The Recruit

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and bullying.

James dislikes science class at school because it’s boring and because he shares the class with a bully who constantly makes fun of his mom’s weight. One day, when James gets sick of the taunts, he shoves the girl against a wall, where a nail scratches her face and makes her start bleeding. Feeling guilty and afraid, James runs home, expecting his mom will have heard about the incident and be furious. Instead, his mom is drinking with James’s deadbeat uncle. James tries to tell his mom what happened, but she doesn’t want to hear it. She sends him to pick up his younger sister (Lauren) at school, telling him, “Get out, James, before I lose my temper” (6).

James has all the games and toys he could want because his mom runs a shoplifting ring of thieves. When James arrives at his sister’s school, a group of moms give him lists of what they want James’s mom to steal for them. After collecting Lauren, the two head home, where the brother of the girl in James’s class jumps them and beats James up.