Gideon Franks-Myer

Gideon Franks-Myer is a student, aspiring poet, and Ava Spirini’s romantic partner whose story connects the lingering effects of school bullying with the risks of trust and intimacy. He describes a family move as a consequence of his unhappiness and the harassment he endured; later, as school nears its end, he is both in a relationship and finding success in slam poetry. The contrast between his exposed inner life and the attention he receives in public defines much of his characterization.

Identity and Background

Gideon tells Ava that his family moved because he was not okay. He traces that distress to repeated bullying throughout school, which targeted his height, his mothers’ sexuality, and his sister’s intelligence. In Year 7, after he wrote a story about a sad moon during an eclipse, other students copied it and posted it throughout the school. He recalls not one defining assault but an accumulation of small cruelties, repeated until their frequency made them consequential. The move therefore appears in his account not as a detached change of setting but as something his suffering helped bring about.

His disclosure also shows how he understands the causes of that suffering: the incidents could seem individually small, yet their recurrence wore him down. He does not present the story about the moon as a triumph or as a secret talent discovered by his peers. Its circulation at school was an act of exposure and humiliation. That early experience gives particular weight to his later decision to write and perform poetry on his own terms.

Trust and Disclosure

Gideon shares the account of his school years with Ava in a conversation structured around mutual disclosure. After Ava tells him she does not feel like herself, he takes a deep breath and offers his own secret: that the family moved because of him. He then explains the bullying and the story that was copied and displayed around school. The exchange turns their closeness into something more substantial than attraction: each is allowed to reveal distress without having to present a finished explanation for it.

He also talks to his therapist, Robbie, about receiving a letter and poem from Ava and tells him what they say. Ava’s message reassures Gideon that he did nothing wrong, takes responsibility for what happened between them, and says she wants them to spend time together again. Robbie presses him to respond, but Gideon does not immediately know what to say. The episode makes his uncertainty visible without treating it as indifference: he has received a direct invitation back into the relationship, yet must work out how to answer it.

Intimacy and Self-Criticism

After Ava kisses him, Gideon kisses her back and privately recognizes that he enjoyed it. His thoughts then turn sharply against him: he blames himself for leaving and calls himself an idiot for kissing someone he likes and then walking away. The sequence holds excitement and panic together. His withdrawal follows a moment of mutual affection, not a rejection of Ava, but his immediate self-reproach makes the moment difficult for him to trust.

Back in his bedroom, he paces while trying to determine how to repair what he thinks he has spoiled, and eventually calls the person he believes can help. On the carpet he sees his feelings arranged in Skittles as the short message G 4 A. The small, deliberately arranged sign contrasts with the repetitive severity of his inner monologue: feeling for Ava can be expressed simply, even while he struggles to manage the consequences of expressing it face to face.

Poetry and a Changing Self-Presentation

As school approaches its end, Gideon appears on a video call with his sister Annie, showing her his suit. Her warm response accompanies a rare, expansive assessment of his life: he feels good, has a girlfriend, and believes he is okay. Yet he also has one matter he has been thinking about: he has written a poem for someone and asks Annie to hear it. The passage does not identify the poem’s recipient, but it shows writing continuing alongside the improvements he describes, rather than being left behind once he feels better.

The suit and the conversation with Annie place him at a threshold: he is nearing the end of school and can name a girlfriend and a sense of well-being, while still carrying a private concern into the occasion. His sister’s encouragement and his decision to tell her about the poem show a willingness to let another person see what he has made. That openness contrasts with the earlier story about the moon, which classmates seized and circulated without his consent.

Public Recognition

At the graduation ceremony, a school representative announces that Gideon has had success in the slam poetry world that year. Ava, listening in the auditorium, immediately worries that the attention will make him uncomfortable and expects him to dislike being singled out or called forward for a certificate. Instead, Gideon has asked to perform an untitled piece. More than a thousand people applaud as he strides onto the stage, and Ava smiles at the sight before wondering what he is doing.

The moment brings his private writing into public view, but it does not erase the earlier vulnerability attached to being watched. The contrast lies between the involuntary exposure of his Year 7 story and the performance he now chooses: he asks for the opportunity to present an untitled poem himself. The evidence ends as he reaches the stage, leaving the performance’s content undisclosed; what it establishes is that poetry has become both a recognized practice and a form of agency for Gideon.