Is a school fight ever a good thing? Can detention be a lot of fun?  Is cleaning the cafeteria punishment or an adventure? <br><br>When the new student Sid defended took his breath away, made him feel brave, and changed his life, he knew he was going to pay for fighting at school when he got home, and he does. He remembers telling his little sister to dial 911, and now Daddy is hauled off to jail, and he wonders if his world is falling apart.<br><br>But Royal has walked into Sid’s life and his heart, so maybe the end is really just a new beginning.

A Royal Holiday

For some reason Sid zoned out then, thinking about the story he had read to Sheila last night, something full of fairies and princesses and a ghost or two. It still haunted him, but Sheila loved it and asked for it quite often. There was just something about it that made him wish for something…some beauty or peace or spirituality he didn’t have or even know. Maybe Royal would help fill that gap in him that yearned so hard. It came to him that it was acceptance, or maybe even love, this feeling, this yearning, this need that he had. Not for sex, though that would be lovely, he thought; not for romance, but wasn’t he already feeling love for Royal? He wondered if Royal loved him; he wondered if anyone ever would. Thinking about Royal warmed him so much it took him right out of the dining room into Sheila’s fantasy world of princesses, and princes and true love, and wait, had they planned to get together tonight or not?


Chapter 7