“How do we stay? What would that take?”

I know the answer before Frohmeyer says it. “Tell me it’s not true. Look me in the eye, both of you, and tell me you are good Christian boys who have not once looked at another boy here and who I can safely, before God and your folks and the Student Life Committee, proclaim innocent.”

“And then we stay?”

“If I believe you.”

He sits back, arms folded across his chest, waiting for us to sell him on a notion he clearly doesn’t want to buy.

I look at Chaz. Beautiful Chaz, those eyes troubled, and think about what it would mean for him to go home now. Will his parents take away college? What happens to his dreams? Chaz needs to do whatever it takes to be safe. I will respect whatever he says; he has walked a different path toward this moment than I have, and it’s okay. He can disavow it and feign shock when I don’t. He’s alive, and I want him to have everything he deserves.

But there is no way I’m going to say I’m not who I am. I’m not going to lie about my true heart to keep the peace with people who despise it. If I agree, I might as well throw rocks at myself.

I sit back. I don’t say a word.

Chaz does the unthinkable. He reaches over and takes my hand. And holds it. Together we are a gay wall, and we’ve left the principal no opening. Whatever blow comes, we’re sharing it.

Frohmeyer’s lips part, then close, settling into a line of disgust. He doesn’t even speak to us before going to his door and waving us out. When Ms. Silverthorn sees our faces and his, she knows the story.

We can’t meet in her classroom, where a substitute teacher is offering the quiz on Connecticut Yankee, so we end up in a study nook of the library. There are the jankiest looking computers sitting where the Macs are in my time.

Ms. Silverthorn tells us we’re not actually expelled until Student Life agrees in a meeting she imagines will happen right after lunch. The vote has to be unanimous, not just Frohmeyer but all four members. The bad news is that Mr. Buckman is one of the four. When Chaz says Mr. A and Mr. Blue round out the team, I feel like I’m in a Margaret Atwood novel. “They’re all men? How is that allowed?”

“Allowed? It’s the norm.”

“What if a girl’s in trouble?”