Jon Turner stopped Shawn as he was leaving class. "Hey, Hunter, nice horror story."
"Thanks."
"Not sure if I believe you about the 'sick as you can without actually dying' part."
"Eh, I didn't want to let Jill McIntyre down too hard."
"Yeah, when she finished reading that story about you and Matthews I wasn't sure whether to call the counselor for her or for me. By the way, how much longer is the great Corpanga breakup of '97 going to last?"
"My bet is it's permanent."
"Then it's going to be a looong summer."
"I guess so."
"The reason I brought it up is, there's this workshop program for high school writers at the University of Iowa I thought you might be interested in." Turner placed a brochure on the desk.
"Ummm, thanks" Shawn responded. "I'm not sure if I can take that much time off from work."
"Then quit your job. It's just a silly after school job."
"Actually, they just hired me permanently. See, Morley doesn't want the FTC to know they've got a 16 year-old working on their account, so they made me an account director. I even get dental now, see?" Shawn pulled back his cheek to reveal a new filling in his back molar, "and Marsden says he'll write me a letter of recommendation to Wharton."
"Wharton? I thought you wanted to be a writer."
"I enjoy writing; I'm not sure I want to be a writer. It isn't exactly the most lucrative career in the world."
"Yeah, but you'll have your integrity. You'll know that you're creating something of value to the world, instead of selling cancer to kids."
"You know, my dad always had this saying 'honesty doesn't pay the bills.'"
"Neither does your dad. I hear he's back in town."
"Yeah, we're going to get dinner tomorrow." The bell rang. "I'd better get to class. Hey, you know Angela writes poetry, she might be interested in that workshop."