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would like to hear more about you, but if you are not comfortable confiding in me at this point, that is completely understandable. Still, would you like to know what I know about you?” Okay, maybe outtalking this guy wasgoing to be harder than I thought.
    “You’re the guy in charge. Knock yourself out. I really couldn’t care less.” I wasn’t going to let these people get inside my head. They probably brainwashed kids here.
    So I pretended not to be completely surprised when Mr. Kim gave me my whole life story. He knew all about my parents, my friends, my grades, what subjects I was good at in school, what my teachers thought of me, that I loved to surf the Internet and write my own computer programs, that my favorite subject, at least until I embarked on my life of crime, was math, that I’d had a dog named Fluffy when I was six, that he’d died when I was eleven. He knew my favorite movie ( Say Anything ), my favorite musical group (Blink 182); he knew all about my probation, the shoplifting, the potential Grand Theft Auto hanging over my head if I didn’t stay at this weird place for a year, that I was left-handed, and all about my stupid crush on Boozer. It was a stunning recitation of my entire life, and he repeated it to me with no notes and files. I don’t think he even came up for air in the twenty minutes it took him to reduce my life to an oral book report.
    I sat there in his office in stunned disbelief. Was hesome kind of warlock or something? As far as I knew he hadn’t talked to my parents or any of my friends. Charles just signed some papers that Marvin gave him and didn’t even say good-bye. I was sure that Charles and Cynthia wouldn’t know any of this stuff anyway, even if he did talk to them.
    “How did you know all that?” I said.
    “Let’s just say that I feel it is our duty to know as much about each student as we can. I want you to feel at home here. I realize this is not where you want to be. I expect you to be skeptical, perhaps even hostile. I’m sure I’d feel the same way. It’s not easy to be taken out of your home and put in a place where you have no friends and family, not to mention a jail sentence hanging over your head if you don’t cooperate.”
    Empathy? He was going to try the Parenting Handbook, “listen to what your children are really saying and respond with kindness” trick? (I know Charles and Cynthia never tried this, but I saw a parenting show on The Learning Channel once.) Well, buster, I thought, you have met your match. No one gives me empathy without my permission.
    “How nice for you,” I said. Okay, not one of my bestcomebacks, but I was still a little thrown.
    “But I want you to understand,” Mr. Kim continued. “Judge Kerrigan is not a woman to be crossed. She obviously feels you have a great deal of potential. Many of your friends and teachers that I spoke to felt the same way. And I can tell just by talking to you that you are very smart, with an agile mind. Nonetheless, you will have to embrace our program here at Blackthorn, and it will not be easy. You have many challenges ahead. But from what I’ve seen so far, I think you will manage them without difficulty.”
    Okay. First empathy, and then…was that last speech a compliment? I had “potential”? An agile mind? No one had ever said that I had an agile anything before. And after two minutes with me he’s telling me I’d breeze through the year no problem? Who was this guy?
    “Let’s walk over to the residential wing and meet your roommate. You’ll want to get settled in. Then you’ll have a half hour to report to the do jang for your first Tae Kwon Do lesson. There is a do bak —that’s Korean for uniform—in your room already.”
    He stood up and walked toward the door. By now my head was spinning. I was tired, homesick, perplexed,and a little pissed off all at the same time. And what was this news flash about a roommate? Nobody had said anything about roommates. I numbly