The effect was instant: The room went quiet as soon as Mal headed toward the worktable, all eyes landing on them. Everyone was so attentive that it was almost a silly formality when they said, “Let’s get started, okay?”
Heads nodded all around the table.
“So…,” Mal started, pursing their lips together tight before going on. “We have a bit of a situation.”
“Yeah, we figured,” said Nylan.
“I love you, but you’re terrible at hiding things,” James said.
“It’s that ADHD urge to wear every single thing on your face,” Parker said, and Emerson laughed along with them.
“Come on, Mal,” said Stella. “Tell us what’s up. We’ll take the bad news first.” Theodora nodded in agreement.
“Well, that’s the thing,” Mal said, clearing their throat to try and clear their annoyance at Stella out of their mind. “There’s really not bad news.”
“Rad,” said Alex.
“Spill the beans,” Emerson encouraged, squeezing Mal’s thigh under the table.
“So, I want to preface this by saying I think what we do here atMixxedMediais important,” Mal said. “For us, yeah, but for the community too. What we have to say resonates with people. So much so that folks are taking note.”
But how did Mal break the news to them? To Nylan and Parker, who were the first to make it into this back room? To Alex, who was the first entirely new member of the staff who hadn’t come fromCollage? To Jade, nodding attentively along, the first one of the defected staffers to come back?
This was where Maddie would know exactly what to say, where their mom would chide them because they didn’t. There was a version of Mal who might have chided themself, even.
But instead of worrying, they took a breath and let their best self dive in.
“We’re so good at what we do here that one of Sam’s professors at NKU and her friends have raised some money for us,” they said, then corrected, “For the school. They’ve raised enough to refundCollagestarting next semester and to keep it running for a few years after. Like a legacy project in our honor.”
“Stellar,” said Stella, clapping.
A few others joined her in her small celebration—James, who looked pleased, and Jade.
But Nylan frowned delicately, and Kodi looked like she had smelled something foul.
“So—what?” asked Parker, an edge of defensiveness in hervoice. “This meeting is to tell us we’re done here? Packing it up and going back to school?”
“That… sucks,” Alex said, his face falling.
“No, no,” Mal rushed to clarify. “Let me—so. Let me explain. The funding is there to restartCollageas an official school project again, and Ms. Merritt is already working on the administrative side to get things together. So that can happen, if that’s what we want to do. But this meeting isforthat: to figure out what we want to do. Together. As a group.”
“Like, to talk about it,” Emerson interjected. “Chat it out. Discuss where we want to go. Also, to eat snacks.” She swiped a stick of Pocky from Nylan.
“And there are options,” Mal added. “The onesIsee are: One, we can keepMixxedMediarunning, or two, we can close it down forCollage. Or three, I guess, which is that we can do both.” After a beat, they said, with a flap of their hands, “Discuss.”
“Well, I am staying here,” Parker said, first and fervently. “It won’t be the same, after this. I like what we do here.”
“Yeah,” agreed Nylan. “I don’t know if I could go back to the land of prefab layouts and phony prompts. I’m staying here, too.”
“I mean, I feel like I’m staying here by default,” Alex admitted. “I never wrote forCollage.”
“Me either,” said Theodora. “I don’t really like school activities? They feel…” She fluttered her fingers like she was trying to dust them off. “So I think justMixxedMediafor me too.”
“Hear, hear,” said Kodi. “I love our gay-ass zine. I didn’t know we could do this, but now that I do, I don’t want to go back to… not this.”
James made a strange noise, half between a sigh and a groan. “I don’t know,” he said. “VampyreGays says yes, but my college applications sayCollagelooks a lot more official than what we’re doing here.” He made a face. “Would we be allowed to do both?”
“Fully,” Mal reassured. “All options are on the table right now.”
