Chapter 25

Friday, we walked next door and had breakfast with Patty and Dan for the first time in a while. Dan got up from the table and gave me a hug when I came in. I knew Patty would have told him the details, but the hug surprised me.

“I’m sorry about Dr. Saddler,” he said to begin, “and thank you for last night. We’re all behind you.”

I nodded and we sat down to eat. Things were fairly normal through the meal and Emma kissed me goodbye, promising she and Zoe would be around to pick me up after school.

“Actually, I was thinking about talking to some of the girls after school like Lana had asked me to,” I told her. I mostly wanted her to be home for the flower delivery. “I’ll call you when I get home and we’ll plan the weekend.”

She nodded and kissed me again. “Love you,” we said at the same time and laughed. I got into Lana’s car and she took off to get to class.

When we got to school, Beck waited with us for the rest of the cheerleaders to show up outside the school. One by one, they all arrived and we exchanged hugs before we went inside to look for Mr. Peterson.

He was surprised to see us and took us into the conference room they used for larger meetings to talk.

When we were all seated, he started off. “What brings you all in this morning?” he asked brightly, obviously not clued-in to what had happened at practice yet.

All the girls looked at me and I nodded. They’d elected me to tell him what had happened. “Practice didn’t go well yesterday,” I said. “I spoke to Coach Mullins about it afterwards, but we weren’t able to reach an agreement that would let me continue with cheer for the school.”

He frowned. “I thought we had that worked out the other day,” he said, sounding disappointed with me.

Gina spoke up then. “Matt really tried, Mr. Peterson. Coach wouldn’t let him do anything. She just made him stand by and watch the whole practice. Then at the end, she referred to the team as ‘ladies’ and tried to pretend like he wasn’t there.”

He nodded, frowning. “So what brings you all to me today then?”

“Well, when it was clear that she thought I was being unreasonable to demand the same respect she’d insist on the rest of the team getting, I told her I’d say goodbye to the girls and be on my way. They’ve all decided that if I’m not comfortable returning to practice, they aren’t comfortable either. I tried to talk them out of it, but they all advised Coach Mullins that they couldn’t continue with cheer at this point. We talked outside afterwards and we all decided as a team that if we weren’t comfortable staying in cheer for the school, that we’d form our own club so that the work they’ve put in doesn’t go to waste.”

“So our school has NO cheerleading team as of this morning?” he asked, surprised.

“That’s right,” Gina said, jumping in again. “Practice yesterday was the most awkward that I can ever remember it. Matt said he was willing to leave because his presence was causing us to be distracted and he didn’t want any of us getting hurt. It’s not his presence that made it weird yesterday though, it was the way that she ran the practice. Matt’s the first boy that’s decided to join the team and she ran him out of the gym twice. Matt’s offered to get us a sponsor, gym time, uniforms and a coach just to keep us together.”

“Is that true, Matt?” the principal asked, surprised.

I nodded. “Practice was a train-wreck. If I kept going back to be treated like that by Coach Mullins, it draws attention to me instead of the work. Someone’s gonna get hurt if we keep it up. She wouldn’t relent, so I quit. The team decided to show solidarity with me. I’ll do everything I can to repay that show of support.”

“Would you be willing to sit down with Coach Mullins and talk it out?” he asked.

“I don’t envision that as a productive use of anyone’s time,” I told him. “I tried to talk to her on Monday at the end of practice, you and I had a meeting with her on Wednesday and I talked to her again at the end of practice yesterday. Do you really think a fourth meeting is going to get us back on track?”

He looked sour at that, but shook his head. “At least let’s bring her in and discuss the matter?” he asked.

“I would be more interested in discussing arrangements for us to rent the use of the gym on Monday and Thursday afternoons for our practices once we can find a suitable coach.”

He started trying to mend fences. “Coach Mullins-”

“Is not being considered for the job,” I finished for him firmly, but gently. “If you want to bring her in here to talk about it, we’ll tell her directly, but I doubt she’s interested in working with our team after yesterday’s events.”

