Antwone encounters racial prejudice while living at the center during which Antwone tells Mrs. Brown, one of the staff, that she will read about him one day in relation to something positive he has done. Homelessness follows a period living at the Children’s Center.

Next, Antwone attends George Junior Republic reform center for boys across the border in a beautiful part of Pennsylvania. He meets Bill Ward, who will become a mentor. Bill advises him to have a plan for when he turns eighteen and is no longer under state care. Antwone dreams of his former friends. Mrs. Ewart from the children’s center offers Antwone a home, but Antwone feels too unworthy of accepting.

Antwone attends a dance at a neighboring girls’ school. He begins to be less shy but decides he won’t go out late, drink, or take drugs so he can avoid incarceration and accidental parenthood. Antwone is given his birth certificate. With some effort, Antwone gains the marks he needs to pass high school before he turns 18. He starts independent life at a YMCA in Cleveland. Some of the other lodgers are sexually threatening toward Antwone, and in need of money, he becomes employed by a criminal called Butch.