Charlie yawned enough to be examined by the dentist at any time, and his eyes were dark and blue, it was obvious that he hadn't slept well at all last night, but he was able to easily keep up with the group, and he also helped one of the boys who accidentally sprained his neck while sleeping to carry some of the luggage.

The stupid guy who would fall out of his sleeping bag and sprain his neck was not a student of Grande, and he secretly stuffed Charlie with a bottle of water, which had been added to the disinfectant and boiled river was not good, but they could only carry three bottles of 500 milliliters of water in their backpacks at most, unless they gave up some tool that might be necessary - Charlie took the water, stuffed it into his backpack without saying a word, and then shook his head, motioning for him to hurry up with his team.

As the boy walked past Beelzebub's team, his expression was as relaxed as his steps.

Sasha looked at him, and then at Charlie.

"It's nothing, I'm used to it," said Charlie, "they're not bad, it's just that if they show me favor or don't follow those people......" He made a helpless expression and carefully chose a word: "Reject me, and they'll be treated as gay, and they'll be treated for sex and get in trouble endlessly—I'm willing to bear all this because I'm a gay, but it's unlucky to have someone who gets caught up in them for some reason just because they're good-natured."

"But you're talking to me right now."

"Because you're not from our school." Charlie smiled slyly: "And you are very strong, and the people around you are afraid of you."

"I thought Beelzebub would be the stronger one in the eyes of outsiders."

"His body is indeed the strongest," said Charlie, "but he listens to you." You're the leader. ”

"And Boa. What about Douglas?"

"He's just a chihuahua barking," said Charlie, "and if I had to do it, even I could handle him."

"Don't look down on him so much." Sasha laughs and says, "Chihuahuas also have sharp teeth. And he also has a Pitbull dad. ”

Charlie pursed his lips and didn't speak.

"You went to a public school," Sasha said, reversing the subject, "I thought this extreme rejection of homosexuality would only happen in well-behaved church schools."

"If a student in a church school openly declares himself gay, then the school will be after a while, I mean, after things are no longer so noticeable. Contact his parents, talk to him, and try to get him out of his school in peace—while they share the same belief that homosexuals have the same human dignity and rights, they have to think about something else. More of the feelings of children and parents – you can't be so selfish, can you? On the Internet, a good friend of mine, who is in the church school, told me that during the time he was still in school, it seemed calm as usual, there was no verbal abuse, no beatings, and the boys would avoid him in the showers and locker rooms at most. If they realize that they have done something 'too much', they will apologize. They were very polite to him, very polite, and a little merciful—until he offered to drop out of school, because he didn't want to be called 'God' all the time. This is a lost lamb made of cellophane, how can we save him?' It was too unbearable, of course, better than being scolded as a sissy, a sodomite, or beaten to the point of a swollen nose and eyes. ”

Sasha nodded, he wasn't gay, but at the beginning. He and Beelzebub were also aliens, invaders, and marauders to Grande's students—they didn't like him and Beelzebub, but all temptation and bullying was done quietly and tacitly by a very small number of people. After finding themselves kicked on the iron plate, they flinched faster than a salted slug.

"Public schools can't do that," Charlie added, "if a public school student is asked to drop out of school because he or she openly admits to being gay." Both the teachers and principals involved will be prosecuted – for discrimination. They will be told that they will be ruined. He gasped slightly: "So they don't care if you're gay or not, and they don't care what you've been done because you're gay — our kids here are only more noisy than yours, and a lot of them don't like to study or have to apply to a good university, and they probably have a lot of siblings." They are unknown, they are mediocre in appearance, and no one wants to look at them more, but if one day suddenly comes into being, they finally find a target, for example, a damn gay guy - yes, he's smart, but he's gay, he's handsome, but he's gay, he's good at dancing, but he's gay, he's got all the best, but he's gay, he's a gay, he's a gay, he's a gay, he's a gayThe Bible says that he was a sinner, so they chased, beaten, mocked, and teased...... It's like an epic hero, no one cares about it, and they can report to their mom when they go back: Oh, dear mommy, I beat up a gay guy today, and I deserve a piece of chocolate. ”

Charles said this in the tone of his filial son, gasping slightly, he looked at the ground with hatred in his eyes.