He nodded and got up to have her paged. We heard her name called over the PA a moment later and then he rejoined us. “She’ll be shown in when she answers,” he assured us and we talked a little about what had happened while we waited.

He wasn’t happy with hearing more detail about the casually unfriendly attitude she’s treated me with and the fact that both the JV and Varsity teams were there telling him they were uncomfortable was pretty damning too.

“Have you decided on a name for your new club yet?” he asked.

“Not yet. We have a lot of planning to do including picking out uniforms and finding a coach. We only just decided this last night to keep the team together.”

We were joined a few minutes later by Coach Mullins. She didn’t look pleased to see us all there.

“I had intended to speak with you about this later in the day,” she told the principal testily. “I see Mr. Russell has seen fit to deliver his version of events instead.”

“I’m interested in your version of events,” he said, gesturing to a seat beside him.

“Very well,” she said and then turned to the rest of us. “Girls, out. We’ll discuss this at practice on Monday.”

Gina spoke up again and surprised me. “There’s not going to BE a practice on Monday,” she said firmly. “No one in this room is participating in cheerleading any more. That’s what we came to tell Mr. Peterson.”

“I consider what happened at the end of practice yesterday to be the result of emotions running high and I’m willing to overlook the outburst,” she said, directing her comments to Gina, but glancing around the table at all the team, except me. She managed to slide her eyes right past me from Lana on my right, to Gina on my left.

Gina opened her mouth, but it was Lana that spoke. “We’re not willing to overlook it,” she said. “Yesterday’s practice was terrible. Go build a new team and good luck doing it. After I was done my homework, I messaged every girl I knew to tell them that the whole team had quit because you were rotten to Matt.”

Evidently, she hadn’t been the only one to spread the tale and several of the girls said they’d done the same. That was something I hadn’t heard and it amused me that they’d used social media to destroy high school cheerleading for at least this year.

“Mr. Peterson,” I said to get his attention and try to keep the meeting from escalating. “I see two solutions here. The first is that you find another coach for the cheerleading team and hopefully we can come to a less adversarial position with new direction. Otherwise, the solution is to post open tryouts for a replacement team. The relationship between the team and Coach Mullins is poisoned beyond the ability of a simple meeting to restore. The only other option is for the school to do without a cheer squad for the year.”

He nodded. He was on the same page. I hadn’t suggested one option over the others, but had discouraged abandoning the team for a full year. He looked at Coach Mullins. “And your assessment?” he asked her.

“Russell is the problem,” she said, glaring at me. “If you hadn’t pushed him on me in the first place, we’d never be here.”

“Mr. Peterson didn’t push me on you in the first place,” I corrected her. “Lana Powers suggested after seeing me take a dance class that I’d be a good fit for a space you had on the team and I agreed to help out. How Mr. Peterson became aware of my involvement and decided to intercede when I left, I don’t know.

“I became aware after there was a purchase order for a boy’s cheerleading uniform,” he said, filling in the blanks. “When I was informed the next day that the order could be rejected as the uniform was no longer needed, I decided to try to smooth it over.”

“I’m sorry it didn’t work out the way you’d hoped,” I told him sincerely.

“I appreciate you trying. So who wants to tell me where the breakdown occurred?” he asked.

“Well, I felt like it started on a sour note yesterday,” I said. “My return to practice deserved at least a word to the team about why I was back since we hadn’t ended on good terms Monday. That set the tone for the rest of the day. She assigned me nothing to do, nothing to learn and ignored my existence whenever she could. She called me ‘Russell’ when she had to address me at all. She calls all the girls by their first name, but she couldn’t even bear to call me ‘Mr. Russell’. I felt it was disrespectful and it’s something she never would have tolerated if someone else was doing it to any other member of the team.”

