Up From the Down Under
- This summer starts like every other summer Max has ever known: super boring.
- He lives in the basement of his grandparents' house, which he likes because it gives him some privacy.
- He can tell his grandparents are really worried about him and think he is at a "dangerous age" (2.2), but mostly Max just hangs out in the basement reading comics.
- One day, Max is hanging out in the dirt patch he calls a backyard when he sees a moving van down the street. Exciting!
- He spots a really pretty woman who looks sort of familiar, and then… he sees Freak.
- Freak is super small for his age: "he's got a normal sized head, but the rest of him is shorter than a yard stick and kind of twisted in a way that means he can't stand up" (2.10).
- But this doesn't stop Freak from strutting around on his crutches ordering all the moving guys around.
- Freak is in the middle of shouting orders when he sees Max. He demands that Max identify himself or suffer the consequences.
- Max thinks Freak (whose real name is Kevin, by the way) is being serious, so he sort of panics and does what any mature 13-year-old would do—he runs away.