The soft sound of someone clearing their throat comes from behind me. I turn, and there’s Mr. B, his face stuck in a wooden version of his usual grin. My heart clenches. Did he hear what I said? Who am I kidding, he definitely heard what I said.

Rationally, I know it’s unlikely Mr. B is going to secretly be homophobic. I mean, he’s the drama teacher. Plus, his whole shtick is that he’s the cool teacher.

Still, I would prefer to tell people about my sexuality on my own terms. You don’t know how people are going to feel about you being gay, and I don’t like things being so far out of my control.

“If you’re not too busy coming out, shall we get started with rehearsal?” Mr. B says, the wattage on his smile turning up to blinding levels.

Oh, he’s trying too hard to be cool with this. Bad sign. “Um, okay.” I take a deep breath as Ed and I follow him down the aisle toward the stage. Calm down, Shay. There’s no reason to panic. Mr. B loves you. He’s already made that very clear.

Except my panic seems justified when Mr. B starts making fun of me during the rehearsal.

“Get it together, Shay,” he calls merrily when I miss an entrance. His blue eyes twinkle as he flashes the grin that always goes with his jokes.

“Sorry,” I say, running to my place next to Ana.

“Don’t get distracted by your scene partners,” he says, still smiling.

All my scene partners are girls. I tense and force a laugh. Out of all the ways that someone could find out I was a lesbian, my least favorite has got to be my drama teacher making a bad joke about it in rehearsal.

Ana meets my eyes, angling her body so Mr. B can’t see her face. “What?” she mouths.

I give her the tiniest shrug, hoping the moment will be forgotten by everyone quickly, and run back offstage as I hear the music restart. Unfortunately, the weirdness doesn’t end there.

“Okay, Shay. I know you’re a magical genius and everything, but this is some sloppy work. All those walls are the wrong size.” He’s stopped us mid-number to chew me out about how I magically adjusted the prop walls to be slightly too large. Every eye in the cast is trained on me while I shrink into myself in shame. “I can’t do that on top of everything else I’m managing, but if you need someone to take that effect from you—”

“No, I’ve got it!” I say.

“Okay,” he says. “Then let’s try that again.”