(NOTE: This is part one of a multi-part story. It’s much more of a slow-building story line than what I’ve attempted before, so apologies if it doesn’t land right away.)
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Freshman year was not kind to Jonah. Or rather, it didn’t begin that way.
Near the end of summer the school he was due to attend, the school where all his friends would go, was redistricted and Jonah would instead head off to the newly opened Shermer High School. As if the jump from middle school to high school wasn’t frightening enough, he would have to do it without familiar company. To make matters worse, while most of the boys his age were hitting growth spurts left and right, Jonah remained a pale, short, skinny kid with mop of frustratingly straight brown hair and thick glasses. It was a look that would later become very popular, but did almost nothing for him at the time. He was “cute” when he wanted to be “hot”, or at least that’s what he thought girls wanted.