Chapters 9 to 11 - Questions 13 to 17

13- Which clues should have indicated to Bryon that Mark was selling drugs?

First of all, Mark didn't stop bringing money at home, even if he was passing more and more time away from home.  Their mother doesn't understand where he take the money, but Bryon though that he was playing poker or gambling for it.  Also, after M&M had left the house, Mark told Bryon that he knew exactly where M&M could be. They whent toguether, and Mark seemed to know the place well, which means that he used to go there sometimes, or I would say, many times.  When Bryon and Cathy went there by themselves to look again for M&M, they found him, shaking, under drugs effects, with other kids, smoking pot, but also taking hard drugs, even acid or LSD.  I understand that Mark was maybe going there for the simple reason of selling drugs to the kids.  The hippie house knew Mark, as he knew it.  I think that Bryon should have understood that Mark was a pusher earlier, than just when he found the pills  when he was looking for cigarette in Mark's room.

14- In your opinion, why did Bryon call the cops on Mark?

Bryon is changing. He becomes mature, and he cares about the others now.  He loves Cathy, and M&M became his girlfriend brother, his place for Bryon is more important than in the past, even if he was protecting him with Mark, from getting beaten by other gangs. Bryon realised that Mark was not helping M&M anymore. M&M is in the hospital, nobody knows if he will survive after taking these drugs, and Mark was one of the person selling this stuff to the people at the hippie house.  I think that Bryon called the cops, because he thinks that Mark sold the drug to M&M personnaly, but also for what he could do to other kids who would buy his drugs.

15- In your opinion, why did Bryon and Cathy’s relationship end?

I think their relationship end, because Bryon didn’t used to juge what he said last to Cathy. He asked her if she was glad about what he did to Mark, because she didn’t like him very much.  I think that Bryon is now mixed up, he worries a lot about the decision he did about Mark getting arrested by the cops. He stopped caring about people for this moment, because he realised that maybe he was taking hard decisions just because he was caring a lot about M&M and Cathy, in this context. I think that Cathy and Bryon had to live on their own what happened in their family.  Mark had pass throught this with his mother, just as Cathy with her parents, and brother and sisters.  I think they both had to stop and think about what happened.

16- What did you think of the ending? Was it predictable? What part of the story foreshadowed

such an ending?

I think that the ending was a little predictable, but I liked it.  I imagined that Mark would have followed sort of a dark side, by selling drugs, because he was not caring about the rules, even the others, he seemed to be the type of boy who would have sometimes troubles, and illegal activities, like smoking, taking drugs and drinking. Bryon and Mark became quite different in this book, Bryon changed and became someone who cared about the others, not like Mark. I used to think about this kind of ending when the two brothers were talking about Charlie’s death. Their feelings were different at this moment of the book, and it didn’t really changed after that.  What I wasn’t expecting, is that Cathy would go with Curtis. I thought she would stay with Marc, or being single for a while, because of the drama that her family had to pass throught.

17- In your opinion, did Bryon do the right thing by calling the police on Mark? Explain.

First, I think that Bryon took the right decision by calling the police, because what Mark did was something illegal, and I could have bad effects on other kids like M&M, and that’s not even better.  On the other hand, I think that Bryon should have talk to this to Mark, first, instead of calling the police. I think that Mark wasn’t really thinking about was he was doing by selling drugs, that I used to do it for the family, to bring money home.  Bryon was taking care about the others, but I think in this decision, he would have been taking care of his brother because he also needed help, to stop selling pills, to become a great kid. I think that he should have waited before to call the police, because he was on a hysterical moment, when he found the pills and associated them to the messed up life of M&M, at the hospital.