“In a town like Canaan, you’ve known your boys since preschool. That’s a lot of history compared to some random kid who shows up the first week of eighth grade.”

Evan is complaining about having to spend the day with Ricky. He makes it clear that the only friends who matter are those you’ve known your entire life. His attitude is shared by the rest of his clique. Throughout the novel, Ricky will struggle to find his place in the fort subculture simply because he’s new.

“It’s an OCD thing. Dr. Breckinridge says it’s my way of controlling part of my life to make up for the fact that I can’t control the important things.”

While Mitchell is talking about the reason for his obsessive-compulsive behavior, he is also voicing an issue that affects all the boys in the book. None of them has any control over the major events they must face. Whether it be physical abuse, a messy divorce, or abandonment, parents call the shots, and their children can do little more than react.

“Evan and his buddies have made it pretty clear that I’m about as welcome in this group as a bad stomach flu. And if this metal plate turns out to be something interesting—or even valuable—then those guys won’t be able to make me feel so useless.”

The group has closed ranks against Ricky, so he is hopeful that finding something important will make him fit in better. Without the chance discovery of a metal plate that turns out to be the hatch door of an underground bunker, it’s highly unlikely that Evan’s clique would associate with him at all. This one small discovery is about to change the course of his life.