Page 114 of And They Were Roommates

“I’ll keep passing out the candy…,” he says, wandering away with it.

Principal Grimes smiles. “Everything okay over here?”

“Yep! Yeah. Awesome.”

She watches the unfolding commotion on the dance floor. “Always an unpredictable mess, these mixers. Although I can’t deny I get a bit of a kick out of it.”

Those are the last words I expected to hear from her. I don’t respond.

“Sorry to intrude on your supercool night,” she continues, “but I had been meaning to speak with you.”

Because I didn’t rank.

“Right,” I say, my heart sinking. “I know my Excellence Scholar requirements—”

“I just received word we’re no longer applying the ranking system as a metric. Well, as a requirement for our Excellence Scholars at first. It takes baby steps with the board of trustees.”

I try to speak. To move. I’m too stunned.

“What changed?” I say, my voice barely a whisper.

“Jasper didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

Principal Grimes sighs in a way that sounds half humorous and half exhausted. “Let’s just say he gained the support of a few other students with parents who are vital to our financial donor stability, and they wrote to a certain board of trustees, threatening to release quite the op-ed about the”—she pauses—“antiquated ways of Valentine.”

My head races over who he convinced to join—Xavier? Blaze? Did they know this whole time? Is this what Jasper was speaking to her about in the ballroom?

Even after what I told him last night?

“I had no idea,” I say.

“He came to me personally after the ranks released at first, but I told him it’s up to the board. Although I’ve never been a fan of the ranks either.”

“Really?”

“Yes, but my workload has thrown aside my priorities lately, trying to please the board. I’m admittedly proud of my nephew for causing a fuss. I really should get to know him a bit better, now that we’re in such close proximity.” She presses a finger to her lips. “Anyhoo, I haven’t told him the news that your requirements have changed. I wanted you to know first.”

Jasper really did this.

He’s why I’m staying.

My chest bursts with a joy I haven’t felt since I received my Valentine acceptance letter. I don’t even care that my eyes water in front of her. “Thank you, both of you.”

I have to tell STRIP.

No. Mom. I have to call her back.

“How is everything else?” Principal Grimes asks. Last time I met with her, stress oozed from her, but tonight, all of that is dampened. Maybe she’s felt the pressure of tradition too. Either way, it seems like Jasper taking matters into his own hands had an effect. “I hope your time here has otherwise been satisfactory?”

I could give the same response I always do. Busy. Full of studying.

But everything feels like it’s changing. Everyone here is really starting to feel like they’re on my side. “Principal Grimes, what’s Valentine’s stance on transgender students?”

The topic shift shakes her up at first, but then she hums more calmly than I expect. “I only started here recently, but I believe there was one student—we knew much later, postgraduation.None have made it known to us during, so I assume we’ve never addressed it as such.”

I prepare to once again speak what I swore I never would. My friends won’t let me go home. Jasper too. I know that now.

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