The Elephant in the Street

Belonging. Friendship. They go together. Right?High school was going to be great. Jason would be surrounded by those he'd known since kindergarten. The only new thing would be the teachers. No worries.Then Grandma up and keels over and Jason's dad, for some inexplicable reason, drags the entire family away from their comfortable life to go live with Grandpa--Grandpa, an old guy who can hardly remember his own name, who sits . . . and sits . . . and sits, who looks like he will crumble to dust at the slightest vibration.But that's not the worst. Jason can't venture outside his new "home" without feeling like he's stepping into a foreign country. He doesn't want to be in a foreign country. He doesn't want to be anywhere near a foreign country.School is loneliness amid endless shuffling bodies. Nobody knows him and nobody cares.Will Jason be able to find friendship again? Will he ever feel at home again?Will school and home and the strangeness across the street ever let Jason belong?