Summary
At lunchtime on his first day at RAD, Jordan feels he is a tiny figure looking for a table among indifferent giants. He sits alone and begins sketching in his book. A guy named Alex from homeroom comments that he’s good and sits with him. Jordan and Ramon join them, but the bullies tell them the table is for sophomores and not “loser first formers.” They move tables to the worst spot in the cafeteria: it is drafty and near the garbage cans. Andy arrives with Collin, a friend from baseball camp. Andy says “hola” to Ramon and comments that his mother’s tacos are probably better than the ones the cafeteria serves. Ramon sighs. During lunch, Andy annoys Jordan by calling him Gordon and commenting on his small size. He imagines scraping Andy off his plate into the trash. He likes the others well enough though.
Jordan has difficulty finding his next class. People give him directions, and he feels smaller and smaller compared to them. Worried he’s going to be late, Jordan runs, eventually opening a door to the cafeteria where he started. At three, Mr. Pierre, a Black man, picks them up. Liam asks if Jordan plays Xbox and Jordan gives him his gamer tag. Jordan asks if Andy is always “like that,” and Liam says most of the time he’s worse. A boy named Kirk is waiting for Jordan on his stairs. Kirk asks how Jordan’s doing, and Jordan says he’s bummed about the new school. When Kirk sees Liam wave from the car, he is surprised and put off. He says goodbye to Jordan and walks off. Liam asks who he is, and Jordan says he’s just a friend from the block.
Jordan’s father is waiting with takeout Chinese food upstairs. Jordan asks why he’s wearing a tie, which he never wears. He says there’s no reason. Jordan says the diversity at school wasn’t great, but not as bad as they thought, adding that there’s “a few of us in each grade.” While they eat, Jordan tells his father about his day. Jordan says he doesn’t know if he’ll like the school. His father promises that if he still doesn’t like it by ninth grade, he’ll talk to Ellice about sending Jordan to art school. Jordan is delighted to hear it, and they bump fists.
Chapter 4, titled "Upper West Side Story," begins with an image of Jordan being literally pulled between the leafy campus of his new school and his old friends from the streets of Washington Heights. At the start of his second week at RAD, Jordan leaves the house, donning sunglasses and putting up the hood of his sweatshirt. Jordan sketches to explain his tips for taking the bus. He says that in Washington Heights he tries to look tough. In Inwood, he can take the hood off, but he makes sure not to smile. The public school kids get off in Kingsbridge, so he can take off his shades and start drawing. In Riverdale, he is sure not to look cool at all. He doesn’t like to draw because he knows white people might think he’s going to tag the bus.
At RAD, Jordan teases Liam for taking a fancy car to school. Liam takes it badly, then apologizes, saying his mother stresses him out when his father is away for work. He asks if Jordan’s father travels a lot too. Jordan says his father runs the community center by their house, so he’s always close by. Liam says he’s lucky because his dad is always off golfing or away on business. In homeroom, the teacher mentions how students will be required to audition for the school musical or a sports team. She mentions weekend school trips that have extra fees attached, saying that those on financial aid will have a portion of the cost covered by the school. FINANCIAL AID is in all capitals, and Jordan and Drew both feel as though everyone is staring at them.
The teacher mistakenly calls Drew “Deandre,” one of her former students. In the hall, Jordan says to Liam that someone called him Maury yesterday. Mr. Garner walks up and asks Jordan how he is adjusting. Jordan complains that everyone is calling him and Drew by the wrong names. Garner tells him not to read too much into it, saying it must be because he’s new. Just then a white teacher passes, calling Mr. Garner “coach.” Jordan says Mr. Garner must be new as well, but Garner says he’s been there for fourteen years. The incident makes Jordan uncomfortable, so he leaves, thanking Mr. Garner for the talk.
Jordan comments that his favorite teacher is Mr. Roche, who makes constant bad jokes. Jordan also likes that the school teaches the Harkness Method, which involves sitting around a conference table instead of at desks. It makes Jordan feel like he is at an important board meeting. After class, Jordan introduces himself to Maury. He attempts to bond, but Maury doesn’t play video games and doesn’t say anything when Jordan says he prefers broccoli over “squash,” by which Maury meant the sport.
At lunch, Jordan meets Ruby Wu and Ashley Martin, the class gossips. They ask him probing questions about his home life, suggesting he lives with a single mother. Liam makes them back off. Liam starts a conversation about what sports Jordan likes. He says he’ll try out for soccer. In a sketch, Jordan explains that he made the least-skilled of the five soccer teams. Mr. Roche coaches, making Jordan starting forward in their first game against another school that takes it far more seriously. Jordan’s mother cheers as Jordan’s team is easily defeated. However, everyone celebrates the goal scored by accident when the ball bounces off Jordan’s head.
Analysis
Craft introduces the theme of social hierarchy during Jordan’s first lunch at RAD. New to the school, Jordan doesn’t know that there are unwritten rules that determine who sits where in the cafeteria. As “loser first formers,” Jordan and his seventh-grade acquaintances have to give up the good table for the bully sophomores, moving to the most drafty and smelly table in the room. The theme of racial microaggressions also returns in the scene with Andy making comments about how Ramon’s mother’s tacos must be better than the ones the cafeteria serves. Innocent enough on the surface, the comment is an unnecessary reminder to Ramon that he does not belong to the white majority at school or in America.
The themes of white privilege and racial microaggressions also arise with Jordan’s explanatory comic about taking the bus to school. As a young Black person, Jordan is aware that the white bus riders in Riverdale will stereotype him as dangerous or untrustworthy. To put them at ease, he tries to look as non-threatening as possible, hoping they won’t suspect him of trying to graffiti the bus with his sketching pencils.
In homeroom with Ms. Rawle, Jordan once again becomes aware of his and Drew’s status as members of the Black minority at RAD. When Ms. Rawle mentions financial aid, Craft draws the letters in her speech bubble as larger and bolder than every word on the page. The two words are triggering for Drew and Jordan, who can feel the rest of their classmates looking at them. The incident shows how the white students assume any Black student at the school can only afford tuition with financial assistance. Whether or not this is true, Jordan and Drew are made to feel like second-class students when everyone stares.
The scene also involves Ms. Rawle mistaking Drew for Deandre, a former student who has been introduced to the reader as one of the bully sophomores. Liam and Jordan pick up on the microaggression, which Rawle passes off as a simple mistake. However, Jordan has noticed that it’s a broader issue, as other white people at RAD mistake him for Maury. When he mentions the problem to Mr. Garner, Garner tells him to not read into it. However, in an instance of situational irony, a white teacher then calls Garner “coach,” mistaking him for one of the few other Black men who work at the school. While Garner would like to convince Jordan that there’s no meaning behind the mixups, Jordan knows they reveal a tendency to see no distinction between different people of color.
Craft introduces another major theme—bonding—in the scene where Jordan attempts to befriend Maury. Jordan believes they might get along, but he quickly learns that the difference in their class backgrounds has led to them having incompatible interests. While Jordan likes Xbox, Maury prefers classical music and squash. Even though his father runs the local community center, Jordan has never heard of the game “squash”—stereotypically associated with the ultra-wealthy—and so assumes Maury is talking about vegetables.
