Tom, a tall, skinny boy, sits on his front porch, bouncing a tennis ball. His friends Alan and Billy walk up, tell him they got in trouble last night for stealing peaches off a neighbor’s tree, and ask why he wasn’t with them. Tom says his mother kept him home for refusing to eat dinner, a salmon casserole.

The boys discuss what they would and wouldn’t ever eat. Alan, who’s small, red-haired, scruffy, and argues a lot, bets Billy $50 from his savings account that Billy can’t eat 15 worms. Billy—chubby and freckle-faced—thinks about the used mini-bike he could buy with $50 and tells himself that “Worms were just dirt” (5). He agrees to the bet but insists he only has to eat one worm a day.

Joe, a small kid, shuffles up and joins the group. Alan claims Joe as his assistant in the bet, and Tom agrees to defend Billy. The boys decide there should be witnesses, and the two sides will dig up the worms together. Tom insists Billy can prepare the worms any way he likes, including boiling and frying. The wager is set.