Thank goodness for yearbooks. I flipped through the pages and found Mike Capella among last year’s sophomores. I recognized him immediately. Mike Capella. Carp. The human garbage disposal. He was the guy who had drained the milk carton stuffed with food scraps.
My stomach began to feel queasy in remembrance.
What if Mike tried to do something like that again at the restaurant? What if I got sick? What if I got sick right on the pizza?
Once the fears started, they wouldn’t quit.
What if someone from school saw us together? Would they know we were gay? Was this a date? And if so, was I supposed to pay? What if Mike wasn’t gay after all, and this was actually an elaborate hoax staged by some awful reality show and I was being filmed by hidden cameras at this very instant?
I dropped to my bed and looked at the Superman poster on the ceiling.
Why were there always so many things to worry about?
Then I remembered Mike’s nice smile when he had won the chugging contest. I remembered his friendly eyes. Slowly the worries began to quiet down. They didn’t go away completely, but they took a backseat to another feeling: happiness.
No, I wasn’t feeling happy. I was feeling something more than that.
I picked up the phone and dialed Rachel’s number.
I was feeling absolutely, positively gay.
I am deeply indebted to the following people for their unfailing encouragement and support: Laurie Skiba, Gary Nygaard, Timothy Cope; the Delton Group: Kerin McTeigue O’Connor, Joyce Simon, Beth Voigt, Marge Peterson, Georgie Peterson; and the KTM writers: John Coy, Janet Lawson, Jody Peterson, Cindy Rogers, Phyllis Root, and Jane Resh Thomas.
And special thanks to Arthur Levine, for his trust and faith when I was delirious with doubt.
David LaRochelle graduated from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, with dual degrees in Art and English, and went on to the University of Minnesota to earn his teaching license. After four years as an elementary school teacher, David left to pursue writing and illustration. He’s written or illustrated more than 25 books, including The End, illustrated by Richard Egielski, which received four starred reviews and was named a New York Public Library Best Book for Reading and Sharing. David lives in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
Visit David online at www.davidlarochelle.net.
Inspired by his story “Taking Alice to the Prom,” which appeared originally in Cicada magazine.
Text copyright © 2005 by David LaRochelle. All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC, the LANTERN LOGO, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
This edition first printing, April 2009
Cover art by Bill Brown
Cover design by Steve Scott
e-ISBN 978-0-545-31066-6
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
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