"Because of the door?" Faith asked.
Cy nodded. "Among other things. Now, I want both of you to be careful at school, ok? There are going to be people talking about Luke, and they'll try to pick on you, Faith. Zeke, you can't start a fight. Unless you're ready to come out, you do not want people thinking you're mad about what they'll say."
"Yeah, but -" the boy tried.
"No," Darnell said, leaning his elbows onto the table to look at the kids. "Faith, they will suspend you. Zeke, they might not stop hitting you. For now, little brother, this is our fight. The two of you are going to play the spies. Pay attention to which people say stuff, and what they say. That's gonna help us figure out who's making the stink, ya know?"
"Like they'll say it in front of us," Zeke grumbled.
"But they will," Faith told him. "They'll say Dad's a fag, that Violet's crap, and whatever they can to cut me down. That's what Crimson's saying! They'll tell us when they try to bully us, and the ones who say it first are the ones whose parents might be involved, right?"
Darnell just held out his fist across the table. "Tap that shit, Lilac. You got this, girl."
Faith bumped her fist against his. "But what happens if they try to call Zeke a fag again? Or if the boys try to jump him?"
Luke had just taken a bite of his burger, so held up a finger. He chewed quickly, then swallowed. "Scream at them. Loud, Faith, same way you would when calling in the horses. I don't care what you say, or if it's you calling them names. If that doesn't get teachers coming, then you know the rules, right?"
"Like when you helped Ash?" she asked.
He nodded at her. "Exactly like that. I'd rather you two didn't get in a fight, but if you do? You don't worry about getting in trouble, cupcake. So long as you do it for the right reasons, I promise I'll understand. Now, if you start it, I'm gonna sell Onyx."
She stuck her tongue out at him. "No, you won't."
"Will if you become a bully," Luke assured her. "I also don't think you would, so we're good." Then he looked at Zeke. "And you got my number, right?"
"Yes, sir," Zeke said.
"Then you call me before walking home. Don't care why. Don't care what you did. If your mom's working, I'll come give you a ride."
"Thank you," Emily told him. "I hate the thought of him walking that far on his own."
"Mm," Cy grumbled, sounding like he was about to say something distasteful. "With him spending time here, it could cause problems, Emily. Pretty easy to lie in a ditch a little too long and not wake up from it."
"So call me," Luke told the boy again.
"Promise," Zeke said, looking like the reality of this was finally starting to sink in.
For a moment, everyone focused on their burgers, but I got the impression they'd just realized how serious this really was. We might be overreacting, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. How many young gay men had been beaten to death in school? How often were teens bullied to death? Either by the hand of their abuser or their own, the end result was the same, and our goal was to make sure that neither of these two had to worry about it.
That was when Cessily decided to change the subject. "Vi, when are you hoping to open the school?"
"As soon as possible," I told her. "I'd love to start in the spring semester, but I'm not sure we'll make it. The town council meets at the end of November, and that won't give us much time to put the rest in place."
"We can do it," Cessily assured me. "I'll get everything written up and ready. Once we get the approval, you can hire the teachers, and we'll be good to go. If you can, get everything else set up with an early January start date, and hire as much local staff as possible."
"Which will help with convincing people," Darnell reminded me. "Simmons has power because he has money. Southwind has power because you have jobs. Evens things out."
"The housekeeping company I work for does contracts," Emily offered. "Laundry service and things like that. They take the gig and then hire local helpers to make it happen."
"Nice," I purred. "What about catering? We'll need someone to prepare meals for the kids."
"Or to hire a cook," Luke suggested. "The mess hall has a full kitchen, right?"
"Yeah?" But to me, that sounded like a lot more work.
Luke was nodding. "So, we've got a few military vets around here. Older. Retired. I have a feeling some might be willing to serve meals. Part time work per meal, right? Half the housewives know how to cook."
"I'll worry about that," Ash told me. "We'll need to get food in bulk and meet the state requirements for proper nutrition. Means we'll need to do a check of the kitchens, though."
