How It All Goes Down
It's Reese Anderson's first day on the job at Evergreen, a nursing home where all the residents are really rude to him, and he's been instructed to spend his entire shift picking up garbage. Having spent the last twenty-two months in Progress (a jail for juveniles) for stealing prescription pads from a doctor, Reese considers this state of affairs a real upgrade. As part of the work program, he feels more like a person than an animal in a cage. And that's all Reese really wants from life—to be a regular guy.
But to become a regular guy, he has to make it out of jail, which is easier said than done. Back at Progress there's trouble brewing. Over dinner that night, Reese learns that another inmate, Diego, is planning to fight twelve-year-old Toon as part of a prison gang initiation rite. When the fight goes down, Toon cries instead of stoically taking a beating, pretty much guaranteeing he'll be the Progress punching bag for the rest of his life. Reese, who's older and more capable than Toon, appoints himself the boy's defender. Though it's noble in a way, it's a punishing job. Like, literally—Reese is going to get punished for it. A lot.
After Toon's initial beat down, Reese gets into a series of fistfights on Toon's behalf. First there's Cobo (the person who's pulling Diego's strings). Reese gets into huge trouble for that one, and almost loses the support of Mr. Cintron, who runs the facility and manages the work program. Reese swears to do better, but his resolve is soon broken by King Kong, a new inmate who, sensing weakness, immediately gets to work bullying Toon. Tension escalates until Reese fights King Kong during a basketball game. Soon thereafter, they fight again in the rec room. That's strike three for Reese, but fortunately it doesn't mean he's out.
He is, however, placed in solitary confinement. There, he manages to overcome his despair and decides he has to try to better himself—if not for his own benefit, then for his little sister's. (He wants to put her through college.) All he has to do is make it out of jail. Suddenly, that looks unlikely when two cops try to pin Reese with crimes he didn't even commit. (Remember those prescription pads he stole? Now the cops think he was selling drugs, too—and those drugs killed someone.) The threat of spending more years behind bars nearly worries Reese to death. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, the cops drop the investigation. Phew.
Meanwhile, Reese is getting great reviews from his co-workers at Evergreen. Like, if there were a Yelp for this prison work program, everyone would be raving about Reese. He's smart, and he works hard.
Over time, he forms an unlikely friendship with one of the residents, Mr. Hooft. On one hand, Mr. Hooft isn't exactly perfect—and he's mega racist toward Reese, who is black. On the other, he witnessed some terrible wartime atrocities when he was held in a children's camp during World War II. Through Mr. Hooft's stories about his own life, Reese gains insight into his own situation. Eventually, because Mr. H is very old and unwell, he dies. Not for nothing, he leaves Reese a special gift with a note signed "Your friend." Aw.
Finally we get a piece of good news: Reese and Toon are both approaching their release dates. Of course, a couple of things go wrong. Reese doesn't qualify for early release even though he was sure it was a lock, and poor Toon, whose parents are mean as snakes, tries to kill himself because somehow that seems better than going home. It's all good, though. In the epilogue, which takes place a year after all the other action, we look in on both boys, who are out in the world, alive and on the straight and narrow path. At least for now.