Summary

The summary of the story starts when Luke a 13 year old boy or a shadow child gets a fake I.D. from Jen's father who works for the population police. Jen is a desisted girl who Luke was best friends with (also Luke's only friend). Since Jen's dad works for the population police he has all the  illegal food and drinks at their house. Luke often came over to Jen's to either talk, eat illegal food, play or just play on the computer. The reason Jen died is her and about 40 other shadow children went to the government to argue about the awful law and instead of listing they just gunned them all down it was a really tragedy for Luke but Luckily for Luke his dad gave him the4 fake I.D. to a desisted boy named Lee Grant who now is Luke. Luke's first day at his new private school was pretty rough. He gets lost in the huge school. He gets shoved in a locker and is confused. Hows that for a first day of school. I personally would hate that and drop out. He tries everything to get friends and still fails. Also when Luke first comes to the school he receives a note from Jen's dad so Luke thinks it will be the key to his success with everyone. But Luke doesn't get to look at it yet because the person who was going to show him his room and classes took off just like that running down the hall with his stuff. Luke had no clue what the "game" was so he just sprinted down the hall after him. After running around the school about 5 times Luke gets the tour he wanted but not the way he got it. And soon later Luke stumbles and falls the next thing Luke hears is a hall monitor tell the boy to show Luke were he will be staying so the boy slowly took Luke to his room with the hall monitor yelling behind him 4 demerits to both of you. Luke didn't know what a demerit was but he knew it didn't sound good. The boy told Luke were he slept and then ran off before Luke could ask him about his schedule. That same day Luke just followed the crowd to random classrooms and when he went to his bedroom he met his roommates they all were in a circle playing Uno. Luke suddenly but slowly says hello. Then a boy who Luke thought looked like a jackal spoke. He said say I'm the king and since Luke had never been greeted that way he repeated. But the jackal headed boy got no amusement out of it and said (to what Luke called his slaves since they did and followed him everywhere) "why do they always send us the stupid ones" Luke was about to say I'm not stupid but he styfled. The jackal headed boy replied "what is your name" Luke right away was about to say "Luke" but said (his fake I.D. name) "Lee Grant". So the jackal headed boy made him do sit ups push ups and made him say that he was a frontal 20 times and that he was a lecture 20 times. In the morning we come to our first rising action Luke sees a door that he has never seen before slowly without the hall monitor looking he slips in and what Luke sees is a beautiful sight (for Luke) he sees the outside it's wonderful Luke explains then all of a sudden he starts sprinting away the ground feels so good. Luke spends about an hour outside then decides to make a garden. He found a couple of seeds on the ground and since he's watched his dad plant about a million times he identified them at once and made sections of the flowers and in the end he was proud of his work then sneaked back inside. That night jackal boy made Luke work the hardest he'd ever made him work. He was aching all night. In the morning he saved all of his water from breakfast for his garden but when he got there it was all trampled there were footprints implanted into his garden Luke was starting to get very angry but held back his anger and then ran back inside. That night jackal headed boy didn't really push Luke that hard on Luke but tonight Luke just couldn't sleep he kept hearing voices. Then Luke heard a whisper. He got out of bed and followed the sound. He followed it to the door that led outside. The whisper stopped. Luke went outside and suddenly saw Jackal headed boy and two other girls he did not know. They were sitting around a lantern. Luke ran behind a tree so they wouldn't see him. The three were talking about him. Jackal headed boy said "This kid, Lee Grant, I am not sure if he is a shadow child or not, but he fits the bill." The girl said, "This kid Luke, are we sure about him?" Then all of a sudden Luke did something that Jen, his best friend, would have done, that Luke would never have. Luke jumped out from behind the tree and said, "Are you talking about me?" Everybody was in shock. Jackal headed boy asked, "How did you find us?" Luke answered, "I heard you coming out here. You destroyed my garden." Luke was getting angry. They did not know what garden Luke was talking about. Luke asked them to follow him and he showed them the way to his garden. Luke made a couple of wrong turns, but finally got them there. The girl told Luke that they never trampled that garden. After a lot of talking, they agreed that they might have accidentally trampled Luke's garden. Luke got angry and started running toward the school. He heard footsteps behind him and realized they were running too. He looked back at them. When he faced forward again, he ran face first into a tree, and fell. Everyone was crowding around him. Luke thought he was bleeding. Then Luke made a deal with Jackal headed boy. Luke wouldn't tell on them for being outside if they answered all of Luke's questions. Jackal headed boy agreed. The first question Luke asked was if they were all shadow children. They all answered yes. Then Luke asked why Jackal headed boy always bullied him around. Jackal headed boy said it was all part of the test. Luke asked what the test was. Jackal headed boy explained that the test was to tell if Luke was a shadow child. Jackal headed boy told Luke that since shadow children don't interact with other children, they usually don't know how to stand up for themselves. Shadow children don't know how to react to bullying. Jackal headed boy said another part of the test was about being outside. He asked Luke if the door was open on the first day he went outside. Luke told him that the door was open. Jackal headed boy told Luke that they opened it to see if he would come outside. Since a shadow child has never been outside, they would have the urge to go out. If the door was open, the shadow child would not be able to resist going to look. Luke did not admit that he was a shadow child yet. Then all four of them went inside the school. Jackal headed boy took Luke to the nurse. The nurse treated Luke's cuts and then they went to bed. The next night Luke followed them back outside and asked Luke some questions and one was about other shadow children Luke said the only shadow child he met was Jen Talbot everybody looked in amazement then jackal headed boy said that she was legendary and asked a lot of questions about Jen Luke answered them the best he could. In the morning Luke sat with jackal headed boy and the girls from that time till the end jackal headed boy didn't bother Luke at all they were friends. After that every time jackal headed boy would whisper in his ear "tonight" that meant they were going out that night.  Luke now feels like he is not excluded from everybody. He finally has common interest with a group of his own. Now he fits in with this crazy school. Before Luke didn't know them so they told him how it started, it started out to be nothing but ever since jackal headed boy came to Hendricks and they first started having the meetings outside in April the month of the rally. Since Luke is so involved now he has been invited to become a hall monitor so that just makes it more easy to sneak out at night. Then all of a sudden Luke misses a meeting in the woods. Then the next night he walks down the hallway pretending to be studying. He shes Jason talking on a cell phone device. Luke knows the population police can track down the user. He over hears Jason talking then he finds out he was talking to the population police. He slaps him with his binder and slaps the phone away. Jason says "hey im one of you,"  and Luke slaps him again.  Luke knocks out Jason, then on the phone hears a voice. Luke says "sorry my phone fell" the voice said you must turn in the others. Luke shuts the phone and runs into the main office. Luke calls Mr Talbot but talks to him in code about what is going to happen. Then in the dinning hall aloud scream the "Population Police."  Then followed by more screas. Luke sees Mr Talbotruns over to him. They put Jason in cuffs because they thought he was really a shadow child for hanging up the phone. Jason says Luke was one but Mr Talbot saves him and says "no he was with us at Christmas."  Finally Luke talks it over with the owner of the school and Mr Talbot and finds out Nina and Jason were spys from the Population Police.