This is my second Work In Progress (WIPpet) Wednesday for The Summer Between. It’s another peek into Brendon’s unconventional summer break. He’s experiencing all the joys, or pitfalls, that come with growing up. What happens to your childhood friends when you transition to college? Will you stay in touch, or drift apart? Brendon is struggling with the answer to these questions in this week’s WIPpet.
For my WIPpet math, we have 9 sentences from page 22 of the book (1+8=9), for August 22, 2018. This is from Chapter Two The Best Laid Plans of Mice & Men (AKA the Patronizing Phrase People Will Quote When You Least Want to Hear It)
“Now, when I sit in my dorm room and Matt texts, I will reply with, what, “How was ten hours in the mini-van?” That’s not a conversation starter. That’s a conversation willingly taking a cyanide pill.
Without these stories, we’re four people who shared the same school system and the occasional class or group project. Okay, so we share a love for internet gaming. So what? Lots of people game with complete strangers.
If we’re nothing more than that, then how do we…how do we exist without class schedules and lunch periods to bring us together?
The answer is simple and terrifying: we won’t.”
*WIPpet Wednesday is a blog hop hosted by Emily Wrayburn wherein writers share excerpts of their latest WIP. All genres and levels of accomplishment are welcome. The only stipulation is that the excerpt must coincide with the date in some manner. For example, on 10/8/14 you might share 10 lines from page 8, 8 paragraphs from chapter 14, or perhaps 18 sentences by doing WIPpet math and adding the day to the month. We’re flexible like that.
#TheSummerBetween #YAfiction #teenlit #teenfiction #teenlife #friendship
(The Summer Between add designed by Jeanne G’Fellers, images from Unsplash.)
Anne Gfellers Mason Author 
Gah, this reminds me so much of how I felt at that age, heading off to school separately from the people I’d spent 4 years with.
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Those last three paragraphs get me — first because although I’m not a gamer, I’m interested, so that’s one hook. That next paragraph dials right into young adult angst (belonging, separation, the steady sometimes unconscious awareness of impending adulthood), and that last paragraph, right between the eyes, the importance of friendship, community. Really nice.
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Thank you!
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I like this line: That’s not a conversation starter. That’s a conversation willingly taking a cyanide pill.
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Expectations vs reality. It’s a thing. Poor Brendon. He’s being thrust into the reality whether he likes it or not.
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Hello! I am belatedly catching up on past weeks’ WIPpets and wanted to welcome you to the fold. 🙂
I relate to this a lot, too. I came from a small town where we were friends by convenience as much as commonalities and I was also the only one moving away after high-school. even knowing we didn’t have that much in common and that new friendships would probably crop up (spoiler: of course they did) didn’t help wondering how we’d maintain what we had going forward.
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