Variation on a Theme, Book 7
Copyright© 2026 by Grey Wolf
Chapter 22: International Distress Warning
Monday, September 1, 1986
While Amy wasn’t around, Angie grumbled about classes on ‘Labor Day,’ amusing us all.
The other amusing part was having so many classes with Angie again. Cammie and Paige had been in many of my classes, but Angie was sometimes here, sometimes there. Even this semester, she had spaces in her schedule filled with math I no longer even pretended to understand, but the business side of her dual degree was more prominent this semester.
Today was nearly all business, or business-adjacent. We started at nine with Economics 322 - Applied Microeconomic Theory. Our professor, Dr. Hawkins, seemed like the classic absent-minded professor. I wasn’t expecting much in the way of fireworks from this class. Maybe that was jinxing myself, but we would see. Claire met me with a hug when we went in. So did Lindsay. I hadn’t caught up with either of them for a while, and today was too rushed to change that.
We got a break from business at eleven with Martial Arts, again taught by Sensei Nelson. She seemed just the same and was happy to see us back. She was also happy that we hadn’t slacked off over the summer. Some of our fellow students were pretty rusty! For us, just getting to move and spar made for a fun time, and we could use both the exercise and practice. Jas and Amy joined Angie, Cammie, Paige, and me for this one.
Amy had work to do to catch up, but she would. She was forbidden from wearing anything prickly during class, however. That seemed entirely sensible!
Two people gave me weird looks during class, and I noticed a couple of the girls talking to Sensei Nelson while glancing at Angie and Paige. Sensei Nelson talked to Angie and Paige late in class. There was some discussion and nodding on each of their parts.
After class, Angie said, “Renee and Tina have asked not to spar with me or Paige.”
“Because...” Cammie said, with a teasing tone.
“Because, apparently, we have lesbian cooties,” Paige said, snorting.
“You didn’t realize lesbianism can be transferred by skin-to-skin contact?” Cammie said, grinning.
“It worked for me, I think!” Amy said. “Or bisexuality, at least.”
That got everyone chuckling.
Angie said, “Honestly ... whatever. Yes, it’s stupid, but I would rather not make them uncomfortable, however silly that discomfort is. It’s not like this is a class where we need to work together.”
Paige nodded. “Yeah. Me, too.”
Cammie giggled. “The funny part is that I can spar with them, and I’m even gayer, relatively speaking.”
“You definitely get the gold star,” Angie said, grinning.
Over lunch, Angie grumbled a bit about French. It was, for her, the ‘least objectionable’ choice for her foreign language requirement. Her other options had been German or Russian. I still knew about one hundred words of Russian, and could transliterate Cyrillic fairly well, but Jas’s abilities in French easily trumped that, even if she herself said she ‘spoke French like a backward fifth-grader.’
The tentative name for the nascent study group was the French Friendly Legion. Several words were proposed in place of ‘Friendly.’ ‘Financial’ would have worked for Angie, but not others. ‘Family’ worked for Angie and Jas, but they would add people. ‘Fabulous’ was a contender, though.
French 311 wasn’t going to teach Angie conversational French. It was a technical course, aimed at a broad understanding of the language’s structure and a lot of scientific and technical vocabulary. Still, it would be a lot more French than I knew.
I was planning on sitting in on some of the meetings when I could. Any French skills I could pick up before December would probably be a good thing.
After lunch, we had Business Analysis 305 - Advanced Business Analysis at one o’clock. It was another class with Lindsay, but without Claire this time. No Angie, either; she was off in some math class. Our professor was Dr. Parkins. I was pretty sure I’d seen her before, but definitely hadn’t had her for anything. She was middle-aged and seemed nice, at least on the first day of class.
As had happened in the morning, it felt like a few people were watching me. I had to expect some recognition. Not that many A&M students watch ‘60 Minutes’, probably, but there would be some. Angie and Paige would get more of it, certainly, with the Batt article coming out.
I had a different set of classmates at three-thirty in Management 363 - The Management Process. Angie was back, and so was Claire, while Lindsay wasn’t here. Dr. Fowler, our professor, was a younger (thirties, I thought) guy who seemed pretty upbeat and interesting. We would see.
I felt eyes upon me again, if only a few. Angie said she’d had a girl move away from her in her previous class. Not that she had sat right next to the other student, but her lesbian cooties were apparently still too close. She had also gotten several ‘you just need a real man!’ comments walking across campus.
Mostly, she wasn’t going to engage. There was little point, and it risked things escalating.
We made a point of inviting our study group friends, and potential new study group members, to our upcoming party. Most of them seemed eager to attend. I hoped we would never have another party like last December, but I’m sure some people were wondering if we would have more fireworks.
After The Management Process let out, I gave Claire a hug.
“How’ve you been?” I said.
“Really good!” she said. “Larry and I are still going strong. We saw each other a few times over the summer. Now that we’re back, it’s full speed ahead!”
“I’m glad!”
“How about you?”
