Summary

In Chapter 1, Nick is in Mrs. Starch's biology class. Mrs. Starch is the most feared teacher in the school.She asks a question that only the student who always raises his hand, but cannot answer the question, wants to answer. She looks for someone else to answer the question. Marta, who has thrown up before due to her fear of the teacher, looks like she is going to do so again. As the teacher comes to Marta's row, Nick sees tears in Marta's eyes, and he raises his hand. Instead of calling on Nick, Mrs. Starch calls on a boy everyone calls Smoke. Smoke does not know the answer. As he talks to the teacher, he picks on one of his pimples. Everyone laughs at his remarks. Mrs. Starch gives him an assignment to write a humorous paper about pimples. Smoke complains, and...