He enjoys his new label-free life but he soon encounters problems when he meets Ben, one of the more cerebral of the jocks who somehow sees him differently.

His flying “under the radar” at his new school has it’s benefits, he’s suddenly popular and easily accepted by the jock contingent at his new school. ” He’d like to go without labels for a while.

He wants to be something other than “the gay kid. So why would Rafe want to re-enter the closet? Because he’s tired of the label. Not only is Boulder about as accepting a place as one could imagine, but Rafe’s parents are aging hippies who celebrate diversity in every way conceivable, and his mom is the President of the local PFLAG chapter. Three Amish hipsters and a transgendered aboriginal Mermaid. Rafe acknowledges the tenor of the teacher’s question thinking When queried about his name “Seamus,” a new teacher asks “Oh is your mother Irish?” Not because he’s been persecuted at his old school, far from it. When Seamus Rafeal Goldberg, the only openly gay kid at his high school in Boulder, gets accepted at a prestigious all male Boston private school as a junior he decides to go back into the closet. This witty, smart, coming-out-again story will appeal to gay and straight kids alike as they watch Rafe navigate being different, fitting in, and what it means to be himself And most of all, he falls in love with Ben … who doesn’t even know that love is possible. He meets a teacher who challenges him to write his story. But then he sees a classmate breaking down. So when he transfers to an all-boys’ boarding school in New England, he decides to keep his sexuality a secret - not so much going back in the closet as starting over with a clean slate. To have it be a part of who he is, but not the headline, every single time. And while that’s important, all Rafe really wants is to just be a regular guy. He’s been out since 8th grade, and he isn’t teased, and he goes to other high schools and talks about tolerance and stuff. He likes to write.Īnd, oh yeah, he’s gay. Rafe is a normal teenager from Boulder, Colorado.

A funny, honest novel about being out, being proud … and being ready for something else.

Openly straight book series