Chapter 3 Summary

Paul feels like an outcast from the first day at his new school when he learns that day students like him are considered second class. The other boys around him are confident and athletic, unlike him. Those with scholarships, like him, are separated from the other students and are assigned four hours a week of chores. Already he feels like an outsider. The boys are separated into three athletic groups. The first group is Apollo, for the supreme athletes. Just below them is the second group, Dionysus and Paul belongs to the third group, which consists of the athletically challenged nerds. The fact that he does not fit into the school's ideal of manhood serves as proof to Paul that he is not a man, since, to him, there is no other kind.

Paul befriends two other fellow nerds, Gene and Francis. He...