You Don’t Know Me

In a biting first-person narrative, fourteen-year-old John explains why he feels lonely and misunderstood. He hates "anti-school," where he is forced to take algebra and play the tuba. He has few friends, and his first date with a girl ends in disaster. At home he lives in fear of his mother’s boyfriend, whom he calls "the man who is not my father." John is unable to tell anyone that this man physically abuses him.