Chapter 43

“Stop it!” Miss Taylor roared. “Brown, don’t throw things or use foul language! Kalinowski, don’t you ever use that disgusting term again!”

“What, ‘Emma’?”

“You know perfectly well what. Larimer, stop sniggering, it’s not funny. This,” she snapped, slamming a hand down on her desk, “is what I’m talking about with this class! You think everything’s a big joke!”

“But it should be!”

Jude’s voice rang out like a bell, deep and clear, and Anton could only feel his own breathing as he—and the rest of the class—turned to stare.

“It should be just a joke, ‘cause anything that’s not a huge deal is a joke. Like literally anything, it’s only not okay to make jokes if it’s like in seriously bad taste, like joking about someone who got murdered last week in front of their kid or something. And if you want being gay or trans or whatever else to be all accepted and stuff, you gotta not let it be a big deal.”

Miss Taylor drew herself up, blinking. For a brief moment, the class was quiet.