On Wednesday, it was raining. I loved the rain, and waking up to the sound of it beating on my window brightened my day even though for most people it usually depressed them. I had heard that it didn’t rain here often, so I would have to enjoy these days to the best of my ability because of that.
I took one of the umbrellas out of the closet, and I walked to the school alone in the rain. I wondered where Jake was. I walked with him to school the previous day, too. I loved living only 3 blocks from the school, it made my life so much easier, especially since it was raining. Back in America, I had to ride a bus for forty-five minutes before I even got to school. It seemed to be a waste of time, but my mom didn’t want to have to drive me to school since there wasn’t a spare car (I would’ve drove myself then), so I had to deal with it.
My day went fairly well, and English quickly became my favorite subject. It was odd though, because we were talking about the American Dream because one of the students brought it up. I figured they were the only one that wanted to move to America, because no one else was voicing their opinion.
“America isn’t as great as you guys think. They don’t have socialized health-care, and everyone is so quick to judge everyone. No one is allowed to say their opinion without people saying how wrong they are. Everyone’s so close-minded, and it’s just a terrible place to live,” I told everyone.
A boy named Scott then said, “Well at least LGBT can get married there!”
A girl with blond hair didn’t know what LGBT meant, so she asked him, and he said, “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender,” to which half of the class said, “Ew.”
I felt sick. I thought this country would be different in this way, at least. Those people deserve rights too, and they shouldn’t get treated that way because of who they are. I suddenly wanted to get up, and leave the class, but I knew I would get in trouble if I left, so I sat there waiting for the bell to ring.
As soon as the bell rang, I got up, and left as quickly as I could. I was the first out of the door, and I’m sure people could tell that I was semi-upset, but I didn’t care. English was my last class. I went to my locker and got my stuff. I saw Finley by his locker on my way out the door. I thought it was a good time to talk to him about what happened in English, so I did just that.
“Hey Finley, remember me?” I asked him.
“Yeah, your name is Charlie, right?”
“Yes. What did you think of that discussion in English today?” I said, trying to appear not to be upset about it.
“Eh, it bothered me a bit, but people’s opinions about it won’t change. They should be given the same rights as everyone else, but everyone is too caught up in their interpretations of the bible to realize that no one would want to be that way,” he said, sighing.
“I agree, everyone should be given the same rights.”
I felt so much better knowing that he was someone I could relate to. It made me almost want to hug him; to know someone cared about LGBT rights, even if they weren’t LGBT. I had no idea if he was or not. I mean, he didn’t sound like it, but you can’t really judge by the sound of their voice. I wanted to ask him if he was, but I knew that was rude. You can’t just ask someone if they’re LGBT because it puts them on the spot, and that’s not right.
