In the Den of the Lion: An Unconventional Gay High School Spy Story

If you live in a lie long enough, the price you pay may be the death of your own truth.

You had to ruin everything, didn’t you? With just a few weeks to go, I almost made it out unscathed and undetected. None of you had a clue what was underneath. Yes, I, Daniel Owen, had infiltrated the ranks. I had fooled you all. But in a single moment, you destroyed all those years of work.

At first, the fake persona was hard to create. But watch a few spy movies like I have, and you slowly get the hang of it. Besides, seeing how the ones that had been discovered were treated, there really wasn’t any other option. There was no way I would go through the hell of all that for four long years of high school. And now, on the cusp of being in the 1989 graduating class, you’ve blown my cover wide open.

Of course, the costume was very heavy at times, like wearing clothes soaked in water. I felt like one of those characters you see walking around at Disney World. On the outside, a happy, smiling face, getting good grades, always ready to please and never saying the wrong thing — a persona as sickly sweet as honey glaze. But inside, I was there in the dark, sweating and struggling to hold up that heavy head of this person I created.