Stargirl and Moonboy

“What came first, the chicken or the egg?”
Not sure?
Well, then, how about this one, “What happens first, does someone become an outcast because they are weird or do they become weird after becoming an outcast?”

Call it strange, but some kids start acting weird after being repeatedly called weird by others. Some even separate themselves from their peers altogether to form groups with other kids suffering from similar hostilities.

In the small southwestern town of Titusville, Illinois, a small band of high school students, ostracized by their peers just for being different, formed a group to salvage whatever they could of their self-esteem and confidence.

They called themselves the “Star People,” and chose nicknames that emulated celestial bodies or Greek gods or goddesses. They were Gothic in appearance, wore black clothing, and makeup, had tattoos and body piercings, but they never worshipped the devil, drank the blood of bats, or sacrificed small animals. Everyone called them weird, but they were good kids who would just gather in the woods at night, smoke a little pot, and gaze at the stars, to escape the ridicule of others.

Rodney Rawlings, who lives with his mother after his parents were divorced, is a sophomore, a very popular boy, and football star on the Titusville Titans freshman sophomore team. He became acquainted with the “Star People” when one of its members, “Stargirl,” a.k.a. Clarissa Stargill, stepped in when a senior quarterback, who was concerned that Rodney might take his position on the team, started a fight with him one day after school. She stopped the fight, which began a relationship between her and Rodney; she called him “Moonboy.”

Stargirl helped Rodney gain membership into the “Star People” group, and after he became one of them, other kids at school stopped calling them names and making fun of them and started treating them with the respect they deserved; some even mimicked their makeup and dress styles to become more like them.

Clarissa, Stargirl, lived with her mother and her mother’s drunken abusive boyfriend who was always threatening to have his way with her. At the age of fifteen, at a time when she should have been enjoying her life, going places with her friends, all she could think of was running away.

But she had no money and no way to leave, so she told Rodney her problems, and he promised that when he got his license he would take her away from it all. He said his dad had promised to buy him a car whenever he turned sixteen.

They were planning to run away on his birthday without telling anyone, but when her mother’s boyfriend finally did the unspeakable, she and Rodney broke their vow of silence, and together they did what they had to, to get even.

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, events, and places portrayed in this book are products of the author’s imagination and are fictitious or used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.