Jack Cooper and Ben Fry are best friends at their dull and dreary high school, Grangefield Grammar. On a seemingly ordinary Monday in Autumn Jack’s entire life is turned upside down when his friend is injured during their year 10 form class. His teacher, Mrs Grant, alters her personality drastically in the class, leading this injury to take place, and Ben is forced to leave school for the hospital, abandoning Jack for the first time in years. Hours later, in the final class of the day, Chemistry with Mr Donalds, Jack is threatened by the resident bully of his year, Tom Broadsquare, and, after an accident between them in which Tom is covered with dilute acids, Jack flees the science room five minutes before the bell is due to ring at the end of the day, on the run from a furious teenage tyrant without the protection his popular friend, Ben, would usually bring…
