May, 1994

Since I'm here

Rehearsing for Hamlet was a lot more fun than Shawn had expected, but the play itself . . . that had been amazing.

He hadn't gotten to do his big death scene that he'd practiced, and his costume was pretty much ruined by that spear carrier kid, but they'd had a fight in the middle of the play and everyone had been shoved off the stage, and Feeny had just looked so . . . Feeny about the whole thing. Shawn and Cory spent the whole night after their parts were over laughing backstage, so loud that one of the parent helpers had to shush them a bajillion times. It was totally worth it.

Cory's parents ambushed him as soon as they got out of the building, and Shawn reminded himself how lucky he was to be free, not to be smothered by lame grown-ups who would tell him what to do and question him about the fight on stage and tell him they were proud of him anyway or any of that stupid stuff . . .

"Hunter!"

Shawn whirled around to see Jon coming toward him.

"Interesting show," Jon said.

"You saw?"

"Yeah, I saw. You did great, on, uh . . . the parts you got to."

Shawn shook his head. "You came to our show and watched the whole thing?"

"I said I would, didn't I?"

"But . . . you actually came." Sure, Cory's parents came, but they were weird. Shawn's dad would always say he'd be there, but that was different from sitting through Hamlet. Jon wasn't even related to Shawn, even if they'd been living together for over a year.

Jon raised his eyebrows. "Is this some kinda game?"

Shawn still didn't get it—the play had been fun to be in, but it was probably really boring to watch. Shawn knew Jon liked literature and stuff, but they didn't even make it through all of the lines, and Minkus hadn't exactly been a good Hamlet. Unless . . . "Did Feeny make you come?"

Jon stared at him for a long moment. It was a look he gave Shawn a lot—it looked kind of disappointed, kind of worried. He never explained why, though. This time, he just said, "Yeah. Feeny asked me to come. Just in case they needed extra help."

Shawn nodded. That made sense.

"But hey, since I'm here, wanna go get ice cream?"

"Really? No It's past your bedtime, Hunter? No You really think you need all that sugar?"

Jon laughed and clapped Shawn on the shoulder. "It's one night."

Shawn wasn't going to argue against ice cream. "Did you bring the car or your bike?"

"Bike."

Shawn grinned.