Publisher's Synopsis
Hold your head up and be PROUD of who you are. Four gay teens live by this motto, though at times it's difficult. Franklin High isn't exactly the ideal place to be if you're gay. Barry Chase, Chi-Chi Cavasos, Denny Sheldon and Jade Parker, the gay quartet, have carved out a place of respect among the Franklin student body, and school life is tolerable, if not ideal. Home life is a totally different story. Barry, 17, is a bright kid, a computer geek, but his father is dead and his mother is an alcoholic. Chi-Chi, 16, is Hispanic, effeminate, and a serious student of ballet. His parents are separated, and he lives with his abusive father. Denny 15, was born Denise, but has was always been more comfortable living as a boy. He's a fantastic soccer player, but his mother is seriously mentally ill. Jade, 17 is kicked out of the house when she tells her parents she's gay. The four of them come to live with Owen Sterling, an older man who is their father figure. In this "family," there is acceptance, lots of pizza, lots of music and lots of love. Zack Wannamaker, the devil's own child, is the poster boy for homophobia. Mean and sarcastic, and stoned most of the time, he believes that gays deserve all the crap he dishes out. Zack is living with one kidney, and it is failing. He needs a transplant, but he is a rare blood type. It rocks his world when Barry finds out he is a match. And believe it or not, he decides to donate his kidney, because as bad as Zack is, he doesn't deserve to die at 17. But life gets even more complicated when Barry finds out that Owen also needs a kidney, and Barry is a match for him, too. Suddenly, his nights are sleepless as he has to make a choice-give the gift of life to the gay basher, or to the man who has loved him like a father.
