Anything But Typical

Jason’s old dog Lester died a year ago. When Jason was four years old, he adopted Lester from the shelter. It was very difficult for Jason to choose just one dog; he worried about whether the others would be adopted. Jason was drawn to Lester because Lester was the only one not jumping around, but just trembling. After bringing Lester home, Jason slept with the dog on his bed. When Lester was seven, he got sick and the vet said there was no way to save him. Jason’s parents explained that Lester had had a good life with them, but that he would have to be put to sleep. Jason listened as Jeremy cried uncontrollably.

Jason finds out PhoenixBird’s name: Rebecca. She has written him a message praising his latest installment in the Bennu story and telling him that her dog stole some food and threw up all over her carpet. Jason is thrilled that he officially has a friend who is a girl. 

When Bennu’s family hears about the doctor’s cure for dwarfism, Bennu hears the excitement in their voices at the prospect. Because Bennu is so much shorter than everyone else, he has learned to listen well. Bennu’s father isn’t sure he wants to cure Bennu, but the doctor says if he gets the surgery, “no one will look at Bennu ever again and know anything is wrong” (103). Jason is becoming aware that he seems normal to Rebecca online, through writing, but if she saw him, she would know right away that something was “wrong.”

Jason writes back to Rebecca, telling her that he doesn’t know how he will end the Bennu story. He also tells her about his dog, Lester. He doesn’t get to check his messages again all day because library class is canceled, and he has talk therapy after school (which he doesn’t like). He feels like he is going to explode by the time he finally gets into his room to check his messages. Rebecca tells him that Lester was lucky to have had Jason as an owner.

Jason’s online relationship is helping him cope with his daily life. His talk therapist is happy with his progress, and his parents are happy that he has not had to leave school in a month. As a reward, his parents tell him that they are going to take him to the Storyboard convention in Dallas, a gathering of all the people that write stories and use Storyboard as their platform. There will also be workshops with real writers. Jason has wanted to go for a long time. It is too expensive to take the whole family, however, so Jason needs to pick to go with either his dad or his mom. Jason is very moved by their gesture and thrilled to go to the workshop.

Language Arts is Jason’s favorite class because there is room to be creative. He also likes that because he gets such good grades, the other students ask him for help. His teacher Mr. Shupack is nice, but has a birthmark on his arm that is hard for Jason to look at. He tries to avoid looking at it at all costs. Jason tells Mr. Shupack about the Storyboard convention and, in talking to Mr. Shupack, decides he will take his father. 

Jason says that the most important part of writing a story is “to find a dilemma for your character to grapple with” (111) because you can’t have a good story without something bad happening.

Jason’s mother is upset that he chose his father for the trip. Jason knows that she wanted him to pick her. He also knows that she hates traveling and gets lost when she is somewhere new and usually ends up crying, so he doesn’t understand why she would want to put herself through that. Jason wants to sit next to her on the couch and rub her hair between his fingers, as he used to do to soothe himself when he was little, but he is too old for that now. He wonders if his father would be upset if Jason had picked his mother. He wonders how Jeremy feels about not going. At the same time, Jason is excited to message Rebecca his good news: He can’t wait to be around real writers, and hopes that someday he will write a memoir.

Jason sits at his computer for a long time, thinking about how to tell Rebecca the news and impress her. As his computer boots up, he thinks about how best to portray Bennu in the next installment. He gets ready to write Rebecca a message, but sees a message from her first: She is also going to be attending the Storyboard conference in Dallas! To Jason, this is not good news.

Jason can’t tell anyone what has changed, but his parents can tell that something is bothering him. Suddenly he doesn’t want to go to the convention, and he doesn’t want to tell his parents that it’s because he doesn’t want Rebecca to see him in real life. He is so worried about Rebecca rejecting him after she sees him that he is in agony. Jason cannot contain his upset feelings and begins to hurt himself.

He has a daydream that he sees Rebecca at the convention. She is wearing a t-shirt with a phoenix on it. He puts his nametag on and panics because she will recognize his name. Jason snaps out of his daydream when he finds himself throwing a computer mouse at his mother, who is asking repeatedly what is wrong. The mouse hits Jeremy instead and causes him to bleed; Jason feels terrible about himself.