A teenaged boy meets and develops feelings for the new student, while battling residual feelings from his past relationship. Paul is an openly gay high school sophomore living in a fictional small town in New Jersey. Among his classmates and friends are his best friend, Joni; a cross dresser named Infinite Darlene, who is the school's quarterback and homecoming queen; Joni's handsome yet oblivious on-off "boyfriend" Ted; Paul's ex-boyfriend, Kyle; and Chuck, a surly football player whose unrequited feelings for Infinite Darlene gives his personality an abusive edge. While out on the town with Joni and their friend-from-another-school Tony, Paul meets a handsome boy with "cool shoes" named Noah. He sees him again at the school's Pep Rally, where Noah introduces himself as the new student. His parents are both in business and decided to settle in Paul's town rather than move their family all over the country. Taking in interest in each other, Noah gives Paul his locker number and asks him to meet him after school. Unfortunately for Paul, he mixes up his number and arrives too late. He returns the next morning and they agree to hang out after school. at the same time, Paul must diffuse the situation between Joni, Ted, and Chuck (and by extension, Infinite Darlene) after he and Ted catch Joni and Chuck making out. Joni decides to start dating Chuck, to the fury of Infinite Darlene as well as breaking Ted's heart. Paul goes over to Noah's house where he meets his little sister, Claudia. He also discovers that Noah is a skilled artist who has his own painting studio in his closet. They go on a date the next weekend and soon start dating. As their relationship strengthens, Kyle tries to come back into Paul's life in an effort to seek comfort over his undecided sexuality and the death of his aunt. When he tells Joni about his friendly nature towards Kyle, she tells Chuck, who tells the entire school. This results in a strain in Paul's and Noah's relationship. Paul goes to Tony for advice and non-judgmental conversations and finds out about his own problems with his parents. Tony's parents are homophobic, which depresses Tony as he is gay. He takes Paul on a hike up a mountain where they talk about their issues. They end up giving each other a friendly embrace, which is witnessed by a friend of Tony's mother. She reveals what she has seen to his parents, who ground Tony indefinitely and forbid him from seeing Paul. as the school buzzes about the "love square" between Paul, Noah, Kyle, and Tony, Noah confronts Paul about the events with Tony. He explains himself, but unintentionally reveals that he kissed Kyle, leading Noah to break up with him. Paul is asked to organize the traditional Dowager's Dance (instead of a homecoming dance) and, at Kyle's suggestion, the theme is the afterlife. The committee travels to the town's cemetery for ideas and Kyles professes his love for Paul. He rejects him and Kyle storms off. Paul goes to see Tony despite being banned from his house and Tony reveals his growing depression due to his parents' intolerance. He decides to stand up to them when they arrive home and catch him hanging out with Paul. He stands his ground and they agree to let Paul stay. This small victory causes Tony to break into tears. He tells Paul that he wants to go to the dance as well, but his parents would only let him go if he went in a group. Paul decides to win Noah back as he is still in love with him and arranges several small events to happen as tokens of apologies. Noah accepts his apology and they resume dating. Paul organizes a group of their friends to bring Tony to the dance and asks Joni to be a part of it. She refuses, saying that Chuck did not want her to and wanted her to be his date. He gets angry at her selfishness and cuts contact with her. The night of the dance, Paul, his brother Jay,and Jay's date go to pick up Noah and head to Tony's house. There, they meet up with Infinite Darlene, Ted, and his date and prepare to pick up Tony. Joni arrives at the last minute with Chuck in tow and the group ask for Tony. His parents grant him permission with the stipulation that he returns by midnight. Instead of going to the dance, the group go to the clearing on the mountain where Tony and Paul hugged and danced in the moonlight. Paul reflects on the past few weeks and is content on how everything turned out.
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Best part of story, including ending:
The gay-friendly vibe of the town was both likeable and unlikeable. It was likeable in that it gave the story a unique twist; however, it's also unlikely that an entire town would be gay-friendly, making the story harder to stay immersed.
Best scene in story:
the chapter where Paul and Noah are painting. The imagery used in describing the music and how they were painting gave the scene some life.
Opinion about the main character:
Paul is an optimist, but he knows that not everything is possible in the real world. He knew that if he wanted something to happen, he needed to do it himself.
