Chapter 30

Monday dawned clear and cold. I got up and went next door for breakfast. Lana kept an eye on me, but didn’t mention last night’s conversation. She, Beck and I piled into her car to go to school early since the cheer team had a follow-up meeting with Mr. Peterson at 8:30.

Beck split off to do some reading and we went to the office where we met the rest of the girls. We were seated around the conference table and Mr. Peterson came in just before 8:30. It didn’t bode well that Coach Mullins was with him. They sat down and he smiled around the room at all of us.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve asked Coach Mullins to sit in on our meeting this morning,” he started. “We discussed what happened at a meeting of the staff on Friday afternoon and tried to come up with a solution that would allow us to field a cheer team for our sports events at the very least.”

I didn’t like where this was going already. It sounded like their decision was to host the open tryouts and hope to replace the team.

“I presume then that since Ms. Mullins is still sporting the title of Coach in your introduction, that your decision is to place the school’s faith in building a new team for this season?” I asked crisply.

He looked decidedly uncomfortable, but nodded. “Coach Mullins has assured us that she can make the most of this opportunity. Any cheerleader in this room wishing to return to the team would, of course, be welcome in the new team. And of course there’ll be no disciplinary action for any member returning to the team.”

“Let’s back that up right there,” I said. “That sounds like you’re talking that people who don’t return to the team will face disciplinary action for choosing to leave the team last week.”

“Coach Mullins has expressed concern that this seriously undermines her authority in the school,” he said. “To allow this level of defiance to go unpunished would send the message that teachers aren’t to be respected.”

“I understand,” I said. “I’ll contact my lawyer and have the school board served with the sexual harassment suit this afternoon. That should dovetail well with shoring up Coach Mullins’ authority.”

“Whoa! No one wants to get lawyers involved,” he said, blanching noticeably.

“You’re going to punish these girls for standing up against a teacher making suggestive comments to me in a public setting, about demeaning me based on my gender and being put back in a position to do it again by you. I don’t want to involve lawyers either, but when you threaten my girls, it’s war. They saw a human rights violation from one of your teachers, spoke out about it and were threatened with disciplinary action if they persisted in their protest. How would you characterize it?”

“Let’s just talk it out,” he said, trying to calm everything down.

“No. You go draft a letter stating that there will be NO disciplinary action for ANY student relating to the dissolution of the cheer team and have the Vice Principal join us so we can all witness the two of you signing all 18 copies or I can pay my lawyer a fat retainer. You can only imagine the dance of joy he does when he hears the words ‘class-action’. I’ve played nice and done everything you asked of me, now you slap us all in the face with this? I’d come to expect better from you Mr. Peterson. I’m disappointed.”

He looked at me searchingly for a long moment and sighed. “Would you come with me, Mr. Russell while I draft the letter?”

“Only if Coach Mullins steps out too,” I allowed. “After this revolting turn of events, I’m not comfortable leaving my team unsupervised with her.”

The three of us got up and I followed Mr. Peterson into his office while Coach Mullins left with a scathing look for me.

“There really wasn’t going to be any action taken,” he said quietly. “She just asked me to apply some pressure to make the girls feel like they’d dodged a bullet.”

“I understand that, but this whole event has been upsetting to a lot of people. Bullying those girls only caused more of a gulf between the students and the administration. Let me ask you something and you don’t have to answer, but consider it. What if I were gay?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, worried that I was about to out him. He glanced at the open door, wondering if he should close it.

“Imagine the events as they’ve happened, but change my sexual orientation and follow events with that in mind. How awful a human rights case would you have had on your hands then? Lobby groups would be up in arms, high-profile lawyers would be offering to take the case pro-bono just for the publicity. It would have been a lightning rod. There would have been reporters, You could have seen protesters on both sides of the issue camped outside, eventually one network or another would have turned it into a TV movie. Because I’m a heterosexual male, it’s okay for her to treat me poorly in ways that are unacceptable for every other demographic in this school. I should have been able to count on you to stand up for me when a teacher has done wrong. I have seventeen girls in that conference room that stood against something that was wrong and you threatened to punish them for that. You didn’t just let me down, you let them down too.”

