Chapter One

I was in the car. We'd just got back to Albuquerque, and Mom and Dad had gone to the corner shop to pick up some sweet potatoes and carrots. Olive was listening to her kiddy-pop, and Frank was writing out a rough sketch of his next lecture on Marcel Proust. I myself was writing "COLORBLIND" six hundred times in my notebook.

COLORBLIND COLORBLIND COLORBLIND

I was on my last page. Crap.

"Hey, Dwayne," said Frank, putting down his pen. "Which sounds better for my lecture - Marcel Proust was a modest author or an unpretentious author?"

I got out my pen and wrote "unpretentious". I ripped the last page out. I showed the notebook to Frank.

"Oh, your notebook's finished."

I beckoned for money.

"Money, oh sure. How much do notebooks cost these days?"

I shrugged.

Frank searched his pockets, and came up with six dollars and three cents. Olive took off her headphones, saw the money, and said "Buy me a raspberry slushie,"

Frank put the money in my hand. I smiled thankfully, and hopped out of the car.

The Last Chance Corner Shop I knew so well, was the worst last chance shop ever, in short, but it had a large supply in notebooks. I had the choice of a thick little notebook with a plastic cover or... well, that's all they had.

But it would have to do. I walked to the shop. Outside were a pack of girls, surrounding this girl with red hair who was blowing pink bubblegum. I'd never seen them before, but they were all wearing the school uniform, so they must have been freshman starting next year. I remember when I was a freshman last year. I remember my class being so meek and innocent. These girls were the very opposite. They were giggling about what they did with their boyfriends. Well, the girl blowing bubblegum - I nicknamed her the bubblegum girl- wasn't. She was dismissing her acquaintances antics as "childish" and giving detailed accounts of her exploits.

The whole pack of girls howled like wolves when they saw me pass.

"Hey, gawky!" The bubblegum girl called, to the laughter of her friends.

I turned to her. She must have seen the six dollars and three cents. She pulled out her bubblegum, and tossed it straight into my hand. Her friends positively yelped with laughter.

"I'm all out. Buy me some bubblegum, gawky."

It was obviously just a trick to see how I'd try to ignore them, but I decided I'd show them buffoons. As I walked past her into the shop, the pack snickered.

The Last Chance Corner Shop was full of gum, but I searched and searched until I stumbled upon bubblegum the perfect shade of pink. I picked up a green notebook with a red plastic cover and had just enough left to buy a mini raspberry slushie for Olive.

As I walked out the door, the pack of girls started howling.

"Where's my bubblegum, gawky?" Laughed bubblegum girl.

I took the pack of bubblegum out of my pocket and thrust it at her. This took her by surprise. She stared at me for a second. I flipped open my notebook and wrote:

Ta-da!

She anxiously put her weary jaws into a piece of gum and blew a gigantic bubble. Straight after, she took the piece out of her mouth and into her hand and walked up to me. She looked down at the page of my notebook. She forced the sticky gum out of her hand and slapped it on the page of my notebook. The laughter of the pack was a deafening roar now. I just walked away and jumped into the car