Demon starts sixth grade at Jonesville Middle expecting to be bullied by older, hardened kids, but his new clothes and his connection to Coach Winfield give him protection and status in the hallways. Coach signs Demon’s school forms without really engaging, yet Demon still feels claimed by Coach.

Coach lets Demon help at Saturday football practices, even if only as an errand boy. At the stadium Coach becomes intense and fully present, drilling players relentlessly, then praising them when they deliver. After one practice Coach throws Demon a pass, then tests Demon’s speed and arm, making Demon strain to impress him and glimpse the athlete Coach used to be before a shoulder injury ended his playing career.

At school Demon crashes academically, bombing math and getting placed into remedial “dummy” classes with older repeaters and lots of idle study halls. Guidance counselor Mr. Armstrong pulls Demon in, having read Demon’s DSS history, and frames Demon as “resilient”—a kid who survived a wreck he never chose. Mr. Armstrong presses Demon to show his drawings and then gives him visual-spatial assessments that Demon finishes easily.

Mr. Armstrong reveals the point of the tests: Demon qualifies as Gifted and Talented. Mr. Armstrong shifts Demon into a higher English class and sets up math tutoring, offering a path that could lead to real electives like art instead of default vocational tracks. Demon resents the identity upheaval—being “smart” feels like losing the last predictable part of himself—but accepts the tutoring when it turns out to be him and several attractive girls.

Demon’s drawing skill also gets noticed in the remedial classroom when Fish Head and other boys demand explicit sketches, and Demon starts charging for pornographic drawings based on magazines he borrows to study. Outside school, Demon’s steadiest anchor remains Angus, whose blunt, no-drama friendship contrasts with other middle school chaos; she admits she is also Gifted and Talented and tells Demon not to panic about it. As the Generals keep winning, Coach grows more absent at home, living in replays and pressure, while Angus shares personal history—her real name is Agnes and her rejection of football grew from being pushed out of her dad’s world—underscoring the emotional distance in the household Demon now depends on.