Chapter 6:
Zack is driven to his grandparents' house for a family dinner. Zack really enjoys the roast chicken and mashed potato dinners and the company of his grandparents. But, Zack soon finds out that this is not the only thing on the menu.
"How's your new school, Zachariah?"asks his Grandmother, Mae Lane.
"Okay, I guess," replies Zack.
"How are you marks?" asks his Grandfather,Paul Lane, who was never famous for his patience.
"Not so good," says Zack honestly, knowing that he was being ganged up on because his parents knew that Zack really loved his grandparents, and would do anything for them.
"Listen, Zack," began his Grandfather in a tone he almost never used with Zack."With out good schooling, it's hard to get anything these days."
"Well, you did okay." countered Zack, earning a glare from his Mother.
"Okay? A taxi driver? Working twelve hours a day? Putting up with drunks and-"
"Paul!!" exclaimed Mae
"All right, all right, sorry, dear. But you get ther point. You don't want that, you're smart! Your Dad's a University teacher, and your Mom's a musician that you can hear on the radio."
"I know what's going on here," Zack says staring at his Grandmother because his Grandfather could stare him down really easily, "Mom and Dad got you to hassle me on my marks. If you want to know why I'm flunking, ask them!"
"Listen, Zack. You're going to let this beat you? You didn't want to move away from the city, so you're flunking? I didn't say it wasn't hard on you, okay?"
"Okay?" Grandpa repeated, after Zack didn't respond
"Okay." says Zack reluctantly.
"Alright, it's tough on you. Agreed. We all know that. But let me tell you something. on this side of the family we got chased from our homes by muderer's-"
"That's all just Jewish guilt!" says Zack angrily
A cloud of anger passes accross Zack's Grandfather's face, and then Grandma laughs. The cloud disappears.
"Smart alec" says his Grandfather
"Zack, it's done. Live with it or don't. But if you mess up, don't look around for someone else to blame."
Chapter 7:
"Time for a reality check, Zack" Ms. Song the history teacher says
Zack was in history class where his average was pretty low and the most recent test about British North America didn't help things much. But despite all this, Zack liked Ms. Song because she was so full of energy. She knew so much about history, that her student's called her 'The Book'
"Come up here," she orders after the last person had left the room.
"What are you trying to do, Zack, convince me that you're a dope?"
"No."
"Can you explain your mark?"
"I didn't study too much, I guess."
"You didn't study. Listen, my CAT could have passed this test. It was all memory work."
She paused waiting for Zack to say something. He didn't.
"So what's the problem? You don't like history?"
Zack decides that it would be unwise of him to tell her that, "It's okay, I guess."
"Ah, so it's me then."
"No"
"You don't like the class?"
"It's okay..."
"Come on Zack, give me a clue!"
"I dunno. It's hard to explain."
That much was true, no matter how hard he tried, Zack couldn't get down to work. Every night he would go up to his room and he would open his books but after that, his resolve would fade. He would do many things, doodle, play with the radio, sharpen pencils even though he always used a pen, watch TV, promising that he would work after one show. He just wasn't interesting.
"Zack, I'll make you a deal. Maybe you can salvage a credit. Interested?"
He wanted to say no...but..."Yes, Ms. Song."
"I'm offering you a chance to do an independant study project. Your task is to come up with a research topic of your choice, but it has to be about local history. Come with your idea in three days, if I approve you can work on it during class time. If it's good I'll give you credit. What do you say?"
"Agreed?"
"Agreed" says Zack
"Okay. See you tomorrow."
"Ms. Song"
"Yes, Zack"
"Thanks"
Zack is in the parking lot walking toward the bus thinking about what to do for the project.
"Zack! Zack, wait up!"
Jen's voice chased him through the parking lot. He hadn't seen her for a few days, she had always been nice to him. 'I've seen her kind before, not openly hostile but standing around watching someone get trashed beacuse they were too much of a coward to objects.' thinks Zack. He continues walking, ignoring Jen.
Jen grabs Zack's shoulder, "Zack!"
He shakes her off
"Zack, I nedd to talk to you!"
