The Ongoing Reformation of Micah Johnson by Sean Kennedy

Awards,” Micah said.
    “It’s basically your version,” Alex pointed out.
    “I think that’s more the Brownlows,” Rick said.
    Micah shrugged. The letter felt heavy in his hands. As he unfolded it, a map and information booklet fell out. That could only mean one thing, but he had to read it to be sure before he said anything.
    When he looked up, everybody was looking at him anxiously.
    “Well?” his dad asked.
    Micah took a deep breath, and smiled. “I’m in.”
    As his family cheered, Micah felt like maybe he was finally on the road to getting his life together.

PART TWO

Chapter 6
     
     
    THE NEXT two weeks flew by. Declan and Emma were pleased that his hard work in getting his act together had paid off. Carl idly wondered what it would be like to have a friend in the AFL and what bragging rights it could get him, even though Micah informed him that there was still the draft camp to go before any dreams of AFL stardom could be achieved. Mardi was disappointed that the work they had already started on forming a gay-straight alliance would be interrupted by his time away in the country.
    Mardi had become a third member of Micah and Carl’s little group. The rest of Carl’s friends had faded away when Mardi outed herself in an English class by arguing Charlotte Lucas in Pride and Prejudice was a repressed lesbian and probably in love with Elizabeth Bennett, and the whole school knew she was bi before she even reached her next class. Carl’s friends apparently thought two confirmed queers in their group was too much.
    “Doesn’t matter,” Carl said when Micah tried to apologise. “If they’re that bigoted, I don’t really want to hang with them anyway.”
    He put on a brave front. Micah knew it must have hurt him regardless.
    Mardi didn’t apologise. She thought she’d done Carl a favour by exposing just how much his friends were lousy people. Although Micah liked her, he thought she could be a bit insensitive sometimes—but he couldn’t talk, as he had been pretty much the same only a few months ago. And he knew her heart was in the right place. He just hoped Carl recognised that as well.
    But he had barely any time to worry about that. Footy training at school only got icier when it was announced he was off to yet another training camp for consideration for the AFL. Micah just put his head down and worked through it. He knew the end was in sight. A few times he tried to make eye contact with Will, but he always quickly looked away, and Micah decided not to push it. He had his own life to live, and Will had to make his own decisions as well. He heard snatches of conversation where he figured out Will hadn’t earned a place in the camp.
    “It should have been you, dude, rather than fucking Micah Johnson,” Shane Pickering said.
    Micah was just glad Will didn’t give any kind of response. It would have been too much to see him revelling in the facade of his heterosexuality and taking on the mantle of “more desirable than thou.”
    In the end Micah looked forward to getting away for a while. Running away was always a desirable option, even if the training camp wasn’t going to be anywhere as picturesque as Lorne—the last place he had run away to when running away was his thing. And there was no guarantee things were going to be any better there than they were at school either.
    Alex knocked on his door the morning of departure, while he was still trying to get his bags packed. “Can I come in?”
    “Knock yourself out.”
    Alex sat on Micah’s bed, kicking his feet out. Micah realised, with a pang, that his little brother was still “little” enough that his feet couldn’t reach the floor. He wondered if Alex would hit a growth spurt like Micah had done when puberty hit, or whether he would always be pint-sized. It also reminded him that, come December, he could be forced to move interstate and not see his little brother grow up day-to-day like he would normally.
    But he had to shake that