The Pitfalls of Self-Expression

Fifth grade is beginning in less than a week. The summer has been a long one but with the new school year looming, perhaps not long enough. At the end of our block lives a boy one year older and a decade more experienced than any other kid my age. His name is John Hartwig and he's always been first. First to touch a girl's breast, first to smoke a cigarette and the first to own Hot Wheels, the model race cars he'd douse in rubbing alcohol and send careening down their narrow orange tracks in blu...