He faces her. She's breathing hard, her face is flushed.
"What do you want?"
"Zack, um, I want to apologize for my cousin. She's a real jerk. I don't even like her, she was visting with her parents and I got stuck with her. I'm sorry about what she did."
"You laughed, Jen. You thought it was funny. So did Dave."
"I didn't think it was funny at all. I thought it was awful. I was so shocked and embarrassed that I laughed. I didn't know what to say. But after you left, I told her what I thought about her horrible attitude."
She raked her thick auburn hair away from her face."I just want you to know that I'm not her."
"That's nice." Zack replies, hearin the hard edge in his own voice.
"I thought we were friends" mumbles Jen.
"Well, so did I" Zack says and boards the bus.
Chapter 8:
Zack gets home and goes goes to tell his mom that he's home. She satarts singing when she sees him.
"Now here's a hansome stranger,
Coming home to see his ma,
His momm says, 'Hey son of mine,
It's time to mow the lawn'"
He laughs despite himself and goes into the room and grabs a guitar.
"'Oh,' says the handsome stranger,
'I ain't just in the mood,
I'll mow the lawn some other time,
Now, I just need some solitude.'" sings Zack
He puts the guitar down and turns to leave. He hears behind him:
"She says, 'You may be handsome,'
She says,'You may be strong ,
With money and a fancy car,
You still got to mow the lawn.'"
Zack decides not to argue and he goes out to mow the lawn. By the time he's finished, his Dad is home and they go and eat dinner.
As Zack finishes washing dishes and puts the last dish in the cabinet, he hears his Mom behind him.
"Someone's here for you Zack. Where have you been keeping her?"
"Keeping who?"
"Oh, I see. It's a secret is it?" and Zack's mother walks out of the room
Zack goes to see who was there and he sees Jen in the doorway. Zack looks for something to say
"I didn't like how we left things."
Zack had been thinking too, had he been too hard on Jen, refusing her apology like that?
Before he could say anything, Jen throws her arms around Zack's neck and kisses him. All of Zack's anger melts away and he pulls her closer.
"I've wanted to do that for a long time,' Jen says breaking the kiss, but not the embrace
"Me too, maybe we should do it again."
Jen blushes and looks behind Zack where Zack's Dad is passing through the kitchen with an empty mug in his hand.
"Don't mind me, I didn't see anything. I'm not even here." he says playfully
"Great timing, Dad."
Jen laughs, "Well, I guess I'll be going now. I have to run an errand. You mean alot to me, Zack. I wanted you to know. Well, bye. Call me later if you want."
"Okay."
Zack walks Jen to her car and heads back into the house.
"Can I come out now?"
"Knock it off, Dad."
"Come here. Look at the way the light fallson the river."
Zack walks over to the window and looks at the way the light falls on the river and how it lights up the lilac bushes, and Zack gets an idea
Chapter 9:
In chapter 9, Zack decides to use the things that he found inside the yard to do his local history project. After so sketches and cleaning up of the objects, Zack discovers that the the box has the letters 'G' and 'R' on them with the symbol of a crown in the middle of them. The nugget was a perfect sphere with a rough surface. Zack also talks to his Father about the Jewish part of him. Zack begins to realize that he resent his Mother because she has cut him off from the other side of his family.
Chapter 10:
Zack pedals his mountain bike downtown with the nugget in his pocket. Jen tells him that she can't take a break anytime soon so Zack goes over to Piffard's Custom Jewelery.
Zack askes Piffard what the nugget is and Piffard tells him that it is a bullet made of gold and that he could buy it off Zack for a few hundred dollars. Zack is satified with the answer and leaves the shop.
Jen invites Zack over to her house when she is taking her break with Zack. They have an argument about how Jen thinks Zack is too sensitive about his skin colour when Zack askes if her parent's know about him.
"You can still come over if you want to," Jen says frostily.
After a dinner of 'Yellow Death' Zack goes over to Jen's house and they watch a horror movie. After a few akward moments with them still mad at each other, they start making jokes and so, Jen and Zack are friendly towards each other again.
