Like gossip does in a school, word got around very fast that Mr. Johnson was called to the principal's office. In their group of friends, it was Eliza who told them about it when Payton asked, "Why is everyone leaving?"

"I heard Johnson is sitting in the principal's office. I suppose they're waiting to see if he's going to get fired." Eliza sounded too smug to match the neutral tone of her words, and she was not the only one. Amethyst, however, was the only one who stood up and looked at them.

"Are we going or what? If it happens I want to be on the first row."

Hayden stood up.

"I'm with you," they said, and soon everyone followed the two of them to the exit. Amethyst noticed almost half of the cafeteria was now doing the same thing, and she was happy they reached the hall before the principal's door before it got so crowded as it was getting now. A few teachers tried to usher them away, but at that exact moment the door opened.

"I'd like you to leave my office, sir," they heard the principal say. The whole hall fell silent when Johnson stormed out of the door.

"Fine," he almost yelled. "But this is complete bullshit. I will see to it that this gets an investigation."

He was still holding up his mask of innocence, but the fact that he pushed his way through the crowd to the main doors told them a lot about what had gone down. Amy knew he was lying – an investigation would only be worse for him.

"You think he got fired?" Hayden whispered beside her. Amy turned to look at them.

"I hope so," she said. "He did seem angry."

The relief on Hayden's face was sudden and overwhelming.

"Good," they said, and looked at the doors through which he had disappeared. "I didn't have him, but just seeing him walk through this school would make me feel unsafe. Do you think that's why he got fired? Because they couldn't let a teacher stay who scared the shit out of everyone?"

"Maybe. But isn't this very soon? You'd think they at least would let him stay for a week to see how things escalated and how many complains they would be getting."

"Maybe they didn't dare to take the risk," Hayden shrugged.

"Maybe," Amethyst repeated absently. She couldn't stop thinking about his face. He had seemed even more angry. Could Katie...

meet me after school. same place Amy texted Katie before the principal started yelling at them to leave. The many bodies moving back to the cafeteria hid her and her phone from sight. She didn't get an answer immediately, but assumed Katie would eventually read it and put her phone in the pocket of her black, woolen skirt. Most of the faces around her looked grimly satisfied, she noticed. Some were laughing, some were excited, happy that something interested had happened. Some looked sad, but she knew instantly it wasn't because of Johnson's absence. Mainly because Charity had the same look on her face. Amethyst slowed her pace to let her friend catch up with her, then asked, "What's wrong?"

The sharp lines of Charity's face were even more closed up than usual, her pale eyes drifting across the crowd.

"Nothing," she replied. Amethyst knew better than to keep pushing her, so she just linked arms with her and kept walking beside her. When she had first met the girl, she had thought she hated her. And during freshman year, Charity really did. She never really had explained why, but Amy didn't really care. She was happy she had gotten the chance to talk with Charity when she was forced to sit beside her third term. They had, to her surprise, kept talking even after the lesson, and the next day she had showed up to their table. Their group was pretty small back then, only consisting of her, Hayden, Elizabeth and Austin. Amy had even then felt safe with those three. People often asked her why she stayed with the people who were considered weird by a lot of people, to which she responded she, too, was weird. One time a guy had asked if she did it because they could get no other friends, out of pity, to which she had flat-out answered that the only person who needed pity was him, for his lack of braincells. Charity's new roommate, Payton, and Hannah had joined them the year after.

When they had reached the cafeteria, the bell rang, and they picked up their bags and went to their classes. The teachers from their last two periods had trouble keeping them silent, and when Hayden joined her during AP Chemistry, the last class of the day, Amy, too, didn't let her pity for the teachers keep her from talking with Hayden. Luckily, they could sit next to each other – last time they had been paired up for experiments.

"Hey, by the way," they started when they sat down next to Amethyst. "Were did you go so fast yesterday? I haven't gotten the chance to ask, with all that stuff with Johnson."

Amy suddenly was very interested in choosing the right pen.

"Just meeting someone."

