The narrator and protagonist, Nick Pearson, is a Black 15-year-old who is a new student at Stepton High School. Nick is not surprised to encounter trouble as soon as he gets to his new home: “How right can things ever be when you are running for your life?” (1).

Nicks catches a pretty Latina girl, Reya, as she is about to fall. He is so taken by her beauty that he doesn’t pay his usual close attention to the fact that a Latino student takes his photograph and that four white boys follow him into the locker room, where he is to change clothes for gym class.

The four boys attack him from behind. Nick fights back, holding his own until they get him on the ground. The biggest of the boys, Zach Lynch, towers over Nick, threatening Nick for talking to Zach’s ex-girlfriend, Reya. As Zach prepares strike Nick, the flash of a camera interrupts them—the Latino boy from earlier takes a photograph of the thugs, who disperse. The photographer is Eli, who has been assigned to show him around the school.