Helping a Friend In Need

High School

Over the Years

Everybody remembers those days. Joking around in the halls before class with friends. Racing back to class realizing you drastically over-judged the time you had before the bell rang, and miraculously, the teacher didn't see you sneak in and take a seat. You had your group of friends you have had since forever ago. Coming from a small class of fifty five in my graduating class, we all got to know each other really well. We got to know who we really were, and we all loved each other. For the most part anyway. 

You grew together as a class. You helped each other out if you need help. You did it out of  the fact that you were close.You looked out for each other, because over the years you had become a family. That bond was tested in my high school senior year.

The Incident

Someone had been suspended. Rumors were spreading like wildfire, "Did you hear Zak got suspended? "Yeah he got in a fight with someone! The P.E teacher kicked him out of class and sent him to the principals office!". These were just some of the rumors being spread around. Apparently Zak had been suspended for getting in a fight with a student over something. Zak was known in our school for being extremely open about his sexuality. He was bisexual, and was perfectly comfortable with it and told anybody he met. This got him all sorts of grief from people. People who hid their homophobia and confusion amongst slurs and rude comments to and behind his back. 

People were spreading rumors and talking bad about him more than ever before. All the while I'm thinking in my head, " What happened to our family?" Nobody was standing up for Zak who had simply gotten tired of taking everyone's negative attitude about his sexuality and snapped at a rude comment. He was only as human as the rest of us. My family was starting to fall apart.

History Class 

History class was when some hope for my senior class, as well as a lot of the underclassmen was restored. After hearing so much about Zak and what he had done, I decided to take a stand. I defended an openly bisexual man in front of his peers. The hot button issue that everyone had views on. I had no idea how much support my stand against the obvious homophobic jocks of the freshmen class was going to rally. Fellow seniors, freshmen, juniors and sophomores all stood up in agreement with me. We had all had enough of everyone giving Zak so much grief and demanded that it stop. He was as human as the rest of us and deserved such. As I looked on and saw people openly supporting and displaying their sympathies for Zak did a wayward thought thought cause a massive smile to grace my face. We were a family again. All we needed was a little shove.

Aftermath

People settled their disputes with each other and Zak finally came back to school and people resumed their normal lives. People went back to making fun of each other as they always do. People went back to taking about drama and sports. However, people never looked at Zak or I the same again.