This story begins with Danny Lopez''s move to Colorado Springs from, wait for it - Vegas, baby! He goes from the hot Nevada air and the never-ending clash of America''s Playground to the silence and chill of Pikes Peak. Naturally, he''s unhappy with this change, but worse than the new house, cold weather, and almost non-existent town, is the school, Cobalt Junior High Charter School. Everything they say is scripted, not just for the students, but the teachers too. With the exception of their predestined "discussions" and class reading, the school operates on the silent system - all the time, lunch recess, before school, after school. Oh, and of course they wear uniforms. Why would anyone send their child to this school? The answer is simple; test scores, twelfth highest in the country. They even specialize in kids who have had trouble in other schools. This naive, and utterly doomed, attempt at controlling adolescents leads to secret societies, ways around the system, and maybe invent a serial killer?