Chapter 19

The conversations at detention would have been an interesting story, a footnote, except for Sarah Thompson.

Sarah was what Malcolm Gladwell called a connector type. After high school, she was destined to become a famous social influencer.

She had been sentenced to detention for what was called ‘excessive communication during instructional time’—which was teacher-speak for “wouldn’t stop talking during Mr. Peterson’s government class.” At seventeen, Sarah was the human embodiment of a social network: pretty, vivacious, genuinely curious about people, and blessed with the rare ability to move seamlessly between every social group at Capitol Hill High School.

When she first walked into Mr. Stone’s detention session, she was prepared for the usual punishment routine: sit quietly, do homework, count minutes until release. Instead, she found herself in a circle with kids from every corner of Capitol Hill’s social ecosystem, listening to a teacher ask genuinely challenging questions about survival and decision-making.

Later, Sarah was eating dinner with her mom and dad and her dorky little brother. She was still on an intellectual high after the second night of detention, where the discussion was way more interesting than any of the classes she attended during the school day.

“ ... then Steve Walker says to Mr. S, ‘This f-n’ boring. I’m like okay, big mouth jerk face is finally going to get what he deserves.’”

“Wait, isn’t Steve the one you had a crush on last year?”

Sarah scowled. “Yeah, that was before I found out he was a jerk. Anyway, Mr. Stone, he doesn’t get mad at all. He just says, ‘Steve, suppose I dropped you into Atlanta with no money, nothing. How would you survive?’ The discussion was way bussin’ after that.”