Taite Jefferson certainly did not expect the world's biggest superstar to be sitting on his living room couch when he woke up the day after his high school graduation. He didn't expect to like him, either. Taite Jefferson was very, very wrong.

"I didn't know you had friends like Isaac," Willa said in greeting. "I don't," muttered Jared. Isaac rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you don't. You have //one// friend like Isaac." His voice turned into this stupid mock whisper and he leaned towards Jared conspiratorially. "It's me, by the way."

Who in their right mind would ask a teenager to write a 4000 word essay on the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald anyway? To me, English class was simply the fine art of over analyzing very old pieces of literature. It was usually pretty easy for me to string together some intricate sounding sentences about these old novels. My English teacher loved me for it, but for this particular essay, I was utterly incapable of replicating the excellence of my previous work. All I knew was that Nick Carraway was definitely gay for Gatsby. _________ When two high school boys find themselves being forced into partnership for a class project, things get interesting. With Callaway's snarky remarks and hidden secrets, and Chance's accidental girlfriend, their path to completing high school is anything but straight. _________ Discaimer: This is boyxboy so if this makes anyone uncomfortable, this is me warning you. Also, The Great Gatsby does not belong to me, copyright is to F Scott Fitzgerald. With the references to the novel in my story, I am in no way trying to mock or make fun of the novel, because it is one of my favourite books. Also, the reality of Nick Carraway's homosexuality is arguable, I simply used this opinion for the sake of my story and its plot.

After a lot of rock music, many skating accidents and a considerable amount of arguing, Alex finds out that there are things in the world worth living for. Skateboarding, as it turned out was not the only thing Alex and Jem bonded over. [copyright afterwords two thousand & fifteen] short story #24