Robby and I ride to Gables High together. The office makes us wait, so we miss home room. Assistant Principal Spencer comes out and explains to Robby that he is being demoted to junior class status. He has to pass the remainder of the school year or he will be put on suspension. He tells him to see the lady in the office to be reassigned classes.
“I’ll be watching you, mister.” The dick yells at us as we leave. We laugh.
I get him into all but my Spanish II class. The office says if the teacher approves he can be put in it as well. He will even get credit for Spanish I if he passes Spanish II. Very logical.

We walk into Mr. Clark’s English class. I introduce Robby to him.
“He in your band, Castle?” His mouth hangs open and drops even further when Robby winks at him, with his back to everyone else. The boy sitting next to me is made to move, so we can sit together. He is soon surrounded by she-bitch wolves, sniffing and ready to begin licking.

“Thank you Mr. Clark. Tim encouraged me to join your class. Still doing Shakespeare?”
“Oh, you like Shakespeare. You would make an excellent Mercutio.
“Oh, from Romeo and Juliet. We did our version of it on New Year’s Eve. In it the lovers escape alive.”
“I read you had a multitude at your show.”
“It was incredibly sad, because the bard dies. There were ten thousand in attendance, we did five performances in one night.”
“What role did you play?”
“I always play the priest.”
“And Tim?”
“Oh, he plays Juliet, in the tradition of an all boy cast.”
The girls look at me and giggle. They all move closer to Robby. Mr. Clark lets everyone ask questions. Some of the boys think they can embarrass Robby. “What about that video that was on TV?”
“Well, Mr. Clark said to talk about our performance. But that was just publicity to get people to come to Jace’s memorial. I think I said Tim got caught by his girlfriend or something being naughty.”
Several girls ask if we have girlfriends.
Robby answers, “We all have girlfriends except Hippie, who’s our groupie king, and Michael, who was Romeo in our performance. In real life, his girlfriend is a secret because she is only 14. They’re both Italian and their families are rivals here in Miami. Michael lives in a castle south of Byrd Road”
Now the girls were ew-ing and ah-ing as Robby spins out the story.
“You think I would be a good Mercutio? I can play multiple roles.”
“Oh, yes, as long as they both are never on stage at the same time.”
“I love tragedy, except when it really happens.”
“I knew he would like being in your class, Mr. Clark,” I speak up.
He looks at me but speaks to Robby, “Yes, I can see Tim as Shylock. I saw him pricking himself in class when we did ‘Merchant of Venice.”
“Tim takes his acting very seriously, studying the Strasberg ‘method’ technique. He gets carried away. With pricking, he will keep doing it until someone has to bandage his hand. I fear for his sanity.”
The girls want to know about Jace. I tell them he was my boyfriend, which brings the girls back to my seat.
“But you have a girlfriend,” someone complains.
“I have two.”
They all drew in sharp breaths.
“I believe Jace was my soul mate, in life and in death.” Jace is dancing with glee above the class. Only I can see him.
Mr. Clark is stunned, but his habit of keeping order ends the confessional. We go back to the lesson. After class Robby walks up and speaks to Mr. Clark. “I need you to sign some form. Can I come back later?”
Mr. Clark is in deviant heaven. He almost passes out.

He pulls me aside, wanting to talk about Robby. He is smitten.
“I’m so happy to have actual performers in our class.”
“There’s the drama club.”
“They’re tedious with their posturing and pouting. They’ve never performed for thousands of people.”
“It was strange on Tuesday night, with all those people singing my lyrics with me.”
“What did you think?”
“It made my heart swell. I could feel it.”
“How could you go out there after you had lost Jace?” He was being pretty personal for a teacher.
“I believe he’s watching over me. He wanted the show to go on. There was so much love for him that night. I’m sure he’s got a big head now.” Jace makes a face at me.
Mr. Clark looks at me, “Oh, Tim. I’m so sorry.”
He hugs me right there in Nutrition.
“We gotta go to Spanish class early so Robby can prove he deserves to skip Spanish I.”
“You know you can always talk to me?”
I whisper in his ear, “You know, Robby’s really straight. He just wants to be in your class.”
Mr. Clark turns beet red. All the kids think I’m propositioning him. My bad reputation is budding.

