Summary

Chapter 3 open with the to-do list entry “Introduce myself (which I should've done a while ago)." Her name is Patina Jones and she is nothing like the “hair flippers” who attend Chester Academy. She is new at Chester, a charter school, and is also a new member of the Defenders track club, which is not associated with the school. Patina thinks back to a gathering in which they were remembering Patina's father, Ronnie. Tony recalled how happy Ronnie was when Patina began walking and even more so when she began to run. That prompted Patina to join a track team. She feels it is relatively easy to prove herself a valuable member of the track team by hard work, but that it is more difficult at Chester. She briefly describes the building, which has three wings housing elementary through high school and an...