Lafayette looked back out at the group of people who'd come to help him today. Hamilton and Laurens still had detention every day after school, despite the fact that it had been three months since their showdown with Lee. Still, Lee's family had a lot of influence...so, yeah, that was probably it.

Surprisingly, Burr was there. Lafayette had never expected to see Burr here. He was fairly sure that Burr was straight. But then again, maybe Burr understood more about being kept from a happy relationship than Lafayette had assumed. After Bartow and Prevost had finally broken up, Burr and Bartow had started going out. They were actually...adorable together. (Would that just be adorable, since it's a cognate? Lafayette wondered.) Anyway, they were more adorable than Aaron Burr had any right to be.

"Alright. Let's take a vote on putting up posters around town," Lafayette said.

Ever since Laurens and Hamilton had been put out of commission, Mr. Washington had let Lafayette lead the bones of what would hopefully eventually become the school GSA. More and more people had been turning up, bringing posters, cookies, and support. There were quite a few people that Lafayette recognized as being out. It made him happy to see people starting to have courage and pride in who they were. It broke his heart that there were still the connards around school who refused to accept their peers.

Still, Lafayette was finally stepping up—taking the metaphorical horse by the reins and clearing a path for his people to follow. He wasn't going to stop until they had succeeded.

The vote was overwhelmingly yes, and Lafayette grinned. The movement for a GSA (and for getting rid of King) had been gaining momentum around school. Lee had stepped down, and been replaced by de Berdt, which was a huge step forward. King...well, his addresses to the school had been threatening as usual. But still. Jacobins High had been sending over some people to help them with the art and just for manpower. Still, Lafayette just wished that Hamilton and Laurens weren't stuck in detention every day after school, and were allowed to do extracurriculars. They would have been a big help.

"Merveilleux. The posters on the first and second floors haven't been torn down, which is great! But still, the ones on the third floor have been torn down. So, we need a team to replace those."

Peggy Schuyler and Sybil Ludington raised their hands. Lafayette nodded at them, wondering if he needed to redo .

"We also have our formidable hackers—" Lafayette gestured to Mulligan and Sampson— "Trying to catch King." They were all pretty sure that King was guilty of stealing school funds, and while they couldn't quite prove it yet...well. Debbie was an amazing hacker, and Mulligan wasn't bad either.

Debbie flashed him a thumbs up. "We'll find something."

"Keep Mulligan in check, Sampson!"

The classroom laughed.

"Alright. Everyone else—we're going to be talking to people around the school and convincing them to join our revolution!"

Mulligan shook his head slightly. Laf is so dramatic. Debbie squeezed his hand, a slight smile on her face, and they flipped open their laptops. They had to find something.

"Alright, everyone! Break!"

At the next meeting, another six people had joined their number. Lafayette arrived slightly late. The cookies had already been eaten. Mulligan and Debbie were making out in the back corner. Ludington and Revere were arguing about whether cross-country or track was better. Eliza and Peggy Schulyer were arguing about something while Angelica talked with Madison.

Laurens and Hamilton were still absent, and Lafayette wished they were here. It was hard leading, and Hamilton was honestly a better speaker than he was. Not that Lafayette wasn't awesome (Who's the best? C'est moi), but Hamilton...that boy was something else.

"Alright! Order! I see we have some new members, merveilleux! You six can take care of putting up more posters on the third floor. Fuck the third floor."

A few people laughed at his frankness.

"We've also decided to be as passive-aggressive as possible and put up a bunch of posters outside of King's office. Inside, if you can manage it. Eliza Schuyler, Mrs. Warren likes you. Try to get her to help you."

"Yes, sir."

"All of you sports people, we've discussed this, but make sure that you're spreading the...non-hate...when you're at practice. Especially you, Mulligan, Gates, Allen, Buford. You too, Revere and Ludington."

Nods from around the room.

"We need a more united front before we expand out of this school. So let's get united! Break!"

At the first March meeting, there were a few surprises.

Philip had brought Special Schuyler Brownies, which were always amazing. Jefferson had emailed them about how things were going in France (nostalgia abounded) and given them some advice that was...minorly useful.

They were getting off-topic, though, just having a meeting to discuss their own experiences, and while Lafayette enjoyed doing that, he felt like he needed to be getting more done.