I told him about the meeting in her office and the requests that I’d made for respect and participation and then ended with a brief rehash of the team decision to leave with me. “From my point of view, that’s how it happened. I don’t think there’s a lot of interpretation to be had for it. I don’t want an apology at this point. We tried that last time. I trust I don’t need to break another pencil to remind you both. At this point, I only see those three alternatives. Obviously, I’d prefer the school find a new coach that can work with the whole team, but failing that, my preference would be to have the program shut down for the year so we can rent the gym for those time-slots.”

“We can certainly discuss that,” he allowed. “Can I have the weekend to consider the options?” he asked gently.

I looked to the girls and they nodded. Some of them looked hopeful. “Sure,” I said. “No one here wants to leave the sports teams without a cheer team supporting them. If we can find a way to make this work, I think I speak for the whole team when I say we look forward to helping out.”

They all nodded and we agreed to meet again on Monday before classes. “That was crazy!” Lana said when we were outside the office. “I thought she was gonna flip!”

“I guess we’ll see how it goes on Monday, but for now, let’s assume we’re still doing it on our own.” We all went to our lockers with people drifting off to get their books. When I was about to head off to get mine and then look for Tricia, I stopped Lana for a second.

“Talk to the other girls through the day and gather up the ones who want to talk. We’ll go for coffee or something after school,” I told her. “I’m sure some of them are gonna be reluctant to talk just yet.”

“Don’t be so sure,” she said. “Your reputation is pretty stellar. Talking to Tricia, sticking up for us on Halloween, kicking the shit out of the Watermans all add up. The girls noticed. You want them all or just the cheerleaders?”

“Everyone,” I said. “I’ll talk with them separately over the next few weeks, but for now, gather in everyone who was at that party and tell them to pass the word to anyone they knew was there. I imagine the list is pretty extensive. No boys unless we KNOW they were abused there and not doing the abusing.”

She nodded and scampered off. I wondered how we were going to work this. I met Tricia and told her that I was going to have a talk with the girls that were at that party after school.

“Okay,” she said. “I can find my own way home.”

“I wasn’t telling you because I wanted you to go home. You’re coming with me,” I said.

“I wasn’t at that party though,” she said.

“Neither was I, but we were still hurt by the people who threw the party. I want you there.”

She grinned at me when I told her I wanted her there and kissed me.

“How’d things go with your dad last night?” I asked.

“Good, I think,” she said cryptically.

“You’re not sure?”

“No, it’s not that. The talk went well, but he ended by telling me he’d think about it. We talked about Mom some and about how much we both miss her.”

I hugged her and kissed her cheek. “I know, Sweetie. I hope he decides that you’re old enough and I’m trustworthy enough to let us have more time. If not, we’ll still see as much of each other as I can convince him to allow.”

“I’m still working on him. He feels a little better about you since that video you posted about your friend dying. That makes him feel like you’re a more genuine person.”

I laughed and dropped her at her classroom before making a call and getting two more bouquets of roses delivered to Emma and Zoe later in the afternoon and getting to my own class.

I settled in for the morning and finished my lectures on schedule. I was sitting at lunch when Gina slipped in beside me. I looked up, surprised, but a moment later, Lana and Beck joined us. “You’re okay with this?” Lana asked before sitting down and I nodded.

“We cleared things up last night,” I reminded her.

Gina looked at me questioningly.

“That weekend, Beck and I asked them to hurt Matt,” Lana admitted, looking down. “He was furious with us until he found out about the rest of the story.”

“Oh,” she said, looking stricken. “Lana said you were willing to talk to us after school.”

I nodded. “We all have something in common. We were all damaged by Marlene and the Waterman brothers. We should come together to support each other. I also asked Tricia Saunders to be there. She wasn’t at the party, but her reputation was hurt by them and she found herself a virtual outcast. I hope everyone’s comfortable with her being there.”

