Eight Seconds

Eight Seconds by Jean Ferris is about bull riding and friendship.

John just completed his junior year of high school. Most of his friends are graduating because he missed a year for heart surgery. Now he is healthy and his father has surprised him with a week at rodeo camp. The five day intensive course will teach John about any rodeo event, but he chooses bull riding.

John hits it off with his roommate at camp. Kit is also a bull rider and he and John quickly become friends. But, after camp is done and they met up again at a rodeo, John finds out that Kit is gay.

John doesn't think that this one fact about Kit should change their relationship, but it does. John is worried that people will think he is gay if they keep hanging out together. When the local bully jumps to just that conclusion, John reacts in a way that even he does not see coming...

Ferris, Jean. (2000). Eight Seconds. New York: A Puffin Book.