Then, Sybil Ludington stood up. She took a deep breath, and started speaking.

"I just want to say that having this...community, I guess? Has made thing so much easier. So much better. So thanks, Lafayette."

"No problem, Ludington."

"Also…" Ludington pointed to herself. "Gay."

Then she sat down.

Lafayette was not going to cry, because as beautiful as it was to see someone come out and then say that they had been helped by him, he was a manly man—homme viril—and he didn't cry.

That was when the girl walked through the door of the room.

Lafayette stared at her for a moment. Because there was no way that was—

"Adrienne?"

Adrienne rolled her eyes. "Duh."

Lafayette threw himself at her, and now he was starting to cry, because it had been so long since he had seen anyone from home, and Adrienne was amazing, and Lafayette had missed her.

"What are you doing here?"

"I thought that it would be nice to visit."

"Omigod, I can't believe that you're here…"

"I love you, Gilly," she said, and then they were kissing…

And oh, fuck, when he was kissing Adrienne, it was hard to believe that anything could go wrong.

Of course, by the next week, things had gone horribly wrong.

"I quit the team," Abraham Buford told them.

"Buford...why?" Lafayette asked.

Buford was the only person that Lafayette knew was out as pansexual. As a leader on the soccer team, he was a great face for them. Lafayette knew that things had been hard for him, but still…

Mulligan glared at him. "He was bullied off, Lafayette. Don't push it."

"Look, Buford...I'm really sorry." Lafayette hoped that his accent wasn't getting in the way of Buford understanding him. It got stronger whenever he was upset. And he was very upset.

The school had seemed to be unifying. The fucking third floor, where all of King's senior supporters had lockers, was a disaster, of course, but still. The rest of the school had been getting more accepting. There had been less bullying. More people coming to meetings.

Why was it that people refused to accept change? Lafayette was enraged. How was he supposed to ever bring happiness and unification anywhere if people refused to ignore their bigotry? And now, Buford had decided not to play soccer. Soccer made him happy. People shouldn't have given up happiness just because of what other people thought.

"Fuck the world," Lafayette said.

The next day, posters were down on the second floor, as well.

In April, Mr. Washington was there, and Lafayette wanted to either hug the man or punch him in the face.

"Mr. du Motier."

"Lafayette."

Mr. Washington winced. "Mr. Lafayette. My apologies."

"No need, sir."

"Well, you seem to have done a good job around here."

Lafayette laughed. "Well, not for lack of trying."

More posters everywhere. Angelica and Cornelia had been giving speeches after school about acceptance. Peggy and Sybil had been putting up posters at bus stops, and they were almost always torn down (Do we need city permits? Fuck it, whatever), but it was a start.

"What do you need?"

"Excuse me?"

"What do you need from the teachers?"

"Sir, I don't know if…"

"We're all fed up with King, Mr. Lafayette. It's time that we started doing something to make this school a better place."

Lafayette was a homme viril, and manly men didn't cry.

But maybe just this once.

"Washington was at the meeting," Lafayette told Laurens and Hamilton the next day. They were holding hands under the table, thinking that they were sneaky, but not much got past Lafayette.

"That's cool," Hamilton said, being uncharacteristically quiet. He alternated between anger and extreme embarrassment when they discussed Mr. Washington.

"He really wants King gone. He cares about this school."

"I know, Laf."

"I'm just saying, if you asked him if you could go to GSA…"

"It's not his choice."

"But still!"

"Lafayette," Laurens warned, being adorable and overprotective and stupid. Lafayette shut up.

We need Hamilton," Lafayette told the classroom at the beginning of May. "Hamilton and Laurens."

"They've been banned from after-school activities," Mr. Washington reminded them.

They had been banned from the Valentine's Dance, too, but all four of them had just gotten pizza anyway. Laurens and Hamilton had just ended up dancing to nothing. They were like cotton candy, making his teeth hurt with their sweet-as-sugar relationship goals. But Adrienne was here now, so...anyway.

"Still. We need them here. Hamilton has some great ideas, and he's a great speaker. He needs to come in eventually, and it's been months since the incident. He deserves to be here. So does Laurens. No one knows how hard this is like he does."

Mr. Washington looked apprehensive. But there was hope on his face, too. "I'll see what I can do."