Summary

Chapter 12 is titled “The Prom Kings We Never Were.” Johnson begins this chapter with a description of his morning routine, and how the morning of September 11, 2001 was different. It was the first day of his junior year, and that morning, he says, he was riding the bus when he made eye contact with a new student, eye contact that led him into thinking and feeling that the two of them had a lot in common. They did not speak, he says, but kept glancing at each other the whole ride, the author commenting that he was “already into this kid … crushing” (217). They avoided each other at school, and then the day got taken over by the rest of the events of that particular day, i.e. the attacks on the World Trade Center.

The next day, Johnson then says, as everyone...