Robby is definitely worked up for school the next morning. We literally skip all the way to class. He goes right up to Mr. Clark and shows him all the props he brought, including a case with many wigs. I notice Robby casually rubbing his hand on Mr. Clark’s shoulder.  He is incorrigible.

When everyone files in and is seated, Mr. Clark says we are going to read aloud from ‘ A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Instead of reading from our seats, we act out the roles in front of the class. Everyone is assigned a role. The boys will play all the speaking parts. The girls will be the chorus and special effects. No one in the class has any idea what Robby is planning.
Mr. Clark has all the boys come up to the front. Robby acts as his assistant, while I am relegated to stand with the boys. Everyone is lined up shortest to tallest, from left to right. He explains that some people will play multiple roles. A girl suggests that since there are not enough boys, some girls could have speaking parts.
“It’s not that we are short on actors, the play has a play within the play and also a dream sequence, so it is important that the assigned actors take their secondary roles as Shakespeare wrote them. It was forbidden for women to appear on stage. You are experiencing living theater, as if we are back in 16th century London,” Mr. Clark explains.
Robby assigns the fairies first, himself as Puck, and the six shortest boys as Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, Mustardseed , First Fairy, and Second Fairy. Mr. Clark says that the fairies are in the play within the play, Robby chooses the tallest boy as Oberon and me, of course, as Titania.

Mr. Clark tells everyone to open their Shakespeare to the first dream sequence, Act II, Scene 1. Robby has taken all the fairies, dividing them into ‘trains’ to follow Oberon and Titania. The two unnamed fairies are told they will be doing the opening introductions. Robby takes a hideous blonde wig and puts it on my head. All the other boys laugh at me. Little do they know.
“Okay, who’s in Oberon’s train,” he asks, and two boys are positioned behind the boy playing Oberon. The remaining two and the unnamed fairy, assigned to Titania, are told to pick out a wig and get behind me. This all takes place at the back of the room.
Mr. Clark announces, “Act II, Scene 1.”
Robby goes to the right side of the blackboard and my fairy goes to the left, to whispered jeers and laughs. Mr. Clark hushes everyone.

“How now, spirit! whither wander thou?” says Robby as Puck.

“Over hill, over dale, Swifter than the moon’s sphere; And I serve the fairy queen, (laughs) Our queen and all our elves come here anon,” speaks my fairy, her tone rising in pitch as Puck encourages a feminine voice out of him.

Puck: “The king doth keep his revels here to-night:
Take heed the queen come not within his sight;
For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,
Because that she as her attendant hath
A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king;
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;
But she perforce withholds the loved boy,”

Fairy: “Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Call’d Robin Goodfellow: are not you he
Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
Are not you he?

From the right, in comes Oberon followed by his train of fairies, to the cheers of the seated students.
As Titania in blonde wig, I come next, followed by my train in their varied wigs, to the jeers and laughs of the audience.
Mr. Clark holds up his hands, proclaiming, “Just reactions, as normally occurred in 16th century London.”

OBERON
“Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.”

TITANIA
(in a high soto voice) “What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence:
I have forsworn his bed and company.”

The fairies and I swirl around  and preen for the crowd. They’re in hysterics.

OBERON
Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?

TITANIA
Then I must be thy lady: but I know
When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,
And in the shape of Corin sat all day,
Playing on pipes of corn and versing love
To amorous Phillida.
To Theseus must be wedded, and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.
OBERON
How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night
From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
And make him with fair Eagle break his faith,
With Ariadne and Antiopa?
TITANIA
These are the forgeries of jealousy:
And this same progeny of evils comes
From our debate, from our dissension;
We are their parents and original.
OBERON
Do you amend it then; it lies in you:
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy,
To be my henchman.
TITANIA
Set your heart at rest:
The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votaress of my order:
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;
And for her sake do I rear up her boy,
And for her sake I will not part with him.
OBERON
How long within this wood intend you stay?
TITANIA
Perchance till after Theseus’ wedding-day.
If you will patiently dance in our round
And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.
OBERON
Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.
TITANIA
Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away!
We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.
Exit TITANIA with her train
OBERON
Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove
Till I torment thee for this injury.
My gentle Puck, come hither..
PUCK
I remember.
OBERON
That very time I saw,
Cupid all arm’d: a certain aim he took
At a fair vestal throned by the west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
Yet mark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound,
And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew’d thee once:
The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb;.
PUCK
I’ll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes.
Exit
OBERON
Having once this juice,
I’ll watch Titania when she is asleep,
And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.
The next thing then she waking looks upon,
Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,
She shall pursue it with the soul of love:,
I’ll make her render up her page to me.
But who comes here? I am invisible;
And I will overhear their conference.

