For nearly ten years of his life, Tyler Miller was your typical well-mannered kid who aimed to please his parents in all he did. He enjoyed school and the friendships he built from kindergarten. But as his family began to unravel, so did his attitude and behavior. Can he justify his actions as self-preservation, or is he becoming a bully?

Amid the disappointments and changes in his home life, Tyler was forced to leave the school he’d attended since kindergarten and enroll at Fern Creek Elementary during the second semester of his fifth-grade year. Life doesn’t seem fair to Tyler, but he has found a way to cope. Unfortunately, it’s at the expense of others, including a new student named R.J. Can Tyler’s trajectory be changed, or will he be lost in a smokescreen of hurt? The odds are not in his favor.