Rollercoaster [Discontinued]

Chapter Four: Okay Then

Jeff pushed open the door to his new dorm. The window was open, curtains fluttering in the breeze.

There were two other people there; one was a boy neither of them had seen before, sitting on the bed he had claimed, writing in a notebook. The other was Thad, whom Jeff recognized upon seeing, reading.

The first boy had looked up immediately upon hearing the door open, closing the notebook. "You must be Wes and Jeff, I presume?" he asked, voice surprisingly high. Not in a shattering-glass way, but he was definitely gay.

Wes nodded, shaking his outstretched hand. "I'm Wes; Jeff's the blond idiot."

Jeff elbowed him. "Hey!" Wes just laughed, and Jeff let out a reluctant chuckle, shaking the boy's hand. "And you're Kurt?"

"That would be me. I transferred, I don't quite know how anything works here." He sounded as if he was apologizing for a mistake that he hadn't made yet.

"Well, you know how people generally assume people are straight until proven otherwise?" Jeff asked. Kurt nodded. "It's the opposite here. Pretty much everyone is gay until proven otherwise."

Wes laughed. "I'm trying to disagree with that, but it's right."

Kurt looked rather relieved. "So that's actually not a big deal here? People don't care?"

Jeff snorted. "If they cared, they'd be hypocrites. No zero-tolerance harassment policy only works when people don't have a reason to hate you, so it's pretty much nonexistent. I think people can get away with more here, actually, because the staff figures that the policy will just magically stop people from being rude."

Cue Kurt's relief turning into worry. "That's not very comforting."

"He's being overdramatic," Wes said. "You have seriously offend someone for them to harass you. Like, on the level of being racist or homophobic."

"Or transphobic," Thad, who nobody knew was listening, chimed in. "I'd punt their head off like it's a soccer ball if they were transphobic."

They all paused, looking at him. He looked perfectly calm, still reading as if nothing had happened.

"Ohhh-kay then," Jeff said, drawing out the word. "That too."

Kurt nodded. "I mean, that's easy. I'm not any of those things by a long shot."

"So," Jeff asked, moving to get his bag and unpack, "why'd you transfer?"

He laughed. "My dad had me transfer here because it allegedly has a zero-tolerance bullying policy. He doesn't need to know it doesn't work."

"Eh, stick with us and we'll make sure no one messes with you," Wes said offhandedly, starting to unpack as well.

Kurt opened his mouth, as if to say something, but closed it and nodded.

The gesture wasn't nearly as big of a deal to the boys as it was to Kurt.