The book starts off with a boy named Russell banks moving next to a boy named Joey banks. Russell is a normal boy with a normal family however, Joey has an abusive dad due to this constant trouble making followed with two sisters that he doesn't get along with very well. Russell and Joey soon become friends and quickly start getting into mischief together. Through this behavior Russell and Joey start to shape the theme of the story. The theme of the story is that bad stuff is going to catch up to you eventually and you have to face it. Shortly after being friends Joey gives Russell the nickname Rusty. The boys start and pact when Joey gets bitten by a fish in the private parts and makes Rusty to swear to howdy that he will not tell anyone and made him seal it with blood. From this point forward everything thing that the boys get into is sworn secret due to this bond. The boys move on by later pulling a prank on their sisters who were passing out drinks at a baseball game by putting bugs in them. This turned bad when they mistakenly put bugs in all the drinks instead of just the girls which lead them to get fired. This adds more heat on to Joey and Rusty which only turns worse when Rusty’s gold fish dies and the boys have to secretly …show more content…
The guilt and worrying begins to build on Rusty and Joey but they still continue to get into trouble. Joey faces internal conflict because he wants to confess but the is terrified of the consequences. To clear their minds and to have fun the boys decide to pull a harmless prank by hanging a ghost on a tree above the road at night at an attempt to scare someone. When a car came along the driver was startled and swerves off the road and into a tree. The boys got scared and quickly left later to find out it was Joey's older sister Amanda who had hit the tree and died because she wasn't wearing her seat