Summary

In Chapter 1, Addison Schatch introduces himself and announces that this will be his answer for a college application question, asking for his “best and worst qualities” (1). The year is 1999 and he begins by saying that he is not a good person, and is actually a drug dealer who sells marijuana. At one point, he had more than $12,000 in cash from drugs. He began selling drugs because it created a challenge when nothing else did, including school. He has just turned 18 and lives in a “tree-heavy upper-middle-class neighborhood in Washington, D.C.” (2). His only interests are studying Latin “and the collection of offensive jokes about the Holocaust” (2).

Kevin Broadus was a student in Addison's class at John F. Kennedy High School. The school is predominantly black but has a Gifted and Talented program that is predominantly white. Kevin was one of the few exceptions...