“I’m sorry that you feel like I let you down,” he said quietly and the only sound for the next few minutes was typing. He read me the text of the letter and I approved. He printed out the copies and then he and the Vice Principal signed them in the boardroom for each of us.

When we each had our copy, he repeated the apology and assured each of us that this matter was closed and would not in any way impact the rest of our time in the school.

“I suspect Coach Mullins might not share that particular outlook, but if it becomes an issue, we’ll discuss it together,” I said calmly, folding my copy of the letter and putting it in my backpack. I got up to go and we all filed out.

“Were they really going to do something to us if we didn’t rejoin the team?” Lana asked.

I shook my head. “There was nothing they could do about it,” I told them. “Coach Mullins was just hoping it convinced a couple of you to come back to the team to give her new program some backbone.”

“So we’re gonna do our own?” Gina wanted to be sure.

“Yep. We’re not going to be able to rent the gym here, but I’ll see if I can find us some gym space. I have a lead on a coach too. We can talk about it more after school though. We’re all still meeting out front and then going to my place to talk.”

We all split up and I went to find Tricia at her locker. We kissed and chatted and I dropped her off at her class before going to mine.

The day was completely mundane. Open tryouts for the cheer team were posted and announced and that created some excitement, but a lot of people knew what had happened and the story had spread. The tryouts were for Thursday during our normal practice time. I smiled and wondered what those would turn out like.

After school, we all gathered together and traveled to my place by car or by foot for the brave few willing to walk it with me. Once we were all settled, I stood up to talk and all the chatter stopped like I’d yelled for quiet.

“Thanks for coming everyone,” I said. “It was brought up over the weekend that several of you don’t want to tell your parents and that you can’t go to your family doctor without them. I made a call and a friend of mine recommended a clinic here in town that’ll do the testing for you without informing your parents. When the time comes, they can also do your HIV screening. That’s still a while away. I got the dates of the party and the earliest we can get them done is December 12th. There’s a test that we can get for you that includes express results so you only have to wait 72 hours. It’s not cheap, but in the interest of putting this behind all of us, I’ve agreed to pay for those tests to make sure that all of us get the best news possible for Christmas.”

They looked surprised. “How expensive are the tests?” Gina asked.

“From what I saw online, the express tests cost about $70,” I said reluctantly. I’d thought about telling her not to worry about it, but those numbers were available online. Better to bring it up here, talk about it and get it settled.

“That’s over $4000!” she blurted. “You can’t spend that much on this! Look, it’s our problem, we need to clean it up.”

I knew that Lana was right about Gina and this proved it. “I appreciate that and it’s never been my intent to take control of your lives away from you. That was already done and it’s important for you to be in control. I’m not telling you that I’m making this decision. I’m ASKING you to let me do this so we can ALL breathe easier. I don’t want this test to be a burden to any of you and I don’t want the results to hang over you through Christmas. Consider it a Christmas gift from me to each of you.”

Some of them looked relieved. Others still looked scared and a few, like Gina, looked unhappy about having someone else pay for them.

“Having me pay for them in one lump sum does something else for us. If we have to talk about what happened in the open for whatever reason, it’s proof that we did what we needed to do and it’s compelling evidence that something happened on that one weekend.”

A few of them nodded, but most of them looked like they’d rather put it behind them. “For now, I want us all to go down to the clinic and start getting everyone tested. We can’t do the HIV tests yet, but we can do the rest and make sure that no one has any other infections that we need to start treatment on. One more thing. I know it’s probably been the last thing on your mind, but if any of you have been sexually active since that weekend, you need to get your partner or partners tested.”

“‘Or partners?’” One girl asked angrily. “What’s that supposed to mean?!”

