Elliot Sutton, a 15-year-old boy, stands in his bedroom in the new house his family moved into two weeks ago. It is New Year’s Day, and Elliot is trying to “think positive” and convince himself that his life will get better in this new town. The new house and town is an attempt at a fresh start for Elliot, who was mercilessly bullied at his last school, and for his father, who is recovering from a traumatic brain injury following a mugging three years ago. Elliot’s mother initiated the move despite finances being tight, desperate for a solution to their depressing situation.

Elliot makes a decision as he stands among the unpacked suitcases and boxes: to only keep the essentials and get rid of everything else from his past life. He doesn’t hang any posters from his old room, and surrounded by clean, bare walls, he starts to “invent a new Elliot. An Elliot built from scratch” (3). He is as determined as his mother to have a different life. As he decides what to keep, he thinks about his life before the bullying started in middle school, and before his father’s injury. They were a very happy family; Elliot enjoyed school, and even though his father was busy starting a new company, he still had time for family, taking Elliot to the library every Saturday.