The narrator introduces us to his friend, a fourteen-year-old girl named Alix. Alix plays a game called "my rules" every day while she's walking home from school. The more difficult the rules are, the more intense they are. According to Alix's rules, you can't step on the shadows on your way home. The narrator tries to cheer her up, but Alix is having none of it. She tries to shake the narrator's hand, but the narrator doesn't want to hurt her. He tells her to go home or he'll be a genius.