Content Warning: This section contains a brief incident of domestic violence.

On his way home from school, Max Kane—a huge, lonely, ungainly boy burdened by a dark family history—hears a girl screaming. His first instinct is to run away and avoid any trouble. The problem, though, is that “you can tell from the scream that somebody wants to hurt her” (2).

Matt runs toward the screams. Standing in the street is a gang-banger who taunts a skinny, red-haired girl with her own backpack, which he’s just stolen from her. She yells, “Give it back!” (4). Max tells the gang-banger to leave the girl alone. He tries to retrieve the backpack, but the gang-banger darts away, grinning as he insults Max with names like “Pig boy” and “Moron Max” and chants at the girl, “Bookworm, bookworm, ugly little bookworm” (5).

The boy roots around in her bag, tossing paperbacks aside, until he finds a miner’s helmet with a light. He puts it on. She tries to grab it back, but he ducks away. Max reaches down and plucks the helmet from the kid, who tries to threaten Max but thinks better of it and saunters off.

Max gives the helmet to the girl.