Page 62 of Pride High 3: Yellow
“The jerk who spraypainted ‘fag’ on my locker. Doesn’t that count as publishing gay content?”
Mr. Finnegan snorted. “Good point. I’ll be sure to raise the issue with Principal Preckwinkle.”
“Is that who is censoring me?”
He caught a glimpse of panic before Mr. Finnegan hid it. “I’m not at liberty to discuss such matters with students.”
In other words, yes.
“We better get back to class, Anthony.”
“Okay. Hey, am I allowed to write an article about how much it sucks to have my voice taken from me?”
“Yes,” Mr. Finnegan said firmly. “You certainly are.”
That made Anthony feel a little better. But not much, because when he was sitting in class again, he felt oddly vulnerable. Who was he supposed to turn to if Graham kept picking on him? What if he got beaten up for being gay? Would anyone care? Or would he be told to keep quiet, because such subjects weren’t appropriate for school?
— — —
“There you are!”
Diego felt a dainty hand grab his. When he turned around, he almost expected to see Ricky, but the voice was wrong. Although it was nearly as familiar. Mindy Beaumont was smiling at him as students swarmed past them in the school hallway. He gave an upward nod. “How’s it going, princess?”
“Fine,” she replied before seeming to realize that she was still holding his hand. She let go with a blush. “Are you on your way to class?”
“Nah. It’s my lunch break.”
Mindy perked up at this. “Oh! We have the same one? I’ve never seen you in the cafeteria.”
Diego jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “I usually eat in my car. Or when the weather’s nice, I sit on the hood.”
“Doesn’t that make it hard to steer?” Mindy teased.
“Yeah,” Diego said, “but the bigger problem is getting bugs out of my teeth.”
“Ew!” she said with a giggle.
Diego tilted his head while grinning, reminded of how pretty she was. The tousled ginger hair that stopped just short of her shoulders, the petite nose covered in light freckles, and the pale skin that turned pink so easily… Like it was doing now.
“Are you meeting anyone for lunch?” she asked.
“Nope. You?”
“I always sit with Silvia. She’s my best friend. You could join us.”
“Omar’s girlfriend?” he asked, already tempted to accept, because flirting with her would torture his former friend. Although he didn’t like the idea of doing so in front of Mindy. “Some other time, maybe.”
“Oh. Well, I was wondering… Did you happen to see that the theater group is holding auditions?”
“No thanks,” Diego replied with a snort.
Mindy’s face fell. “How come? You were so wonderful as the Beast! And everyone liked working with you. Me especially.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yes! Didn’t you have fun?”
He shrugged. “I guess so.”
