"The first time Eric Hayes ever saw him, David Hallenback was running, if you could call it that, running in a halting, choppy-stepped, stumpy-legged shamble, slowing down to look back over his shoulder, stumbling forward, pausing to catch his breath, then lurching forward again.
He was running from, not to, and not running, but fleeing.
Scared witless."
These are the opening paragraphs of the novel. Eric is the protagonist and it will turn out that the running boy, David, is wearing a ripped shirt and is splotched with what looks like blood. This blood-like red stuff will turn out to be ketchup but the difference won't really matter in the end because what Eric is witnessing is the end result of a bullying incident. Eric does not know the details, but the sight of young David appearing to be covered in blood and running as if fleeing for his life is the whole point. Or, to be more precise, the point is that up until the moment at which David's flight has reached Eric, nobody standing by as a witness has made any attempt to intervene.
"Mr. Floyd said there were four types of bullying: verbal, physical, intimidation, and indirect bullying. Today, he seemed most interested in indirect bullying. When Mr. Floyd asked for examples, a bunch of students spoke up, mentioning things like lies and gossip. One by one, different students told about their experiences, either as targets or bullies or bystanders. Except they always said things like `I know a kid who knows a girl who . . .”'or, `It didn’t happen to me, but . . .'”
Mr. Floyd is a school counselor who has interrupted Eric's science class to deliver a lecture titled "Bullying: Rumors and Gossip." The topic of this novel is bullying and it manifests in a variety of different ways. The story opens with the physical assault perpetrated against David Hallenback, but by this time there have been incidents of verbal abuse, media manipulation, and even parental violence. At one point during the presentation, a definition of bullying flashes on the screen asserting it is the unfair use of power to repeatedly hurt another person. Eric feels as though this is a message aimed directly at some girls whom he knows to have conceived a prank intended to cyberbully another girl. Eric is also disdainful of the attempt by fellow students to distance themselves from incidents of bullying they experienced firsthand themselves.
"Hallenback had worn hiking boots that day, Eric noted, not the sneakers he usually wore. Special occasion, Eric guessed. And now Eric watched the boot lift, swing forward, and drive into his stomach. Eric absorbed the blow, crumpled like a paper cup...Hallenback kicked a few more furious times. He wasn’t practiced at it, though, and the kicks were only glancing blows."
Hallenback has lured a completely unsuspecting Eric into an ambush involving the very kids who were responsible for the physical assault with the ketchup. When he sees that Hallenback has been victimized yet again by the same bullies, he tries to convince the boy to tell someone. Hallenback insists that the kids responsible are actually part of a group of which he is a member. Eric tries to dissuade him from this delusion and the result is that Hallenback becomes the bully instead of the victim. Eric's observation of the change in footwear becomes a symbol of the means by which victims often become bullies themselves. This transformation of Hallenback—who is notably not very good at being a bully just yet—mirrors the subplot of a kid named Griffin. Griffin has been the victim of violent abuse at the hands of his father and has become the biggest bully in the school.
