The night before third grade starts, J.D. gets his first haircut—a family tradition. Although he has researched lots of cool styles online, he asks his mom to do a basic fade (a style in which the hair is gradually cut shorter until it appears to fade into the skin). When she is finished, J.D. is appalled to discover that the fade is crooked, and he wonders, “How many ways could the third-grade class of Douglass Elementary make fun of a bad haircut?” (14).

At breakfast the next day, J.D. is anxious about how people will respond to his haircut, but his no-nonsense grandparents finally order him to stop worrying so much. When it’s time to catch the bus for school, J.D. worries about what his friend Jordan will say about his disastrous haircut. Although the boys are best friends, Jordan can be harsh in his opinions, and J.D. knows that he will “need EXTRA-tough skin to make it through the ride to school” (19).

As predicted, J.D. is teased on the bus ride, mostly by Jordan and another girl in his class named Jessyka, who is an amazing athlete.