“Busy summer. We wound up taking a summer class, thanks to a minor medical crisis for Jasmine’s father. He’s fine now, but our trip moved out to the winter. We were gone the first half of the summer, here for the second half. Let’s see ... we went to a big concert in New York, a wedding in California, appeared on ‘60 Minutes’, and ... dunno,” I said.
She laughed, then said, “Still kinda bizarre, you winding up on national TV! My mom and dad were watching and called me, saying someone from A&M was on it. When you guys turned up, I had to tell them I knew you. Not how well I knew you, but still.”
“It is pretty funny, I agree.”
“You and Amy...?”
“Still dating, and — thanks to some overcrowding chaos in the dorms — she’s now living at the house, as of yesterday,” I said.
“Cool! I totally didn’t see that coming. I’ll have to get to know her better.”
“You will. She’s a different person now. Not that the old Amy wasn’t great, but the new one is ... you’ll like her. I’m sure of it.”
She checked her watch. “I should run. Larry’s meeting me for dinner in fifteen.”
“Have fun!”
“I’ll tell Larry about the party! I’m sure he’ll want to go.”
“Yay!”
We belatedly checked out the Batt article about Angie and Paige. They got a nice (if small) picture — Angie on one knee, proposing to Paige — and the same write-up we’d reviewed.
Angie said, “Well, if we weren’t totally out already, now we are. Not that we didn’t know that from pretty much all of my classes.”
“And mine!” Paige said. “Silly people. I don’t tell them how to run their lives!”
“That horse was out of the barn door long ago,” Cammie said, chuckling. “National media exposure will do that.”
“It’s pretty funny!” Paige said. “I always thought I might wind up with a girl. I never really thought I could be this open about it, though. In our little community, yeah. But ... everywhere? I really like it, even with the jerks.”
“So do I!” Angie said. “Maybe especially with the jerks? I mean ... not them, so much as that, if the jerks can see us, so can the good people. Maybe especially good people who didn’t even know there were people like us here to see.”
“We’re glad you feel up to doing it,” Mel said. “You give people the feeling that they can do it, too. That’s a big deal. I don’t think it would have changed Cammie and me to have someone like you out there. Some of the girls we knew back then, though? It would have made a difference.”
“That’s why it matters,” Angie said, nodding. “It’s fun to get some press, but ... eh. Doing good, though? That’s wonderful.”
“I’m a lot less selfish than I used to be!” Paige said, chuckling. “And it is wonderful!”
At bedtime, Jas said, “Oh! I needed to tell you. I ran into Monique. We were pretty much over anyway, but she’s got a boyfriend now. So ... we’re definitely over.”
I hugged her.
“It’s fine,” she said. “I’m not broken up at all. She won’t be the last fling — or, at least, I can’t imagine she would be! — but we really had run our course. There’ll be someone new. And — not that they’re at all the same — there’s Amy. And Angie, and Paige, and Jess sometimes...”
I chuckled, still hugging her, and said, “We do have a few girlfriends.”
“Just a few!”
We kissed, then continued getting ready for bed.
Tuesday, September 2, 1986
Tuesdays and Thursdays were less busy for me. I started the day at ten with Business Analysis 364 - Operations Management. Our professor, Dr. Powell, seemed like a bit of a curmudgeon, especially at first glance. Still, ‘Operations Management’ sounded like a bit of a curmudgeonly topic, so it might be fine.
The pattern continued, with a few people, both guys and girls, giving me a bit of side-eye. I was quickly getting used to it. Considering the house and all the letters, I could be excused a bit of paranoia, probably. At least to some extent, some people clearly were out to get me.
Lindsay was in this class, and we wound up sitting together, then talking after class.
“How’ve you been?” she said. “That ‘60 Minutes’ thing was kinda wild. I still haven’t seen all of it.”
I shrugged. “Getting some weird looks on campus from a few people. Not nearly what Angie and Paige are getting. They’ve got looks, comments, and some girls in Martial Arts won’t spar with them.”
“Eww! Lesbian germs!” Lindsay said.
“Paige says ‘lesbian cooties.’”
“Oh! Oh, that’s much better than mine!”
“We’ve got a videotape of the ‘60 Minutes’ show,” I said. “Actually, several videotapes.”
“Of course!” she said, smiling.
“Official ones, even. CBS sent us some clean copies.”
“I’ll have to watch it.”
“We’re having a party on Saturday. You should come! We’ll probably show it if people are interested,” I said.
“I’ll bet they will be!”
“Any luck on the girlfriend front?”
She sighed. “I wish! Thought I had a spark with this one girl, but ... nah. We really didn’t click. I’ll keep looking. At least it’s not illegal anymore! That helps!”
“It really does! We were cheering when we saw the decision.”
“I’ll just bet!”
“Parents?” I asked.
“We’re staying in a good place. They’re not bitching about Vanessa, or about my continuing to be gay, or ... anything, really. They even said it was ‘nice’ that I knew some of the people on ‘60 Minutes’. Meaning, they watched it and didn’t pitch a fit. Dunno. I’m cautiously optimistic that I’ve worn them down.”
“I’m glad!”
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