The novel begins in Mrs. Starch’s biology class. Nick Waters, his best friend Marta Gonzalez, and the rest of the students habitually cower in fear of Mrs. Starch, who is strict, demanding, and extremely mean: one time, when Marta vomited out of anxiety, Mrs. Starch made her write an extra essay on the physiology of regurgitation.

Mrs. Starch calls on Duane Scrod Jr., the class misfit, who goes by “Smoke.” Duane is not a bright student and is a bit of an outcast at the school; some say his nickname comes from being a pyromaniac. When Duane Jr. doesn’t know the answer to Mrs. Starch’s question about the Calvin cycle—the process by which plants consume carbon dioxide—she ridicules him in front of the entire class, harping on his acne. Addressing the class, she asks, “Come on, people, what do you say? Wouldn’t it be amusing for Duane to write a humorous essay on pimples and then read it aloud to the wholeclass?” (8).

Nick longs to defend Duane Jr. from this treatment, but he fears turning the wrath of Mrs. Starch upon himself; he timidly suggests that an acne paper wouldn’t help him learn about the Calvin cycle.