The B's

Except for the last three chapters that show the adult lives of the major characters, this novel is mostly set in the eighties at a Catholic high school for boys in a town in Mindanao. The B stands for bayot, the Bisayan word for a male homosexual. The B's are Bart, Mike, Leo and George, all senior students. The B's usually bond together during lunch when they listen and then later comment on the recounting of a movie plot by George who happens to go to the city an hour away from their town every weekend to watch movies that will be shown weeks or even months later in their town.

When a panicking teacher is looking for dancers for the singkil that she is going to present to Canadians who are visiting the campus, she ends up casting the B's as the fairies along with junior Ramon whom she assigns as her slave girl thinking that he is also a B. In her desire to dance the princess part again after doing it successfully in college, she turns these boys into "women". This decision will have unusual consequences considering that it happens in Mother Mary's High School for Boys.

George will realize that he can arouse a handsome classmate by telling him the plots of sexy movies. Bart becomes the object of a set-up that might get him expelled. Mike will be confused about his lust for a janitor. Leo will have his most cherished possession-a long, black wig-seized, returned, and seized again. Ramon will turn out to be really pretty once dressed as a girl, an observation that is also shared by a schoolmate who will be obsessed with him.

The movies, stories about their making, and movie stars surface in a lot of chapters. That's because they have an obvious connection to a plot or a character or because they share a thematic connection with parts of the novel or the entire novel itself.

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