Excerpt: A Quest Unspoken

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11/01/09
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The young man slid his chair away from the wall and leaned back, balancing precariously on the rear two legs of the chair. Teachers hated it when students sat like that – something about damage to the chairs, a likely cover for fear of skull fractures from falls – which is probably how, and why, he had perfected the balancing act. He adjusted his blue Cubs baseball cap – another broken school rule – rotating it brim backwards over his unruly curls and loudly snapped his chewing gum. Everything about his posture and attitude broadcast that he cared little to nothing about the school and its rules, but since the boy was seated outside the principal’s office, eavesdropping on the details of his expulsion from the school, rules were the last thing on his mind.