Saint Iggy
In the novel "Saint Iggy," Iggy, a misunderstood high school boy got suspended from school. He has to go for a hearing to determine whether or not eh gets kicked out for good. His dad was always drunk and his mom was on meth and went away to "visit" people quite often, so he had no one. Only one person believed in him, and that was his high school principal, Principal Olmos. Iggy's best friend, Mo, gets into a bad situation with a drug dealer named Freddie. When they visit one of the never-ending drug parties, Mo gets some drugs. He doesn't have the money to pay for them and has until Christmas Eve to get the money. Iggy and Mo go to Mo's moms house to get money to pay for it. When she won't give Mo the money, Iggy and Mo have to make a plan. Mo's mom takes Iggy to get a haircut and tries to help him out as much as she can before his hearing. The morning of the hearing, he takes his time to get ready, wearing a new outfit given to him by Mo's mom. Before he leaves, Mo gives him a packet of papers from various technical schools. Iggy goes to the hearing on December 23, but hesitates when he gets to the door of the familiar building. He turns back and heads to the park instead of going inside. He waits around for a while, then goes back to Mo's moms house. He makes up a story to tell them about how he didn't get back into school. He tells them that he's going to go home for Christmas, then goes to his room. The next morning, he wakes up early and heads home, leaving a note for Mo, telling him to bring the money and papers with him to church that night. At home, he meets up with Freddie, who is stealing things from his house trying to get what he is owed. When Freddie leaves Iggy follows him, hoping to find his mom. He follows him back to the never-ending drug party. He walks into the party and goes straight to the only room he hadn't been to: the bedroom. He finds his mom sleeping on the bed. She looks rough from all the meth she has taken. He doesn't bother to wake her up, he just kisses her on the cheek and heads out the door with Freddie. The two of them go back to the church where the drug deal with Mo was supposed to happen. Freddie goes to wait in an alley while Iggy searches for Mo. Once church has begun, Mo heads for the alley while Iggy signals for a nearby cop to go into the alley. When Iggy sees that Freddie has a gun, he runs towards the alley. When Freddie drops the gun, Iggy grabs it. He pulls the trigger and the gun goes off. He looks at Mo and thinks about where he will end up later on in his life. Only then did he realize that he was bleeding. He thinks back and realizes there were two gunshots. He realizes that the cop had shot him. The cop tells him to drop the gun and he listens. He looks over to see the gray girl waiting for him. Their eyes meet and Iggy realizes what he needed to do. He needs to take her hand.