The Alliance by Gabriel Goodman

when I explained the whole story, they let me off with a warning. Said I wasn’t to fight anymore.
    But I had a feeling that a different kind of fight was coming. I thought about what Cory said about the GSA and what Mr. Rosencranz said about people getting upset. We were going to make a lot of people angry.
    â€œIs this seat taken?”
    I looked up to find Carmen with a tray from Sbarro. I pulled a chair out for her, and she sat.
    â€œEnjoying your vacation?” she asked.
    I squinted at her with the eye that had nearly swollen shut. “Yeah. It’s been a blast.”
    â€œA shiner works on you,” she said. “Very manly.”
    I grunted. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
    â€œHey, listen, thanks for, you know, tackling Ren. He’s gotta have at least thirty pounds on you.”
    â€œWe took him on together. But I think the first order of business for the GSA is to arrange a self-defense course. We’re not very good at it.”
    She chuckled and gnawed on her pizza. We were quiet for a long time.
    â€œCarmen?”
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œYou know before, when I said I couldn’t get people to sign because they were afraid of being labeled queer or they were homophobic? It was only part true. Most people wouldn’t sign because I was a jerk.”
    â€œI kind of figured.”
    â€œThanks for rubbing it in.”
    â€œNo problem.”
    I shook my head. “I gave people crap for a long time. I never saw it as bullying. I kept thinking, ‘I’m not beating anybody up. Bullying is when you beat people up.’ Guess I got it wrong.”
    She offered me a breadstick. I grabbed one and dipped it in the marinara. “Some people can go their whole lives and not realize what a dirtbag they are. At least you figured it out.”
    â€œNo. Jamie figured it out. He told me what a knob I was being.”
    â€œRight. And you listened, you changed, and now you’re trying to do the right thing. He’d be proud of you.”
    I choked up, thinking about it. Looking back, I guess I always wanted Jamie to be proud of me. At least as proud as I was of him. He was the bravest guy I knew.
    â€œDid you know Jamie?” I asked.
    She nodded. “A little. We had chemistry together last year. His lab table was kitty-corner from mine. I remember he used to cackle like a mad scientist every time he poured one beaker into another:
Bwah-hah-ha!
”
    I laughed. “Yep. That’s Jamie.”
    Carmen slurped on her soda. “So, the other day, you told Winston that Ren had been harassing me online. How’d you know about that?”
    I told her about reading Jamie’s Twitter stream and seeing how Ren had been bugging both Jamie and her. “He’s a complete psycho. That’s why I went looking for you in the cafeteria as soon as I found out. I think he really would have hurt you.”
    She shrugged. “Maybe. Doesn’t matter now. He may have gotten the same three-day suspension that we got, but I think it’ll be a while before we see him back in school.”
    â€œWhy’s that?”
    â€œHe put a death threat in my locker, and I showed it to the police.”
    â€œYou’re kidding!”
    â€œNope. I sat on it for a long time, thinking I’d deal with it myself. The last thing I wanted was to give some jerk the satisfaction of knowing he got under my skin. But when we were getting chewed out by Winston, I realized that the only way to stop the bullying is to expose it. If we hide it, we’re giving the bullies permission to keep on doing it.”
    I swallowed hard. I knew just what she meant. That’s why I’d never let up on Maggie. I knew nobody knew, so I figured it was okay to keep going. I was such a jerk.
    â€œAnyway,” she said, “Ren’s eighteen, so they’re pressing charges. He could get expelled.”
    It would suck to get expelled senior year. But he had it coming.