Mr. Clark claps as the scene ends. Everyone else, yells and stomps. My fairies and I bow as our wigs fall off.
“Behold the magic of Elizabethan theater alive in tragedy and comedy by Shakespeare in 1975.”
He motions to Robby/Puck who bows and waves.

All the boys are pointing at their friends just recently in wigs, while the girls moon over Robby.
“Living theater, boys and girls. You’ve created the apogee of English literature before our very eyes,” Mr. Clark cannot stop congratulating himself. “Tomorrow we’ll do the play within the play. Read up, you may be up there in curled wigs yourself.”
Everyone squeals like pigs at the trough. Was this Shakespeare or high school.

School remains crazy. I cheat Robby through Biology and Algebra by letting him copy all my work. Somehow he learns enough to pass the final, although I have to give him a few answers. He gets an A+ in English, while I only get an A. Mr. Clark is totally crushing on Robby. He lets him put on ‘A Midsummer’s Night Dream,’ with all the boys dressed as girls in wigs, dresses, and garish makeup. The girls in the class are convinced to teach the boys how to walk and act like real girls. Robby has them under his spell.

Robby remains distracted with our Junior English class, getting all the boys to dress up for the female roles in the Shakespearean drama.

I bring my Gibson SG guitar to school with the practice amp and announce in English class that I’m composing music to go with our performance. Robby sulks that I’m trying to get out of having to wear a dress.
“Well, I am also against the boys having all the roles.”
One of the girls pipes up, “Why don’t you let us play the male roles?”
“What is this, a revolution?” Robby counters this attack on his authority.
I have plugged in my guitar and start playing the Beatles’ ‘Revolution.’

“You say you want a revolution…
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We’d all love to see the plan”

Songwriters
LENNON, JOHN / MCCARTNEY, PAUL
Published by
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

“All right, all right.’ Robby gives in. “All the girls can dress as boys. That’s as far as I’ll go. Shakespeare never allowed girls on stage.”
This appeases them. They start making plans to look butch.

Soon the boys are running through their scenes. Jace totally takes over on guitar. He produces eerie entrance music and flying solos for them to dance around their king and queen. Robby is listening and smiling at me. He reassigns Titania’s role to a sad boy who thought he would never get picked. He perks up and actually already knows my lines.
“Remember,” Robby tells him, “you’re the understudy. Tim is the original Titania.”
“Who’s going to play guitar if I have to act,” I argue.
“You can get Jace to do it,” he answers, winking at me.
“I’ll play the role just as you do, Tim,” the understudy assures me.
“No, you have to find your own inner Titania,” I tell him.

He smiles too enthusiastically.
Mr. Clark looks so pleased. The boy runs over to the wig case and has the hardest time choosing his own wig.

I decide we will have a birthday party for Michael who turns 16 in late January. Rather than book a hall, Mike Sr says we can have the party in the music room but only invite a limited guest list. Robby wants to invite our entire English class, so I tell him they can only come if they perform the abridged portion of our play. Jace signs that he will teach me to play new music to go with the play. He looks happier than usual. That incentive sets Robby off on obsessive rewriting of Shakespeare’s words and meaning with daily rehearsals during English class. I refuse to play Titania anymore, when he acts all turned on by my appearance in a dress. Whatever. The Jacettes ask if their parents can attend the party, so all parents from both bands are invited. Mike Sr. realizes he now has to host the adults while we entertain the kids. Even a caterer is arranged. After looking at the guest list, I realize there are no kids to test the enthusiasm for the new band. I ask the Jacettes to bring any younger siblings that are at least 10. Stu asks if the swim team kids on the B team can come. We finally cut off the list at 100, not the intimate gathering I had hoped for the Out-Crowd’s maiden outing. Mike Sr. is happy to host the Lombardi family in response to Jenna’s New Year’s Eve party. At least there will not be 500 kids there.

