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Exposition 1: Backround
Eric has just recently moved to the little town of Bellport, Long Island from Ohio with his mom and brother. A while ago, his father became ill and their family sort of split up with their dad moving away. Moving to Bellport was like Eric's mom said, a chance to start practically a new life. -
Exposition 2: Setting
Bellport, Long Island;
Present Day;
Basketball court at school -
Exposition 3: Characters
Eric Hayes- New kid in town. Enjoys playing basketball for fun. Sympathetic. Sad about "loss" of dad. Thirteen-Seventh Grader
David Hallenback- Kid running from bullies(victim)- Seventh Grader
Griffin Conelly- Bully and "pretty boy" who tricks Eric at first into thinking he is a good boy and friend to be around; mean-Also Eric's age
Mary O'malley- (Eric's age)-Girl who just stood beside Griffin while he fooled around with Eric on the basketball court in begginning of book- Eric's ally -
Rising Action 1: Conflict
While playing basketball, Eric sees a boy running (like for his life). Soon after, he meets a group of boys, one girl, and their leader, Griffin, who seems alright to Eric, but there's something dark about him. -
Rising Action 2
Eric hears and sees David being bullied/messed with in the school hallway by Griffin and his buddies, but walks straight on, avoiding them. -
Rising Action 3
Eric meets up with Griffin at the super market and "helps" women with their groceries. During the process, Griffin steals some gum from one of the ladies and shows it to Eric, but Eric doesn't say much about it. -
Rising Action 4
Eric goes to Griffin's house to hang out. At Griffin's house, Eric tells Griffin everything about his dad that he's told no one else before, and truly starts to believe that Griffin's a true friend. -
Rising Action 5
Eric begins to feel like he is part of Griffin's inner circle. He even starts sitting with Griffin at the lunch table. Mean while, David continues to give him bizzare looks. -
Rising Action 6
After lunch, Eric notices Griffin sitting at a table all alone and not with him or any of his friends like usual. Eric then notices that Grifin has a black eye. When he asks why, Cody tells him that his dad did it to him because his dad is frequently drunk. -
Falling Action 1
Eric tries to talk with Griffin after the bullying incident with David by asking him why he did it in the first place and that what he did was unnecessary. Griffin snaps back and claims that Eric was smiling. He also threatens Eric by telling him to shut up or else "maybe next time it will be you". -
Climax/turning point
During recess, Eric sees David again, but this time getting called names and making fun of. Griffin suddenly tells the boys to stop and brings David with him to play "pretzel". In a way, he tortures David by twisting his arm, throwing him to the ground, and holding him in uncomfortable positions for a while. Eric heard urgency in David's voice and could see terror in his eyes, but did not move to say or do anything about it. He watched the whole scene. A true Bystander. -
Falling Action 2
While walking down the school hall, Eric sees David getting picked on again. When he raises his hand to say hello, David gets scared and flinches. Because of the previous events and incidents with David, Eric realizes he is as just as bad as Griffin and the other bullies. He is practically a bully himself. -
Falling Action 3
Griffin stops by Eric's house to talk because he insists that he hasn't talked to Eric in a while. After Griffin leaves Eric's house, Eric's brother complains about the absence of $27 and notices his CD from his dad is missing. He immediately knows Griffin stole both. -
Falling Action 4
In the hallway at school, Griffin starts teasing Eric meanly by making fun of the CD he stole and and of Eric's dad from the information Eric trusted Griffin with about his dad. -
Falling Action 5
After school that day, David comes to Eric's locker and says he has something urgent to show him. David lures Eric into a trap when Griffin and all of his friends show up. Eric thinks they are there to beat David up but soon realizes that they are there to beat him up. Eric was punched several times to the ground by Cody and kicked by David. -
Falling Action 6
After school, when Eric got to the bike rack, he realized his bike chain was cut and his bike was missing. Eric guessed it was Griffin. Luckily, he told the school police officer who said he would try to help Eric recover his bike. The police officer also tells Griffin that there were some minor roberies in the area, and asks his to report anything if he knows. Eric doesn't tell him, but he suspects Griffin was the one also up to the robberies. -
Falling Action 7
When Eric goes to Mrs. Rosen's house to take care of her dog, he runs into Griffin. Griffin threatens to put either a weapon or drugs into Eric's locker to get him expelled if he doesn't steel something from Mrs.Rosen's house. Eric later calls back and tells Griffin straight on that he won't do it. -
Falling Action 8
Griffin decides to get even with Griffin by sneaking into his house and retrieving his CD, and $27. But by mistake, Eric left his shoes at Griffin's house. The next day at school though, Griffin shows Eric how he's wearing his kicks but Eric lets it be. -
Resolution 1
Time passed and Eric ended up making the school basketball team. He also realized that he wasn't a bully, a target, or a bystander. He was just a normal seventh grader hoping that he would help his team win, and with that, see his dad in the stands cheering, and his new girlfriend Mary. -
Resolution 2
Griffin ends up making friends with a new group of people such as Alexis Brown- Mary's past friend. Griffin and Eric just ignore each other and pretend like nothing happened between them. They both started form then on, on a clean slate.