He and Sasha walked quietly for a while.

"I don't know which is better," he said later, "and maybe the worst is gay."

"Have you considered dropping out?"

"There's no need," said Charlie, "I don't want to lie, so it's the same everywhere."

"Charlie!" The regimental commander shouted from the front.

"He doesn't want me to get close to you," Charlie said, "because he's afraid you'll be infected with homosexuality by me." He tugged at the shoulder strap of his backpack: "But I know it's impossible, our eyes are very accurate, you, and Beelzebub, you don't even have the least curiosity."

"You want to make him angry?"

"Sort of," Charlie said indifferently, "the first time I saw you I knew you were the kind of child he liked, he loved my mother very much, my mother was blonde and blue-eyed, and I didn't inherit it at all, he did a good job in the army, he was a good soldier, and he was a good leader, but I don't like to be commanded or commanded, and your body is prettier than mine, and I am too thin and I don't look healthy." But," he pouted mischievously, "you are very attractive and tolerant, so I am willing to get close to you and talk more, for example, a young man with normal sexual function and orientation suddenly ran into Marilyn at the door of the supermarket. Monroe. ”

"Marilyn. Monroe has been dead for more than half a century. ”

"I beg your pardon," Charlie cheerfully apologized, "I'm not interested in the boy's dream lover these days."

"Charlie!" The regimental commander shouted again, and tiny clouds of dust and leaves fell from the top of their heads.

"Looks like I'm going to have to move forward." Charlie said, "Goodbye, it's a pleasure to talk to you."

Charlie's slender white legs soon disappeared from the sand's field of vision, and they walked a rocky path dug out along the wall of the mountain, which from the profile was a mirrored capital c, topped by heavy rocks, low in places, but guaranteed to pass through a donkey, a twenty-mile-long path that had been artificially carved out by centuries by the clergy of the monastery they were about to visit, and which thousands of pilgrims and merchants had traveled.

Many of the places they passed were covered with a dark green web of powerful fibers to ensure that no stones fell and hit their heads, and the gray roots protruded from the moss-covered rocks, like veins protruding from the old man's bones, and they would also appear on the ground, like an arcing threshold, and the Rio Grande was about eighty feet away from them, vertically, and a low rumble rolled over the eardrums of the children.

Charlie, who had been at the back of the line, now had to go through the opening of the mirror C to get past the others, the path had a wooden, crooked railing, but its height could only stop a lamb at most, and Charlie walked around the boys' left hand side, far from their bodies, rubbing his ankles against the grass and mushrooms sticking out of the railing.

Beelzebub kept an eye on him, and Charlie soon reached his destination - behind the regimental commander, Beelzebub did not know what the regimental commander thought, but the back of their heads was indeed very similar.

At noon it rained a lot, but fortunately the captain was an experienced man, and according to his schedule, they came to a resting point, which was a natural cave, enough for everyone to take shelter from the rain, they took out towels from each other's backpacks, dried their hair and bodies, all the food, cheese, chocolate, biscuits, water, olives, everyone was able to feast, and they walked for another two hours to reach the monastery, and they only needed to leave the last little supplies.

The rain soon stopped, the sun came out in a blink of an eye, the regimental commander waited for the road to dry up a little before giving the order to set off, they returned to the road, the air was filled with the smell of earth-in fact, the smell of volatile oils and actinomycete spores released by flowers and trees, their feet stepped on small puddles one by one, and the tiny insects that surrounded these small puddles flew around the skin of human ** outside, bringing itching that seemed to be absent, and the ointment for sprinkling sand had run out, and they used insecticides, but the effect was not good.

At the end of the rocky path was a dense jungle, and because of the tick in front of them, the regimental commander did not allow them to stay, and he ordered everyone to pull their socks up, pull them into their trousers, and then put a towel under their hats, and only their faces and hands could be seen by themselves and others at all times, so that most insects, especially ticks, could be shielded.

In the dense forest, where the sun can fall is as scarce as the starlight of the full moon, the socks are wet with water droplets on the grass, and a light rain falls on the branches of the trees at the slightest touch, and the cold air from the clothes that have been re-wet penetrates the skin, and the children are already shivering.

When they finally saw the gray spire of the abbey church, each child let out a small cheer.

((One second to remember)