Robby is in full rehearsal mode when I get to English class. I sit in the corner and channel Jace through his guitar. Mr. Clark says nothing about me being 25 minutes late. Robby is fussing with the new Titania. He sends the understudy, Jack, to me for tutoring on the Titania role. I continue strumming the guitar, while I explain the two groups of fairies and the rivalry over the Indian changeling.
“You mean I gotta have a black boyfriend,” he asks.
“No, he’s just your slave.”
“That’s even worse.”
I start liking my understudy. His comment gives me an idea.
“Who have we got to play the Indian changeling,” I ask Robby.
“I thought we’d get a Black Barbie doll.”
“This is our chance, Robby, to make a statement; to get people to know about your play.”
“What are you talking about.”
“We need a black kid for the play but the school makes them all leave at 2 pm. We’ll do a sit-in that blocks the buses until they provide transportation for kids who want to stay for after-school activities.”
Mr. Clark looks up. “Did you say sit-in?”
‘Yeah, it sucks that all the black kids don’t stay after 2 pm.”
“Well, I’ll take your demands to the administration.”
“Robby, find a black kid who wants to be in the play.”
He throws up his hands, “How.”
A couple of girls titter and point at a chubby misfit, “She has a black boyfriend.”
“Will he be in the play?”
Miss Chubby stammers,” He’s been asking me all about this class. I bet he’ll do it.”
“Tell him we need him,” Robby directs. “Okay? Which bus does he ride?”
“Number 3.”
“Tomorrow, that bus will be the first Gables High sit-in. From now on we’re rehearsing from 2 to 3, as well as in class. Our show is less than a week away.”
Mr. Clark looks so pleased about his class’s civil disobedience and extra rehearsals

At Nutrition, we get the drama crew from English and our stoner crew, no longer ditching, to merge in the Quad. Our table is now the Out-Crowd Corner. Today the girls from English are practicing their butch walks, talks and attitudes on the boys who are being demure and girlish. All the stoners love that Robby has found a new group to dominate. They laugh their asses off at the affected drama queens. Robby tells everyone to meet at the bus loading area the next day at 2 pm. “Be prepared to take civil action.”

Robby is excessively hyper in the morning in anticipation of his 60s-style protest. I wholeheartedly support the cause of really integrating all the bused kids into the after-school activities at our school. It is his motives I question. I am well aware of his self-aggrandizing. English is electric. The chubby girl’s boyfriend is there before the bell. Robby explains that the play requires an Indian changeling and asks if he wants to participate. Grant, his name, is interested. We ask him what all the black kids think and feel about their new school.
“Pretty apathetic and some  resentful.”
I ask him how he and Chubby met and got involved.
“I saw her givin’ me the eye in the hall. She’s my style o’ woman. Y’know, more cushion for the pushin’.”
I say, “It’s screwed that the school keeps y’all from bein’ welcome here.”
“They’s afraid o’ the ghetto life comin’ to thah Gables.”
“We’ll get a little ghetto action goin’ here today,” Robby proclaims. “We’ll concentrate on stopping your bus from leaving. We’ll tell security we need our friend, Grant, to stay for our play rehearsal.” He puts his arm around Grant’s shoulder, who looks uncomfortable.
I tell him,”See if you can get others to block their buses, too. We can resolve this in our favor by showing that we all want you guys to be here after school.”
“What if security orders us to move?”
“We have to all sit there and keep calm. That prick AP Spencer will want to have us arrested, but we’ll have the numbers. The cops will come and want to negotiate. I’ll get our reporter friend to get us on the news. There’s no way they can argue you all have to leave school by final bell.”
“Y’all have this worked out real good. I’ll talk it up with all the bus kids, so they knows what’s goin’ on.”