I shrugged. “I’m active with three partners currently. I don’t presume to know what anyone’s situation is like. I can hardly judge anyone else if their lifestyle choice doesn’t involve monogamy.”

That shut her up, but I felt like I needed to get this out. “I know some of you have been treated poorly at school and I know that putting it like that doesn’t give it the full measure of awfulness that it’s been, but I’m not going to treat you like anything but people. Something terrible happened to each of you. I’m not about to blame you for it. I’m not about to judge your lifestyle before or after that weekend. You have just as much value to me as girls who weren’t there. What happened to you doesn’t diminish you as people. We’ll all undoubtedly bond over this and some of us will become close friends as we find common interests. Some of us may drift, but I’ll never treat you with anything except respect. I need you to know that.”

She nodded and a lot of the girls joined her. That put an end to the discussion and the cheerleaders made arrangements to come back for dinner to plan our new team. It took three trips for all the cars to ferry everyone to the clinic and I was in the last load, owing to the need to lock the house.

By the time I got there, the staff was overwhelmed and looking extremely harassed trying to get everyone’s paperwork filled out. I went to talk to the nurse at the counter and explained briefly that we were there as a group and that I was helping the girls with getting tested after a party that had gone horribly wrong.

“Is there anything I can do to help streamline the process?” I asked delicately.

“Not really,” she admitted. “We have it down to a science, but this is a lot of them at once. I wish you’d called ahead.”

“I apologize. It’s kind of my first rodeo for this kind of thing. Are there costs involved?”

She looked around the waiting room which was standing room only. “There’s a nominal fee of $20 for the basic testing and then an additional charge for the HIV screening.”

“I’m aware the HIV screening is about $70 for the rapid result option, but we can’t do it until the 12th of next month. Can I pay for the exams and the HIV tests now so that they just have to come in on that day and get it done?”

“You’re paying? For ALL of them?”

I nodded. “I am. We all agreed to have them charged to one bill.”

“Why would you do that?” she asked suspiciously.

“So that I can personally use a whole box of staples to pin the receipt to the testicles of the people responsible for this mess,” I said evenly.

That made her blink. She’d seen enough girls come in that she’d encountered just about every scenario imaginable, but this was new. “So you weren’t involved in this ... whatever it was?”

I shook my head. “But people I care about were. So there’s sixty girls here that need exams and HIV Antibody screenings. I can pay that today.”

“How will you be paying that?” she asked, still dubious. “Cash, debit or credit?”

“Cash if you’ll take that amount of it,” I said slipping an envelope out of my jacket. I counted out $100 bills as her eyebrows tried to climb into her hairline. The bill came to $5400. I paid it in full and asked for a receipt for the full charges without divulging names. She printed the bill out for me and made a second copy at my request.

“So you’re not responsible for any of this?” she asked, still confused.

“Nope. I’m just trying to be a friend to these girls and make sure that they get the help they need. The sooner they know if they have an infection or are pregnant, the sooner they can make decisions about what options are right for them.”

“That’s one HELL of a gesture of friendship,” she pointed out.

I shrugged. “I’ve been in a situation where I didn’t have a lot of options for help. If I can help others in that situation, then I count that worth the cost.”

She nodded and I let her get back to work. I stopped to talk to as many of the girls as possible to see if they were doing okay. The exams were taking a while, but we helped by getting the girls in by how soon they needed to be home. The cheerleaders were all having dinner at the house and we made sure their parents knew so that they were aware that they’d be home later.

Lana had already had her screening, so she was taking people home as soon as their testing was done. Everyone had opted to be notified by text message that the results were ready and for most of the tests, they got the news before they went home.

Mercifully, the only blow of the day was that one of the girls was pregnant. She came out weeping and surrounded with hugs as soon as she appeared. We all felt for her and I asked her if she had told her parents what had happened. She shook her head and I nodded. “Do you want some of us to be with you when you talk to them?” I asked gently. She nodded and a few of the girls volunteered to go with her since they were done testing.