Private School
- Being in private school doesn't automatically mean a family is rich, and Jack's family struggles to make ends meet. They live on the top floor of a five-story walkup in a neighborhood where people "don't want to park their cars" (4.Private School.1)—which probably works out okay because they don't even have a car anymore.
- But at school, he rubs shoulders with kids who have to endure Paris for the holidays (how boring), and who get $800 sleds.
- Jack is horrified when he learns that he is "the hobo who had taken the sled" (4.Private School.25) that his classmate Miles abandoned in the park over the Thanksgiving break.
- One kid's trash may be another kid's treasure, but this is just a totally rough moment for Jack.