This raw, unabashed tale, covers in one digestible gulp, the complexity of life in the urban confines for young Hakeem. He enters high school and suddenly he's a different person. He finds new and dangerous friends and rejects every thing he's been taught. But Hakeem is uneasy. All he wants is the attention of girls but his friends are about other things. Robbing the kids from the ivy league school acros the street from theirs. He is caught up in the hype and is soon arrested. But his boys are too street savvy to get caught. They learned from uncles and brothers in jail. No one in Hakeem's immediate family is a criminal. He realizes once in detention that he is not cut out for the criminal life. But the thugs in detention does not know this and couldn't care less. He's in their territory and he has to hold his own or get beat down. To get out he must not get into a fight for thirty days. If he does he goes upstate for eighteen months. There things can only get worst. So is he going to take the vicious beatings and be known forever as a punk, or is he going to fight back to maintain his manhood. Is he going to "blood in," for protection or walk away forever, hopefully with only some bruises.