I'm very nearly 13,000 words into my novel for NaNoWriMo, and I'll continue my practice of putting up a bit here. The below is quite a long excerpt from my novel. It's not very well-written, but it was fun for me to write. Slight preface: the first football game of the school year had just ended. Shin sat above them all, watching the happy crowds flow out of the stadium. It was only half past ten, still early in the night, and even though he didn’t want to admit it, all of the excitement of the day had worn him out. When it was quite empty, Shin began to make his way to the band hall to meet with Kyle. ‘Dude!’ said Kyle as he emerged from the band hall in his street clothes, sweaty and smiling. ‘I didn’t really expect you to come!’ Shin was about to tell him that, despite his tepid attitude, he had a good time at the game, but Kyle immediately continued, ‘Come on, man, we’re all going to Whataburger to get some food, and I decided that you, as my patron, will be driving me tonight. What did you think about the show tonight? I don’t know how it looked from the stands, but from where I was the marching sucked. We sounded awesome, though, so I guess that’s not so bad for our first performance. I don’t know what happened in my section, though. I hate to say it, but I think Trent screwed it up for all of us when we were going from that huge arc in the front to that diagonal. However much I love that little kid, he was not at all confident in his marching. And I guess I can understand that because, you know, I was a freshman once and I don’t really remember a lot about the first show I marched. I do remember, though, that I ran across the field at totally the wrong time, and I got chewed out by both John and Nana, and, oh my God, I’m so glad that didn’t happen at the same time. Neither one of them will let me live that down, by the way. Before we marched out around the track before the game, John came up to me and told me to keep my calm, that he didn’t want to see me spazz out like I did then. I wanted to punch him so badly, but I didn’t want to get suspended for kicking my teacher’s ass, and I knew he was just messing with me. And then when we were eating dinner, Nana was telling my brothers that same damn story, glaring at me the whole time, like I did that just to embarrass her.’ While suffering through this monologue, Shin guided Kyle across the practice field and towards his lonely car in the stadium parking lot. Still talking about the quality of their marching, Kyle took the passenger seat and, throwing his trumpet case in the back seat, made himself comfortable. As Shin pulled out of the parking lot and headed towards the heaven that was Whataburger, one of the only blessings of this new town, Kyle said, in quite a different tone of voice than what he had ever heard from him, ‘So, dude, tell me if this is insensitive or whatever, but I noticed that you don’t ever talk about your parents. Are they…eh…departed, or…’ And he looked at Shin quite seriously. ‘What, you’re asking if they’re dead?’ Shin said in feign shock and disbelief. ‘I’m so sorry, Shin,’ Kyle began rapidly before Shin held up a hand to stop him, cracking a smile. ‘No, no,’ he said as he chuckled, ‘nothing like that. They’re not dead, they’re just travelling.’ Kyle looked relieved. ‘Damn, that was mean!’ he shouted, punching Shin on the shoulder. ‘Here I was thinking you were going to drive me off into a corn field and leave me there for asking about your dead parents.’ They drove on for a while in silence. Shin, being very unwilling to volunteer information about himself, decided he would wait to see if Kyle would inquire further, and, it so happened, inquire he did. ‘You said they were travelling?’ he asked presently. ‘Are they on like a second honeymoon or something? Like, a crossing things off their bucket list kind of trip?’ Shin looked thoughtful for a moment and replied, ‘I guess you could say that.’ ‘Dude, that is so sweet. If I had money like y’all had money, I’d be taking trips every six months from now until I died.’ ‘I take it that you think my family’s rich,’ Shin said. Kyle stared at him dramatically, with his eyes and mouth wide open, for a full five seconds before he said, emphasizing every syllable, ‘Ni-ne thou-sa-n-d. And one of those checks was in the name of Charlotte Green who, I know for a fact, is your sister.’ Shin thought for a moment, and decided that he would go out on a limb and trust Kyle Reina. ‘Kyle,’ he said seriously, which got Kyle’s attention. ‘I’ve never told anyone here this, and I don’t want you telling anyone else, either. So you’ve got to promise me to keep your mouth shut about it. Got it?’ Looking very solemn, Kyle stuck out one of his pinkie fingers towards Shin and said, ‘Dude, I will pinkie swear that I will never, ever tell anyone what you’re about to tell me. Not even Nana.’ ‘Don’t give me that,’ Shin said, slapping Kyle’s hand away from him, ‘I’m not going to pinky swear.’ But Kyle was persistent, and somehow, Shin found his pinky locked in Kyle’s, and he repeated his oath, that not even Nana would he tell. ‘Fine, fine,’ Shin said, shaking Kyle’s finger from his, ‘geez.’ He took a deep breath and began, ‘Last December, around Christmas time, my dad won the lottery where we used to live.’ He expected Kyle to interrupt with some interjection, but he just sat there, waiting for Shin to continue. ‘He won three hundred million—‘ ‘Holy crap!’ Kyle screeched, which surprised Shin so much that he swerved into the shoulder of the road. ‘Sorry, man, I just wasn’t expecting that,’ he said as Shin returned to the lane, both hands on the wheel. ‘After taxes and whatever,’ he continued, ‘I think they got something like a hundred and fifty million. It was a record pot. So, after the holidays, my parents packed their bags and left for South America, and I haven’t heard from them since then.’ ‘What?’ Kyle said sharply. ‘They just left you and Sean by yourselves?’ ‘We were with Charlotte, but she was teaching and planning her wedding, so it pretty much just the two of us. Thank goodness for Charlotte, though, because if it weren’t for her, I think my parents would have forgotten completely about the two of us. She was the one who made them set up college accounts and living accounts for us so that at least we’d have something before they spent it all living in the Amazon and drinking wine in France. She didn’t want anything for herself, she was thinking of us. When Robert got his new job down here, Charlotte didn’t want to leave us not knowing when our parents would be back, so she had us move with them.’ There was a long silence where the only sound was the lonely humming of the tires on the asphalt. Shin took a few sidelong glances at Kyle to find him looking very contemplative. Finally, Kyle said— ‘So I guess that’s why you’re so distant with people.’ ‘I figured you would understand,’ said Shin. ‘You don’t want to get close to people because your parents, two of the closest people to you, left you alone without a thought for you. A lot of your friends probably treated you differently, too, after they heard about the money, right?’ Shin nodded. ‘At first, they were careful about it, but by the end of the semester, random people would ask me for money because so-and-so told them I’d give it to them. One of my friends turned out to be a big druggie and wanted me to start dealing with him. But everyone changed towards me and even Sean once they knew.’ ‘You’re afraid that we’ll do that, too?’ ‘I guess so.’ Suddenly, Shin felt a sharp pain on the side of his head where Kyle had, apparently, boxed his ear. ‘Kyle, what the hell?” Shin shouted. ‘I’m driving!’ ‘So all your friends turned out to be money-grubbing bastards, and now you think we’ll be that way, too?!’ Kyle yelled back, seriously angry. ‘You want all that money back? I’ll go to the bank tomorrow and get it out and bring it to your sister, first thing in the morning! Nana’s going to kill me, but I’ll do it if it’ll make you stop acting like an idiot!’ ‘Kyle, I don’t—‘ ‘Yeah, you’ll be at the cemetery and you’ll be thinking, “Man, I really wish I wouldn’t have acted like such a dumbass idiot and made Kyle give back that totally sweet nine thou. Then Nana wouldn’t have had to kill him and get thrown into the old granny jail, and then his two little brothers wouldn’t be here crying their little eyes out because they miss their brother and their nana who’s in the clinker because she killed Kyle, and they don’t have anywhere to go except into foster care, where they’ll get split up and will probably never be adopted, all because I didn’t trust Kyle and made him give back that money.” That’s what you’ll be thinking, you idiot, standing in the rain at my funeral!’ ‘Why in the rain?’ ‘And everyone else, too, man, everyone who’s nice to you and try to talk to you in class, like Hannah and Gracia, and all the little freshman who look up to you because you kicked that dick Dustin Knight’s ass, they’re all gonna be standing in the rain at my funeral, all like, “Dude, I can’t believe Shin Lorensen was that cold-hearted to Kyle to make him give back that nine thou, and that’s why Kyle’s nana killed him, did you know that? And he won’t be friends with any of us because he’s too afraid that all the money his parents won is going to change what we think about him. And he seemed like a really nice guy that made some really tasty eggs and scone-things and let Kyle eat them one morning—oh, the morning his sister gave him that also tasty nine thou!” ‘Kyle, that’s enough!’ Shin bellowed before he could go on. ‘That’s enough about the money Charlotte gave you! I don’t want it back, I don’t even want to talk about money anymore, so shut up!’ ‘You really mean that?’ ‘What?’ Shin asked, completely exasperated. ‘You don’t want to talk about money anymore?’ ‘Yes, Kyle, please don’t ever mention that money, any money, around me ever again!’ ‘All right!’ Kyle shouted, clapping his hands together, smiling widely. ‘It’s a done deal! We’ll never talk about money again, so just don’t worry about it, all right?’ By this time, they had arrived at Whataburger and were idling in the parking lot. Shin stared at Kyle dumbly. Kyle looked at Shin sidelong and said, ‘It’s a new start, right? That’s probably why Charlotte wanted y’all to come with her. If you don’t go into it, people won’t really care why you live in that huge house with your sister and her husband. I mean, hell, man, I live with my nana and my parents are farther out of the picture that yours are, but nobody cares. Just give us all a chance, all right?’ With that, he got out of the car. Shin did the same and started walking towards the doors to the restaurant. ‘I guess we’re really friends now, right?’ Kyle said to him quietly. ‘I guess so,’ he answered. He stopped at the doors and said, ‘Why would it be raining at your funeral?’ Kyle said, slapping Shin on the back, ‘Because that’s what happens at funerals. It’s either raining from the sky or raining from your eyes.’ ‘That’s the corniest thing I’ve ever heard,’ Shin said. Suddenly, the doors opened and a tall boy staggered out right on top of them, shouting back inside, ‘I am the goddamn king! Whoo-hoooooo!!’