During what was presumably my lunch period, Admiral Ass (a Mr. McHabe, who signs himself Adm. Asst.) appeared in my room with Joe Ferone. 'This boy is on probation,' he said. 'Did he show up in homeroom this morning?' 'Yes,' I said. 'Any trouble?' the Admiral asked. There we stood, the three of us, taking each other's measure. Ferone was watching through narrowed eyes. 'No. No trouble,' I said.

The building itself is hostile: cracked plaster, broken windows, splintered doors and carved up desks, gloomy corridors and metal stairways, dingy cafeteria (t…

The cardinal sin, strange as it may seem in an institution of learning, is talking. There are others, of course - sins, I mean, and I seem to have committed a …

When I had asked why they were taking English, a boy said: 'To help us in real life.'