Rumble Fish Summary
S. E. Hinton

Rumble Fish Summary

Chapter One

The novel opens five or six years after the main action, as Rusty James runs into his old friend Steve, whom he hasn't seen in all that time. They are on the beach, far from the original action. Rusty James has been "bumming around," not working since getting out of the reformatory after serving five years, and Steve is on vacation from college, where he's studying to become a high school teacher. Steve invites Rusty James to dinner, an invitation he has no intention of accepting. Steve is too much of a reminder of some bad times.

This chapter begins six years earlier, when the boys were around thirteen and fourteen. Rusty James is in Benny's, a local hangout, when a kid named Midget informs him that Biff Wilcox is out to kill him because of something Rusty James said to Biff's girlfriend. Rusty James arranges to meet Biff in the vacant lot behind a pet store, and both plan to bring friends. Although gang wars are supposedly a thing of the past—a ban enforced by Rusty James's older brother, the Motorcycle Boy—the Motorcycle Boy has disappeared and Rusty James says he's going to fight if he has to and he's not going to get caught without any backup.

Rusty James goes to see his girlfriend, Patty. She's mad at him because she heard that he went up to the lake with Smokey and his cousin and some girls, but he tells her nothing happened, and they settle down to make out. She's nervous about his upcoming fight with Biff Wilcox and reminds him that he promised to quit fighting. However, she can't say much because she once went after another girl with a broken bottle because the girl was flirting with Rusty James.

He leaves her and goes back to Benny's, where a lot of kids are waiting for him. Steve is not there. He goes to the empty lot with Smokey and another friend, B. J. Biff and five other guys are there, and Biff is high on something, making him look and act crazy. Biff also has a knife, and Rusty James is armed only... View more of the Rumble Fish Summary