TW for misgendering and planning to steal someone's binder

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Patton watched as Logan went to be with his new friend after basically platonically breaking up with Patton, and then he felt someone tap on his shoulder. He turned to see Nadia, a seemingly nice girl from Sunday school, but he'd heard rumors that she'd give a kid a swirly for cursing. "Sorry about your friend, you can come with us," she pointed to some other kids he vaguely recognized from Sunday school and other church events.

Patton nodded, "Thanks Nadia."

The rest of the morning wasn't fun. Patton stood for a little while longer at his locker staring at the picture of him and Logan when they were little. Logan ignored him in the classes they had together, Remus occasionally mocked him, and Patton avoided any and all eye contact in the gym locker room. It somehow got even worse at lunch though.

Patton sat with Nadia and her friends for lunch. "So I was thinking for you to really join our group you should help us pull off a prank!"

Patton hesitated, "Tell me what it is and then I'll agree." Patton liked harmless pranks, but some people took them way too far.

Nadia rolled her eyes, "Fine, we've been trying to pull this off for a while, but we need someone who can go in the boy's locker room. We want to steal her binder," Nadia pointed at a kid named Emile who moved to Florida this year.

"I thought Emile was a boy-"

"We did too, but we found out she's pretending to be a boy to see the other guys shirtless, this is just karma for her being a perv," one of Nadia's friends said. Patton had never seen Emile doing that in the locker room, he usually had his eyes closed to be respectful.

"That feels like you're jumping to a lot of conclusions-"

"We aren't, it's the truth, so are you gonna help us or not?"

"I don't want to invade his privacy-"

"It's her, and why do you even care? Are you gay or something?"

"What- No!"

"Then you should be okay with helping us."

"I'm not gonna steal his binder!"

"Then have fun sitting alone." Patton grabbed his lunch bag and walked off without saying anything else, he didn't understand how other christian kids could be so mean! Patton sat at a different table. Only one other person was sitting there, he had a hoodie on and had headphones plugged into these tape things the school library offered that would play audio books when you plugged your headphones into them. Patton couldn't see what book it was and he didn't try. He just ate his food and thought about his life, and how it was all crumbling around him.

He had to tell Emile what they were planning on doing so he could be prepared, but wasn't Emile still sinning? Patton thought long and hard about this until the lunch bell rang and kids started clearing out. He would tell Emile what Nadia wanted to do to him. Even if he was 'sinning' (though Patton wasn't even sure of that anymore) Jesus preached the forgiveness of sinners.

The afternoon passed quickly, and classes were a blur. Patton gave the kid he saw at lunch a new pencil when he asked for it in math class. When the school bell rang, signaling the end of this horrid day at school, Patton could have broken into song. He quickly grabbed his stuff from his locker and ran out the door to wait for his mom to pick him up. He then got a text saying it was his mom saying she'd be late because Megan's daycare teacher wanted to talk to her. That was fine, Patton needed to talk to Emile anyways. Patton spotted him walking home alone, Patton ran for him before he could get too far, "Emile!"

Emile stopped and turned when he heard his name. Patton stopped running when he was close, "I have something important to tell you."

"Um- okay, what is it?"

"I wanted to warn you that Nadia and her friends want to steal your binder, they asked me to do it but I said no."

"What-? How did they even find out about that-"

"I don't know, but you should be careful."

"Thank you for telling me, I really appreciate it," Emile smiled at him.

Patton smiled back, "It was the right thing to do." Just as he said that he knew it was the truth.