A boy named Roy Eberhardt moves to the town of Coconut Cove, Florida. On the bus to school Roy sees a boy through the window running barefoot outside really fast. Roy is choked on the bus by a student named Dana Matherson, Roy punches Dana in the face, breaking her nose. Roy leaves the bus running after the running boy. While he is running he goes through a golf course and is knocked out by a golf ball. The school suspends him from the bus for two weeks and orders Roy to write an apology to Dana, but Dana declines the letter. A restaurant called Mother Paula 's All-American Pancake House decides to build a restaurant in Coconut Cove, but vandalism from an unknown person delays the work. Roy learns the running boy is the vandal known as