Summary

As he begins Chapter 2, which is titled “Street Cred,” the author describes how he and his father Wilbur engaged in a months-long conspiracy to keep his mother Vivienne from learning that he had been expelled from school. The situation, as the author describes it, was this. His parents had lied about where the family lived in order to get the author into a better middle school with better lead-ins to a future athletics scholarship. When the lie was discovered, the author was expelled, and his jobless father did not want to experience either any additional shame or Vivienne’s anger, so the two of them kept the secret – that is, until Wilbur had no choice but to tell Vivienne the truth. This, the author says, led to a loud argument, and to Vivienne apologizing to him for having been put in the position of...