New Kid

Jordan is introduced: a Washington Heights kid who loves art, reluctantly heading to Riverdale Academy Day School for seventh grade instead of the art school he wanted.

Jordan navigates his first day at Riverdale Academy, encounters kids from radically different economic backgrounds, and experiences the first case of mistaken identity when he is confused with another Black student.

Jordan observes Drew's strategy for surviving RAD — code-switching between Black and white social spaces — and begins to understand the cost and utility of performing different versions of himself.

Mr. Roche, the art teacher, repeatedly calls Jordan 'Drew.' The pattern of mistaken identity continues, and Jordan begins documenting his frustrations through his comic strips.

Jordan's friendship with Liam deepens as Jordan visits Liam's enormous house and confronts the wealth gap directly. The chapter explores class without villainizing Liam.

A series of small incidents — a classmate touching Jordan's hair, assumptions about his neighborhood, questions about whether he got into RAD on scholarship — accumulate into a portrait of what it feels like to be the 'only one' in a room.

Jordan navigates a week that requires him to be RAD Jordan and Washington Heights Jordan in rapid alternation, and begins to understand both as authentic parts of himself rather than one real and one performed.

The year ends with Jordan showing his sketchbook work to his art class, naming Mr. Roche's pattern directly for the first time, and returning to seventh grade with a clearer sense of who he is in both worlds.