Age: 6th grade to 10th grade

A short read, Dirk is uncertain to whom to reveal his true sexuality so he masks his homosexuality in a new punk wardrobe. Towards the end of his despondent silence, he is put in a coma after being beat up by hate-filled bigots. Although the reader doesn't know he is in a coma, we suspect he is in an in-between world where he is visited by dead family members and people that will become important in his life. Dirk comes to accept his full identity after he hears the complex, multidimensional, and striving stories of his family.