walked in. “Hey, Kevin.”

“Hi, Alex.”

“By the way,” Mr. Burney said, “thank you for the information about Alex’s Harry Potter books. We looked up the estimated value on Google. It convinced us that we need to have them appraised. Then we’ll look into insuring them and finding the best way and place for storing them.”

“Yes, thank you, Kevin,” Alex said. “I’d never have known how much they were worth if you hadn’t told me that they might be valuable. And I’ll never forget the look of horror on your face when I started to pull one of them out of my bookcase!”

Kevin grinned. “I’m glad I watched and remembered that program on PBS.”

“Mom, if it’s okay I’ll take Kevin into the family room and introduce him to Ruth and Rick.”

“Yes, go ahead. We’ll join you there in a few minutes.”

Rick Burney looked like a younger version of Alex. He had the same bushy curly light blond hair, green eyes, and grin. Ruth Burney looked more like her mother, with darker hair, and she was shorter than either Alex or Rick — and even shorter than her mother, too.

They sat down, and Rick had a question for Kevin. “Alex said you want to go to Cal and get a degree in computer science. Are you taking any computer classes at Edison?”

“Yes, I’m taking AP Computer Science this semester. I’m thinking about taking computer programing courses at Diablo Valley College this summer. Then I’ll see what computer classes they have next year at Edison.”

“You’re a junior?”

“No, I’m a sophomore.”

“I looked it up, and AP Computer Science is for juniors and seniors only. How’d you get to take it?”

“I took two online computer classes. One from MIT and one from Leeds University in the UK. They weren’t free, but DVC isn’t, either. Anyway, I was able to convince the teacher that I knew more than enough to take the AP Computer Science class. Are you interested in computer science?”

“Yes. Like you, that’s what I want to do, go to Cal and get a degree in computer science.”

“That’s great. What area of computers are you most interested in?”

“I’m not sure yet. I like coding, and I like designing websites and blogs. That’s why I want to take the AP Computer Science class next year when I’m a sophomore. Maybe you could tell me what online classes you took that got you up to speed, so you were able to be approved to take it as a sophomore.”

“Sure, I’ll be glad to talk to you about that. Another option is you can take a class at DVC this summer. That’s what Alex did so he could take AP Chemistry when he was a sophomore. You could do the same, but in computer science. You can go online and look up the course catalog and class schedule and see what DVC offers. I’m going to do the same thing. Some of the classes are online, some are on campus, and others are hybrid — that means mostly online, but you actually have to go to a class at DVC once in a while, usually every week or two. Probably to take exams.”

“Can we get together and talk about computer classes?”

“Sure. Alex has my email address and my cellphone number, and you can get them from him. You can get ahold of me anytime. I live less than five minutes from you. I can come over or you can come to my house so we can meet, and I can show you where I signed up for the classes I took. Or we could meet at school. Whatever works best.”

“I’ll text you or phone you. Thanks for offering to help me with this,” Rick said.

“You’re welcome. I’ll be glad to help, Rick.”

Kevin turned to Ruth. “Alex told me that your major is Media Studies. What is that?”

“We study media history and theory, electronic and print media, communications, media in politics, and media research methods including how media is used and its impact on society. I’m interested in going into advertising research.”

“You live in a dorm at Cal?”

“Yes. You almost have to when you’re a freshman and a sophomore. Places to live off campus and near school are hard to find, and they’re way too expensive.”

“What about commuting?”

“That’s impractical if you’re taking a full load of classes. The commute is a bear, either driving or taking BART. I figured I’d lose four hours a day in travel. If I drive there’s almost no parking available near the campus, and what’s there is all metered, and the maximum is three hours. If I take BART it requires transferring to the Richmond line, then walking from downtown Berkeley to where my first class is on campus. I have to use one of the libraries if I need to study, or work on an assignment. The problem with being in a dorm is it’s expensive and you need a meal plan and that’s expensive, too. I’m lucky, and Alex and Rick will be too, that my folks and grandparents invested in college savings plans for the three of us.”

Mrs. Burney came in and told them dinner was ready.

The dinner with the Burneys turned out to be a lot of fun for Kevin. The salmon was excellent, and he was effusive about the meal. He was pleased to see that they had opened the bottle of wine he’d brought, and Mr. and Mrs Burney each had a glass. They joked about things, talked about their pool, and invited Kevin to come over and take advantage of it. Kevin told them he was going out for the tennis team and what that was like. Alex — like at lunch — talked about playing lacrosse and what great exercise it was. Rick said he wasn’t interested in going out for any sports. He wanted to get all A’s and going out for a sport would take too much of his time away from studying. Besides the required PE class at school, he had a gym membership and went twice a week. Alex’s expression showed that he agreed with what Rick was doing to get enough exercise.

The boys helped clean up the dining room and kitchen. Ruth put everything except the pots and pans in the dishwasher and turned it on. Alex washed the pots and pans, Kevin dried them, and Rick put them away.

Mrs. Burney brought out a home-made apple pie which they had with vanilla ice cream. That was something Keven seldom had for dessert. “This is a real treat,” Kevin said. “Thank you!”

After dessert, they sat in the family room and talked about Edison High. It was interesting to hear Rick’s comments. He was enthusiastic about the school and his classes and his teachers. Then he asked which teachers he should avoid when he was a sophomore and a junior. Kevin looked at Alex to see if he would comment, but he didn’t.

“Well,” Kevin said, “the only teacher I have who isn’t popular is Mrs. Weston. I have her for World History. She’s not very personable. I like the class because I like history. Did you have her for World History, Alex?”

“No, I had Mr. Lynn. He was a good teacher, and I liked him and the class.”

“Okay, got it,” Rick said. “I know which teacher to avoid.” He grinned.

“You might have decided on the teacher,” Alex added, “but you still have to fit Mr. Lynn’s class into your schedule next year.”

Kevin was glad he’d had the opportunity to have dinner with the Burneys. He realized that he hadn’t been sad or apprehensive like he had worried about. The best thing was that they liked him, and he liked them. They asked him if he’d like to come back to have dinner with them next Sunday. He said yes, that would be great.

He got hugs from Mrs. and Mr. Burney, then from each of their three children. Alex walked him out.

“Thank you, Alex. I really enjoyed meeting your family, and the dinner was excellent.”

“They like you, Kevin. That’s a good thing for when we announce that we’re going to be boyfriends.”

Kevin smiled. “Sounds like a plan!” They stood looking at each other for about fifteen seconds. The Burney’s front door opened, and Rick walked out onto the front porch, closing the door behind him.

“Good god, kiss each other!” he said in a stage whisper.

So they did.

“Good!” Rick said. He shook his head. “You guys are so freakin’ clueless!”

All three burst out laughing. Alex and Rick said goodbye to Kevin and went inside, and Kevin walked home thinking about the evening.

When he got home he took a quick shower and got ready for bed. It had been a great evening, and he had enjoyed himself — a lot. He liked the Burneys. He was happy that he’d been invited back for dinner on Sunday. Very happy. It was like having a family again. And he and Alex were, Kevin thought, well on their way to becoming boyfriends.