How he has managed not to knock my block off at least a hundred times, I will never know. I tried calling him dad again but it just felt too weird. Even he seemed to act weird the few times I tried it. So I went back to calling him John and we both seem to be okay with it now.
As the end of the school year neared I had no idea that something other than the competition was fast approaching that would change my life forever. When there was only three weeks of school left, and my excitement over returning to California had escalated to a fevered pitch, something horrible happened that nearly stole every bit of joy and yearning that had been building up inside of me.