Chapter 4 Summary

Rusty-James goes to school the next day, though he is not feeling so hot. School is boring, but he gets to see people, and none of the teachers demands much. He's in the classes with the dumb kids; in grade school, they separate the dumb kids from the smart kids, and after a couple of years, Rusty-James figured out he's one of the dumb kids. He sees all the same kids year after year, except for Steve, who is in the smart classes but takes math with Rusty-James. When Steve does not show up, Rusty-James learns his mother is in the hospital from a stroke.

At lunch, Rusty-James goes down to the basement, where he loses fifty cents in a poker game with his friends. They tell him he is too easy to read, though he does not believe them. In gym class...