I get on the phone and alert Intrepid Jimmy. He promises to be there with a photographer.
“What’s this got to do with the band?”
“Nothing, but Robby is the instigator. We’re supporting him.”
Then I call Mike Sr.
“Jesus, will you guys stop instigating trouble.”
“You’re against integrating the school.”
“Hell, no. I’m one of the lead attorneys who sued the County to get blacks into segregated schools.”
“Well, they’re still segregated if they’re forced to leave before after-school activities.”
“Again, you’re three steps ahead of me.”
“Just want you to have a heads up before it happens.”
“Okay, but I’m involved regardless. I’ll go into federal court this morning and get an injunction to force the Gables School District to provide later bus service as needed.”
“Will that mean we shouldn’t do our protest?”
“No, I need to show that the students want this service, to show cause.”
“We’ll show you cause.”
“Thanks for the warning. Just make me aware when you plan to do anything.”
“Yes, Dad.”
“If you get arrested, you’re going call your own father first, then me as your attorney.”
“Right.”

There is a buzz in the air all day at school. At 2 pm we are out in front at the loading zone. Standing with Grant, we ask all the riders on bus #3 to refuse to board. The drama girls and boys all sit down in front of the bus. The stoners and the riders unite in chanting, “Integrate, don’t discriminate.” Soon almost all the black kids have either gotten off or refused to load onto their buses. Jimmy Olsen is there taking photos and doing interviews. Robby is making the case that Grant is needed to stay for play rehearsals. Iggy makes some speech about demonstrating for his brothers in Detroit. Mary says most students want to be friends with the bus kids but never have a chance to get to know them; the administration doesn’t want to give them an equal education. Some redneck kids yell epithets at us, like ‘go back to Hialeah.’ AP Spencer arrives with several security officers. When he sees that the press is there, he curses. Then he tells security to find out who the ringleaders are and bring them to his office. Robby and Grant refuse to leave the loading zone, security calls the Gables Police Department for backup. As they arrive and are forming a line to push us away from the buses, Mike Sr. arrives with the US Attorney and several press outlets, including TV. The police refer them to AP Spencer who is forced to return to the scene. When faced with a court order he has no choice but to agree to provide 4 pm and 5pm buses for students who need to stay past final bell. A loud cheer goes up. All the student protesters start marching around the school chanting, “Integrate, don’t discriminate.” The redneck anti-protestors start throwing bottles. The police quickly round them up. They go to jail. It is total victory. I stand with Mike Sr. on the sidewalk, watching all the commotion.
“Lost your need to lead the charge,” he asks.
“This is all Robby’s doing. He’s the one who needs the attention.”
“I used to worry that he was a bad influence on Michael in grade school, but I couldn’t keep them apart. They were inseparable.”
“Robby loves to be in charge.”
“And not always for the best reasons.”
“Michael never gets fazed by Robby’s antics.”
“Yeah, he looks up to Robby who’s a year older. Somewhere around age ten or eleven, he stopped idolizing him.”
“They still seem like best friends.”
“Michael had to draw the line. After a big blowup, Robby quickly accommodated to the change in their relationship.”
“That’s pretty much how he and I are friends. If he isn’t accusing me of trying to steal Mary away, he’s trying to get with Jace and me.”
“How did you stop that?”
“I got in his face and told him to stop playing the jealousy trip. He uses his charm as a power trip. It’s not very endearing.”
Mike Sr. shakes his head. “Life was simpler in the 50s. I used to think I was the world’s worst father. Now I’m amazed by how mature my son is.
“He is, and he’s just like you, intelligent and understanding.”
He gives me a quick hug. All this love is confusing.
“We know that it’s not free. There’s always a price, even if it’s our own innocence.”
“Out of the mouths of babes.”
“Exactly.”
Then, we shake hands on a successful operation, even if it is not specifically by the band.

