Incomplete

Incomplete chapter 11

Incomplete: Eleven.

     First period was Foundations of Technology, otherwise known as FoT class. I had the class that was more like shop. We worked around wood all class, and i had to admit, i was totally in love with it. Jazz was taking FoT, too, but she was taking the computer class for it. She was kind of a total technological genius. In fact, i was pretty sure she was planning on going into Computer Sciences in college as her major.

     It was only the beginning of October, so we hadn't really gotten that far. We just ended up watching this slide-show on our upcoming project. We were going to make cars, can you believe it? I'm pretty sure we made those in the eighth grade. But hey, Mr. Fender is the teacher, i guess. Whatever he says, goes.

     The bell rang for that, and i gathered up all my books. Then i noticed Quince, who was sitting next to me, was fast asleep. I shook him awake.

     "Huh? Wha-?" His eyes snapped open and his head popped up immediately. "Who died?!" He yelled.

     Yeah, he actually said that.

     I laughed and smiled at him. "C'mon, Quince, it's time to go to next block." Then i leaned over him and giggled, "Didn't get much sleep last night, huh?"

     He winked at me and laughed, too. "Yeah, late night with the rents. We had..." he trailed off, remembering i guessed. "We had a nice conversation."

     "Seriously?" I asked skeptically. He gathered his books, stood up, and we started walking. "Haven't you been getting into some really major fights with them lately?"

     "Well, yeah, but..." He shrugged. "I kind of know why. So i talked to them about it. That's about it." He smiled at me, daring me to ask.

     "Okay, okay, the suspense is killing me. What'd you guys talk about?"

     "I came out to them."

     My heart nearly stopped, and i stopped, too.

     "Came out?" I asked. I was pretty much fear-stricken.

     I noticed how nervous Quince seemed, and it only worsened at my reaction. He stopped, too, and turned to face me.

     "Yeah...i'm gay. You..." He had an expression of pure pain. "You don't have a problem with that, right, A? I mean...i love you, you're like, one of my best friends." He shrugged. "I...really want you to be okay with it, you know?"

     "It's not that..." I took a deep breath as Quince watched me cautiously. "How did they react? I mean, i think it would..." - another deep breath - "I think it woud come in handy. You know...for me."

     Quince just stared at me in disbelief.

     "No way," his face seemed to completely light up. Every part of his body became more relaxed, and he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "No way, A!" He smiled at me. It was the happiest i'd seen Quince in...well, in quite a while.

     The two of us, we go way back. We've been best friends since we met when his family moved here in the third grade.

     The story is actually pretty interesting. See, he actually didn't take to me very well, and i wasn't too fond of him, either. He ended up sitting next to me, and we got into fights frequently. We were separated about halfway through the first quarter, and on my report card i had gotten a note from my teacher.

     I had straight-A's - which was exciting, since it was the first year of us getting actual letter grades - and my parents were ecstatic about that. Then they saw the note. It was basically about how i should learn to get along better with my peers, and how i'd been given many warnings for arguing with another student.