Gina nodded. “It’s cool. You’ve been spending a lot of time with her since Halloween. Is she your girlfriend?”

I smiled. “Yes, she is,” I said. She seemed a little sad about that and I remembered what Lana had asked about other girls. I took out my phone and showed her the pictures from Halloween. “All three of them are my girlfriends. There’s another one, but I didn’t meet her until after that night.”

“You date all of them?” she asked, shocked. “HOW?!!?”

“Easy. I don’t hide it and we all make decisions together. If someone else wants to join us, we all have to agree. If we don’t, then we have to say no, even if there’s only one of us that disagrees.”

She nodded and thought about that. I reminded them that I wanted to get in touch with everyone we could to get as many of them to come talk about it as possible, even if it was just to meet everyone and see who we could turn to for support. They nodded and after we finished eating, they drifted off to talk to specific girls that they’d known were there.

While they were gone, I called the fitness center to talk to Hanna. When she came to the phone, I asked her how her day was going.

“Not so bad,” she said. “Did Emma tell you I couldn’t make it this weekend?” she asked.

Gina had returned to the table and sat down with me while I talked and I decided to see just how much I could shock her. “Yeah. Emma told me. She said you wouldn’t be much fun because of your period. Screw that. Come anyway. Like I told her, some of the best days of my life have involved me covered in blood. Sometimes it’s even mine.”

“Kinky!” she said with a laugh. “You’re really okay with that?”

“Just because it’s that time of the month doesn’t mean the parts stop working. I put tampons in the bathroom for a reason. I’ll see you for dinner and when your surprise arrives, don’t bring it up in front of Tricia. Hers gets delivered tomorrow.”

“Surprise? What surprise?!!?”

“I can’t tell you. It’s a surprise,” I chuckled and hung up before she could push for more details.

I took a second to message Emma. “Text me when your surprise arrives. I already told Hanna to be home for dinner.”

“You’d be with a girl on her period?” Gina asked, shocked.

Lana had come back from talking to her friends in time to hear her ask and dropped back into her seat. “He’ll go down there and kiss it,” she told her, knowing from experience.

Gina looked shocked at that. “No way!”

“Well I’m a little more careful. I don’t dive in and motorboat,” I laughed, blowing a raspberry and whipping my head back and forth to demonstrate.

All of us laughed at that. Gina thought it was funnier than Lana, but it still got some laughs from both of them.

We chatted pleasantly for the rest of the hour and I left a few minutes early to go meet Tricia, reminding them to find as many of the people that were hurt that weekend as they could reach.

I walked her to her class and told her I had a surprise coming to her house tomorrow to make sure she’d be home for it.

She looked at me and crinkled her nose at me cutely. “What did you do?” she asked, suspicious.

“Fell in love with you,” I answered and kissed her on the nose before I left her to go to lunch and ran off to my classes for the rest of the day.

The afternoon went smoothly and I dropped off my books after class and met Tricia at her locker. We walked outside and I thought half the school was there. We gathered together and I realized we weren’t going to be able to talk anywhere public with this many people.

“Hi everyone!” I said, calling for attention. “There’s a lot of us here. I was originally thinking we could go talk over coffee, but I think it’s better if we go somewhere less public. My place is only a few minutes walk away if no one objects.”

I took Tricia’s hand and we led a strange procession of people. Lana and a few other people with cars carried as many people as they could take with them and they were waiting for us when we arrived.

I unlocked the door and led everyone inside. We were quickly out of soda, juice, milk and had flattened two whole packages of party cups. Once we were settled in the living room, everyone on chairs, the couch or spread out on the floor around the room, I got up.

“Thanks for coming, everyone,” I said. “We all know why we’re here. Marlene Garret, Patrick Waterman and Vance Waterman have destroyed our lives in one form or another. Lana Powers suggested we all get together to talk about what happened. She really wanted me to talk to everyone about the party they threw back in September since that was where they did most of their damage to all of you and me.”