BETWEEN WORLDS: BEHIND THE SCENES (CHAPTER 3)
We take a look back at Chapter 3.
This chapter is in many ways a companion piece to Chapter 2. You're hit with this moment of Azeil now at Langston Hughes, and then rewind to the exact moment Chapter 2 starts for Chapter 3. And it is very much the opposite experience for Azeil. Whereas Rashaad is talking to his friends and living his life, Azeil is stuck in the car with his bio dad and is sullen, not the kid we saw at the end of Chapter 1 or even the kid we expected to see after the events of Chapter 1. It's a bitter pill to swallow. There's no Elise—just Jackson, who we didn't meet in the first chapter. And you can tell from the jump that Jackson doesn't get Azeil as Azeil is looking out the car window and seeing drug deals go down in front of him with Jackson retorting that Azeil should look harder so as not to live the life of those guys.
From everything we've seen of Azeil in the first chapter, this is not the path this kid is heading down (though with the upside-down life he is now living, maybe it could, you never know). He's not in his mother's nice sedan, but in this junker of a car that Jackson is driving around. It couldn't be more different for Azeil, and I don't think he honestly cares about that. It's more of the abrupt change in his life (which more will be revealed on that later in the novel).
Getting to school, and while we never got a picture of Highland Prep, you could imagine it in your mind from prep schools you've seen or watching prep schools on television (hello Gilmore Girls). It's again a stark contrast to everything Azeil has lived through when he sees Langston Hughes. He feels like an outsider because this isn't his world, and he is just months removed from hitting the game-winning shot that put Langston Hughes down in the championship game. How are they going to react to him being here? He's not feeling great about that either.
Then you have the moment with the principal where it is dropped on him that this is the school that Elise went to, that he knew Elise. While he's still trying to get his bearings, he's hit with another reality that is he doesn't really know his mother (and you will continue to learn that in the novel). On some level, parents do this, right? They have moments in their past they would rather forget or stories they want to help paint to help their kids aspire for more. Still, it's a gut punch for Azeil as he's already hurting, and he didn't need this in the least bit.
See you Monday for Chapter 4.
Hope you enjoyed this insight into Chapter 3. If you want to catch-up on BETWEEN WORLDS please check out the chapter index. In addition, be notified on the next post by subscribing below.