When We're Both Thirty

Prologue

Wrong.

It was The Hunger Games with six year olds. The eleven year olds versus the six year olds, and one team had a definite competitive edge with the fact that they were thirty feet taller. Fifth graders were so mean. The boys would pick on each other, so the big guys would pick on the little guys, meaning that Frank and Gerard were well accustomed to the game of tag. Sometimes though, they'd be able to escape by infiltrating the sanctuary the girls seemed to build.

Except fifth grade girls were, if it's possible, meaner than the boys. They would pick on you with words. It was like a sparring session except the first graders were too small and young to understand that every word out of their mouths was a lie. That was where Gerard first heard the 's' word. Stupid. Then Frank later told him while they were at his house playing Go Fish that the 's' word is actually shit. Frank's mom heard him say that and he wasn't allowed to have fruit rollups for a whole week. It was awful.

That wasn't what was bad about the fifth grade girls though, it was the way they picked on everyone. Somehow they found out that Gerard and Frank were betrothed. They were six years old, it wasn't a serious thing. They just signed a totally unofficial contract that was now hanging up in Frank's room. It wasn't a big deal. Except the fifth grade girls did not perceive it that way.

That was how Gerard learned his first slur.

After that, they were self-conscious of their friendship. First graders are sponges though, so all of their classmates started using those words too. They were officially the gay first graders. Not only were they called that among their own class, but the second graders learned of the affair, and then steadily, so did the whole school.

Now, in the evil place, the teachers didn't take things as lightly as they had in kindergarten. When word spread to the teachers and eventually the principal, that there were two gay first graders, they didn't laugh it off the way everyone else had. No, Frank and Gerard were sent to the principal's office. From there they were given the lecture on homosexuality being a bad thing, and they were even read parts of the bible. That was strange as it wasn't even a religiously affiliated school. It was just a school. The question could have been asked whether that was even legal, or morally correct, but they were six, they didn't know how to debate. They had never even heard the word debate before.

Frank and Gerard had never heard of the word homosexuality either. They didn't know there was a difference between liking people who had the same junk as you and liking people who didn't. That was something unimaginable to their six year old brains.

After that, Frank and Gerard were placed on opposite sides of the classroom. They were isolated from each other in every part of the day except for when they got home. At recess, Gerard wasn't allowed near Frank, and vice versa. It didn't seem all that fair. It's not like they wanted to hurt each other, they just wanted to hang out.

After school they got to see each other again though. Frank's mom, and Gerard's parents didn't see things the way that the school had. They thought it was cute. No one ever considered that the two boys didn't actually understand what the hell kind of contract had even made. Mostly, they just wanted an excuse to learn how to sign their names in fancy handwriting. Frank's cursive could've been mistaken for someone sneezing on a piece of paper.

At that point in time, Gerard had a new baby brother, who was starting to follow them around. He was called Michael, but they didn't like that. So he became Mikey. He didn't know many words back then, but Mikey liked to walk around and follow them. He was three years younger than them, but they hadn't been allowed to play with him as much when he was a baby. The reason was something about not wanting to drop Mikey on his head like they had with Gerard followed by don't tell your mother I said that.