"Who?" Hayden pushed. Amy looked up, surprised. Normally, they were never so pertinacious if she made clear she didn't want to talk about it. Hayden's olive skin flushed with embarrassment from her gaze, but they kept looking at her. Could it be they were suspecting something? She had always thought Hayden was too smart fo their own good, but she had done almost nothing to let them suspect her, right? Mentally, she retraced all her steps of the day, while searching for an answer. She didn't want to lie – she would hate herself for it days after. But could she tell the truth? she would have waited for the teacher to tell them to shut up so she could get out of answering, but the teachers not having control over them anymore was suddenly something bad. Shutting up now would only seem more suspicious.

"Katie," she thus said, talking over the teacher's pleas to be silent. "I, um... had to hurry to catch her. I had to ask her, um, which part of the assignment I should do."

Amethyst was the worst liar ever. Hayden's brow furrowed, as if they sensed she was lying. And they probably did.

"Couldn't you use your phone?" they asked. "And which subject do you have with her, anyways?"

None, that was how many. Amethyst felt herself growing red. Stupid body. Hayden sighed.

"If you don't want to tell me, just say it."

Amy hurried to apologize, but she found Hayden smiling faintly when she looked up.

"I'm completely fine with you dating her, if that's what you're trying to hide."

They still looked hurt, desperately trying to cover it, but Amethyst couldn't help but feel relieved. She muttered something, hoping her red cheeks would indeed mean to Hayden she was right.

"I'm sorry," she said still. They shrugged.

"No worries. I get it, though." And indeed, the hurt had vanished, which made Amy feel even worse. Why wasn't she just telling the truth? Hayden was her best friend. They would get it. They wouldn't think she was a freak. But what about Hope, who wanted to keep her anonymity? Amy would be breaking her promise not to tell anyone. And then there was Katie, who, too, she would be exposing to someone she didn't know.

"I didn't know Katie was into girls," Hayden said absently, doodling on their notebook and pretending to follow the lesson.

"She isn't," said Amy. That, at least, she could clear up. She saw Hayden connecting the dots in their head, making up their own story, and they patted her arm.

"Oh. You'll find someone eventually. I'm sure of it. You're an amazing person."

Amy smiled at them.

"You, too."

Hayden rolled their eyes at her.

"Yeah, sure. Who would want to date me?"

Amy nudged them softly.

"Oh, come on. You're horrible at self-confidence."

"I know! Don't judge me," Hayden laughed.

"Miss Howard and Miss Rodriguez!" sounded the teacher's exasperated voice. Hayden cringed by the title they were addressed with. Amy glared at the teacher, but didn't go into a discussion. She had learnt long ago most of them couldn't be bothered by stuff like gender. Sometimes Amy wanted to shout at them that it was 2019 – people should be respected even if they didn't fit into the boxes of this heteronormative world. For a month or so since they knew each other, Hayden had gone by female pronouns, and Amy had swiftly noticed their discomfort, but gave them room to come out when they wanted to. They did about a month later, and Amy had done the same. Since that moment forth, they had never hidden anything from each other, which made her feel even worse about lying now.

"She isn't really expecting us to be silent, does she?" she heard Hayden whisper beside her, and she looked at the teacher, who seemed on the edge of losing her patience.

"And there we go," Hayden continued several seconds before the teacher tipped over that same edge. She put down her marker and slammed both hands down on her desk.

"Enough, you guys!" she yelled. "I'm just talking to the walls here. If you cant listen to what I have to say, you will have to do it yourself. Finish pages fifty until seventy-five by tomorrow, and I will do a pop quiz to check if you did it."

The pity Amethyst was starting to feel for the normally kind teacher vanished quickly when she heard the announcement. The whole class started to protest, and beside Amy Hayden let their head fall on their desk.

"She can't be serious," sounded muffled.

"You can start now. I've had enough," the teacher continued. She sat down and started to mark some papers, ignoring their protests.

Amy considered doing it for about half a second, then turned around to continue her conversation with Hayden, who had sat up. Amy tried to convince both herself and her friend that she was genuine while making small talk until the bell rang, but when they left the classroom, she felt just as bad as before.