Bunny gets a tattoo to fulfill the terms of his grandfather's will and in the process inadvertently finds himself a part of a local gang where he unknowingly gets involved in gang-related activities that get him arrested. Bunny is a big and tough-looking teenage boy with a soft heart who just wants to enjoy his summer. When he and his family find out his grandfather has passed away, they all attend the reading of the will. In his will, Bunny's grandfather has left him a harmless enough request – to go and get a tattoo. Apparently, his grandfather had a buddy who owned a tattoo parlor and back in the day, his grandfather was supposed to get himself a tattoo there. Bunny's mom is not amused that he has such a task but Bunny is curious so he finds the tattoo parlor. Before he enters the tattoo parlor, he notices a fat kid bullying a skinnier, smaller one. He decides to intervene because he doesn't like bullies. Later, Bunny ends up getting a tattoo of 15 with a candle next to it – he thinks his grandfather chose the design as it represents that he's turning fifteen. When he leaves the tattoo parlor, however, everyone he meets who sees the tattoo start behaving oddly and muttering about him being part of a “posse”.
Click here to see the rest of this review...
The skinny boy that Bunny rescued earlier finds him. He introduces himself as Jaden and he claims to also be part of the "posse". He asks Bunny how much time he spent in Jail. He thinks it's weird that Bunny – who is a white boy – is part of their posse. Bunny is confused but his odd answers inadvertently deflects all these questions and makes Jaden think he's good at telling jokes. Jaden tells him to come with him to a gym on 15th street to meet Cobra, who is one of the leaders of the posse. There, Jaden tells all the people of the posse that Bunny fought off a bully from the Mimico Angels gang that was bothering him. The posse seem okay to let Bunny hang out with them. Later, Bunny calls his brother, Spence, to tell him about his cool tattoo. Spence has also been sent on a mission as part of his grandfather's will. The posse overhear that Spence is with a man named Al Capoli and they tell someone named Rocco this information. Apparently, Rocco has been searching for Al Capoli.
The next day, Bunny starts to learn the basics about UFC fighting from a man named Morgan. Later, Jaden takes Bunny around town to do some tagging with spray paint. He tells Bunny that the 15 Street gang is in turf war with the Mimico Angels. Over the next few weeks, Bunny learns more about how to kick, punch and block from Morgan and he even participates in some mock fights with some of the other members of the 15 Street gang. One day, the cops search the gym. A Sergeant Don takes Bunny aside to question him about a deal that's apparently going to happen soon between the 15 Street gang, the Mimico Angels and the Buffalos but Bunny doesn't know anything. Later, Bunny learns that the 15 gang has to do “deals” in order to sustain their gym. When Bunny tells him that his brother is in a town called Jackfish with Al Capoli, everyone is cheered up, as the “deal” is on, again. Bunny has no clue why his information would be helpful.
The 15 street gang pick up some mysterious boxes and go to the mall to complete the “deal”. Bunny is given a gun though he doesn't take anything seriously because he's so out of the loop. They meet with the Mimico Angels and the Buffalos – apparently they are receiving money in exchange for the delivery of the boxes. The boxes contain more guns. Just as the deal is about to go through, the cops arrive. Bunny and Jaden run off into a nearby mall. While at the mall, Bunny finally clarifies that he's not actually a gang member of 15 street, then he runs away from Jaden and the other gang members. Bunny overhears the Angels say they don't plan on paying the 15 street gang and he sees them stash their bag of money in the mall. He gets caught by the Angels and Jaden rescues him by threatening to shoot them with his gun. Bunny and Jaden disguise themselves and hide in the movie theater. Jaden is disguised very well as a girl and he even starts to kisses Bunny when the police officers come to make it look like they are a couple.
The police officers end up finding Bunny and Jaden as well as another gang member named Jello. During the ensuing altercation, Bunny accidentally shoots Jello. The police arrest Bunny. Later, they ask Bunny to write down his version of events. They also ask him to identify members of the 15 street gang, which he does. The police can't use Bunny's version of events as evidence against the 15 street gang, however, because he never actually saw any drugs or guns. Bunny is somewhat relieved as he realizes he could be called a snitch for giving up this information about his "buddies". The police want to know where Jaden is, but Bunny doesn't tell them. Later, Bunny spots Jaden being arrested by a police officer – Jaden turns out to actually be a girl. Bunny trips the police officer in order to let Jaden get away. Because of that, Bunny is sentenced to months in a juvenile detention center.
Later, Jaden or rather, Jade, comes to visit Bunny. Jade ends up finding the money in the mall and using it to keep the 15 street gym open. The story ends with Bunny and Jade becoming closer to each other and Bunny counting down the days until his release.
Best part of story, including ending:
The story was written in an interesting format but I found this format distracting. Because Bunny doesn't really know how to spell, the entire story is written with misspelled words and words spelled "phonetically". I found this really hard to sift through and it sometimes jolted me out of the story because I couldn't figure out what word Bunny was trying to spell.
Best scene in story:
My favorite scene was when Jaden kisses Bunny and he realizes that Jaden might actually be a girl because he's far too good looking in his girl disguise. It was funny, entertaining and also tense because the police officers were looking for them.
Opinion about the main character:
I like that Bunny is so clueless. The fact that he didn't know he was part of a gang and was completely ignorant of the gang's activities made the story amusing to read as it was full of dramatic irony.