School is really buzzing about our bus sit-in. We are all civil rights protesters, ready to go to Mississippi and die. At Nutrition, AP Spencer appears. Robby and I are whisked into his office. He outweighs us combined. As he walks, he pulls his pot-belly up like he really has a chest. But in his office, he uses the stomach to butt us into chairs in front of his desk. Sitting down, he glares at us, as if he is conjuring up the worst punishment the school can mete out. We keep our mouths shut.
“You think you won, you little shits?” is the best he can do.
“We know you’re wrong. Since you didn’t listen to us, we thought the US Attorney might get your attention,” Robby states our position of dominance.
AP Spencer’s forehead veins pulse and burst (almost).
“You think you need the press, TV, and lawyers, so your friend can be in your play?”
“It’s more like a class action suit,” I inform him. “Every black kid in this school has been denied his right to an equal education for the last two years.”
He grinds his teeth. I believe I see spit come out his ears.
“Is this some cheap band publicity trick?”
“Our band is on hiatus since our guitarist was shot and died. It does so happen that the band’s manager is the lead attorney in the civil case that forced school desegregation. We want you to go the next step and make all these black kids welcome here in the heart of Dixie Highway. If you think this is about publicity, you might want to get on the right side of the issue.”
“We’ve run this school for fifty years. You’re not going to tell us how it’s done.”
“Well, listen, Bull Connor, look around you. Things have changed.”
Robby and I sit on the floor and sing Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They are A’changin’’

Gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
Keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
Don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they, they are a-changin’
Come senators, Congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand at the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it’s ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
Don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For your times they are a-changin’
The line it is drawn
And the curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Your old road
Will later be past
Rapidly fadin’
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’
Songwriters
Bob Dylan
Published by
SPECIAL RIDER MUSIC

“We’ve moved the sit-in to your office and won’t move until you agree to change the policies that keep others down. You can arrest us, but you can’t stop us.”

We sing all the peace protest songs, we can remember. Of course, the office staff is listening to what transpired. Soon word spreads that we are singing protest songs inside AP Spencer’s office. All the kids at Nutrition storm the office. Kids are leaving class all over the school. By the time AP Spencer has sense enough to call the Police, it is out of his control.
“You have about thirty minutes before the Press finds out we’re singing in your office to lead the protest. Because of you, we’re making this a band thing.”
Before he could stop me, I pick up his phone and call Mike Sr.
“I’ve got Assistant Principal Spencer here, Mike,” I tell him. “We want him to make an announcement that buses will be added for late runs to Hialeah. Oh, and that the school welcomes all students.”
“You promised to tell me in advance.”
“He pulled us into his office and threatened us. We are conducting a sit-in and singing Dylan songs. There are about a 500 kids occupying the school office. We want him to agree to our requests.”
“Demands, you mean.”
“Okay. Remember the frat guy that resisted giving me our bar percentage. I need you to tell the AP what will happen, if this isn’t resolved.’
“Damn you, Tim. Listen before you leap.”
“I’m told to eat them before they eat you.”
“Jesus, put him on.”
“Mr. Antonio,” I announce, handing the phone to AP Spencer. He doesn’t even wait to listen.
“Mr. Antonio, I’m afraid things are getting out my control. I will go outside and indicate that the kids are right. Extra buses will be scheduled. We’ll have a big dance to welcome our bused students. Should of done so last year…..Thank you, sir.”
He hangs up and leads us through the crowd in the office and outside to the quad.

With his arms around Robby and me, “Attention. Attention. We have resolved the bus problem. Starting today at 4pm and 5 pm extra buses will transport any student from outside the district to home. We want everyone to recognize how important it is to be welcoming to all students, wherever they’re from.”
Robby and I shrug him off our shoulders. Stepping forward we start everyone singing “We Shall Overcome (Pop version).’

Then everyone cheers and disperses. A swarm of people surround Grant. Robby holds up his hand, “Behold, the Changeling.”
All the drama kids squeak a cheer. Then a skinny black kid raises his hands, “Hey, Whaddabout me?”
Everyone picks him up, carrying him around on their shoulders.
AP Spencer looks disgusted and storms off. The next year, Gables wins all the city titles in football, basketball and baseball. Nobody cares. It’s 1976, time to celebrate freedom for the 200th time