I stumbled on a pot-hole and it flew out. It was supposed to be safely tucked in my bra! 

The boy across from me stopped spinning the basketball in his hand. His brown eyes riveted to the cross now exposed on my chest. It was glowing in the morning sun, screaming out my violation of the new rules. The other students clustering around the weedy quadrangle at the front of the school didn't seem to notice as I scrambled to hide it.

He loped towards me. Would he report me? Would I be suspended on my first day at this feral new school? The pounding in my chest wasn't just from the fear of being hauled up before the principal. The boy looked even better close up, but that well-toned muscle and dark curly hair must hide a snitch's heart. Why else would he look so serious while holding a basketball?  My aunt would never forgive me for this. I'd be expelled and it would make the evening news.

I turned around to go back up the steps and out of the school. Better to not even arrive than to be officially disciplined. I could catch a bus to the mall and hide out there all day.

"Wait," he said, his voice was low and pleading. He didn't sound offended. "I'm Ez. You're brave to wear that here."

I gulped as I turned to face him. "It was a mistake."

"All you've done is made it obvious you're one of us," he said with a grin that made my knees wobble and my face heat. "Meet us at the oval at lunch time, under that eucalyptus tree by the sports shed that used to be orange."

I opened my mouth to protest that I wasn't one of them. That even though I appreciated his invitation to their little rebel group, I didn't actually have faith. But one look at the warmth in his eyes, and the way he'd admired my boldness made me hesitate. I began to choke out the words to clear up his mis-identification of me, but the shrill school bell swallowed them.

"I have to run," he said apologetically, already moving away. "I've got homeroom in the Ag block. See you lunch time!" He sped off and I shut my mouth. He was the only one I knew in this whole school and he was offering me insta-friendship.

Don't judge me too hard. I wasn't owning my truth back then.