PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE
NOAH
Growing up in Kansas was not something that you could easily turn into a five-page college essay. Noah Peters grunted and slammed his laptop shut. He looked into space and returned to reality as he realized he was looking at the wall behind his bedroom desk; the same wall that he had been looking at since birth. The same wall he was destined to look at for the rest of his life. Noah craved change. No one left Wichita, Kansas, though, and if they did, it was for one of the neighboring towns such as Derby or Andover. Possibly, if they were lucky, they would venture to Kansas City, but that was about it. Kansas, the state didn’t even have any major sports teams.
Noah’s choices growing up were Oklahoma, Missouri, and Texas. He always chose to be a fan of Texas sports. People would try and argue why, but the only reason Noah could think of was that Texas was big. It had Dallas, Houston, and San Antonia, etc. Kansas had corn, wheat, wind, and monopolies no one seemed to talk about.
The blond-haired, brown-eyed tall, tanned by the bright sun boy had gone to the same school his entire life. He had the same friends and the same enemies. A new kid would come to the school very rarely, and after about a week, they started to blend in rather well.
“Wichita can’t be my life,” Noah said to himself, groaning. There was a knock at the door. “I’m busy,” he screamed.
“Mom says it’s time for breakfast!” Kelly screamed as she quickly opened the door and then closed it.
The blonde boy sighed and got up from his desk. He was only partially dressed for school but at least had on a shirt, boxer briefs, and socks. He just hadn’t gotten around to putting on pants or sneakers yet. “Well, time for another wonderful day…”
* * *
Breakfast at the Peters house was hardly a family affair and hardly a gourmet feast. His mom, Cheryl, worked as a store manager at the local Target. It was sadly one of the nicer stores in town. He didn’t mean one of the nicer Target’s. They had two. They were both rather clean inside, but the neighborhood Target was definitely a win in terms of places to shop. She was always on the go and always working. Cheryl couldn’t keep sales associates to save her life. People would constantly quit their job at Target to do their dream job, which apparently meant going and working at some store at the local mall or something.
His older brother Brick worked as a server at the local Applebee’s. He was on his way into management. He had no choice, ever since he got his high school girlfriend Amber pregnant, only a month before they were both supposed to go off to college. They agreed that she would still go, and he would support them. Brick and Amber still hadn’t decided whether they would marry or not, but Amber still had six months before the baby was born. Her parents wanted them married. Cheryl was not pushing one way or another. Amber’s parents were embarrassed their non-denotational mega-church would find out.
Then there was Kelly, his bratty thirteen-year-old sister. She was a wannabe pageant queen in a family that couldn’t afford it. So, she settled on being a cheerleader at the local junior league team. The junior league football team, much like the basketball, baseball, and volleyball (for the girls only, of course), would all start out in the junior league, travel to the middle school, and then be the town’s pick for the city high school. There were over five thousand kids. They only accounted for around nine-hundred of them, though, and acted as if it was normal to have a stadium for a football team that hadn’t gone to the championships in five years.
Regardless, Kelly was a cheerleader now at the middle school level. Noah had to admit she was good at it, and he was proud of her, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t a brat. Since Brick knocked up Amber, though, it became his responsibility to take care of Kelly while Cheryl was at work. “I’m going to need you to pick up Kelly from school,” Cheryl told her middle child.
Noah looked at her with wide eyes. “I can’t! I have a shift at the bookstore,” he reminded her. It was the eighth time, as well.
His mother sighed, “Right… Well, Kelly, you are going to have to hitch a ride from a friend’s parent or something.”
“That’s not fair!” Kelly practically screamed.
“Well, you can easily walk. The school is only a twenty-minute walk,” Cheryl reminded her daughter.
Kelly crossed her arms and pouted, “Fine. I’ll figure it out.” She then looked at Noah, “You are doing this just to sabotage me.”
Noah had no idea how he was sabotaging her, but it made him smile to think he was. Brick never drove him to and from school growing up. He had to walk most of the time. When they were much younger, Brick had to walk both of his siblings home before being old enough to drive. That was about the bulk of his older sibling helping out. Yet, Noah had to help out with driving and to pick up groceries since he got his car last year. A car that, mind you, he got with his own money that he had been saving for years, “Tough luck, loser.”
“Takes one to know one,” Kelly bit back.
She wasn’t wrong. He was sort of a loser. Noah tended to think he was an outcast in a city full of people who stuck to the status quo with pride. Yet, the only pride he had was in the rainbow flag that he had above his bed. Being gay in the bible belt wasn’t exactly something you screamed in the streets. Yes, Noah was indeed out. No, Noah was not the only gay kid at his school. However, he was one of the few out gay kids. That whole saying that guys would often tell him on chat sites pissed him off, like; “Oh, there are tons of queer kids at your school. They just aren’t out yet.” Well, in this town, they never would be. A senior that he had a brief secret fling with the year before was already engaged to his girlfriend that he had since he was in diapers. Sure, there were queer people, but he rarely ever saw out-and-about couples aside from the rare no-nonsense lesbian couple.
He looked at his phone. “Come on, Kelly. I need to drop you off now, so I’m not late myself.” There was only a twenty-minute time difference in their start schedules.
* * *
Wichita West was hard to explain. It was large. It was constantly being expanded for new gyms and other sports-related expenses, but that was about it. It was actually a rather poor school academic wise. They didn’t even have books and technically didn’t have homework. All students were provided with tablets, but that was part of a four-year-old budget idea that was never fully thought out, as the students could have easily had their textbooks on the tablets, but the school couldn’t afford the software. Yet, they had a new sports fundraiser every week.
Noah also didn’t have a locker. Well, actually, he did, but he had no idea where it was. He had never seen a kid open a locker in the entire school. There were always rumors they would take lockers out for more trophy cases, but the only trophies they ever got were for baseball and volleyball. The football and basketball teams sucked.