Rodney Green thinks about how Jashante Hamilton has been missing for two weeks. Though Jashante bullied him relentlessly during elementary school, Rodney doesn’t want to think that Jashante is dead, because “whoever could kill Jashante, could destroy you effortlessly” (85). 

At dawn, Rodney’s mother sweeps into his room in her “long satin robe” and wakes him “with a contrived coloratura” (85). When Rodney arrives in the kitchen, he sees that his mother is worrying over his sister Patricia’s fall project—a diorama. Their mother tells them that they’ll have to get breakfast at school, which slightly embarrasses Rodney, who knows that it’s usually poor kids who eat school breakfasts because they have nothing to eat at home. Rodney would never say this to his mother, who would accuse him of being pretentious. He finds this hypocritical, given that the shoe box that she used to construct Patricia’s diorama shows off the label of her sole pair of Italian pumps. 

When Rodney arrives at school, he sees an enormous cardboard tree in the hall. Hanging from its branches are apples made from construction paper. The apples identity the Students of the Month, which don’t include Rodney. 

Rodney is carrying his own school project, an ornate poster that his mother has designed.