Joe+G

// That was Then, This is Now //

1. **Who are Bryon and Mark?** Bryon is a sixteen-year-old boy and Mark is a fifteen-year-old boy and they both like to hustle people in the game of pool to get money. Bryon and Mark are best friends but start growing apart from each other throughout the book. Bryon and Mark are not brothers but they love each other like brothers for the majority of the story. When Bryon was ten and Mark was nine Mark’s parents shot each other in a drunken fight and Mark moved in with Bryon and his mom, who were happy to let Mark live with them. Both Bryon and Mark experience good and bad things throughout the story.

2. **Who are the two young people Bryon meets at the hospital?** The two young people Bryon meets at the hospital are Mike Chambers and Cathy Carlson.

3. **What kind of relationship does Bryon have with Charlie?** Bryon and Charlie have a good relationship. Bryon said that Charlie was a good friend of his, because Bryon used to date Charlie’s younger sister.

4. **What happens at the dance?** At the dance Angela makes a kid try to beat up Ponyboy Curtis, but when the kid picks up a bottle Mark steps between them to try to make the fight fair but instead gets hit in the head with the bottle.

5. **What does Bryon begin to discover in his private conversations with Mark?** In his private conversations with Mark, Bryon begins to discover that life is changing and becoming different from what it was before.

6. **What happened to Charlie? How do Bryon and Mark feel about it?** Charlie died helping Bryon and Mark from the Texans that were about to beat them up because the Texans were hustled by Bryon and Mark. Bryon felt upset and angry with himself and Mark felt that things happen and sometimes there’s nothing that you can do about them.

7. **What do Mark and Cathy think of each other?** Mark and Cathy don’t like each other and have the same hostility towards one another.

8. **What does mark do to Angel? Why?** Mark cuts off Angel’s hair because she set up Ponyboy Curtis and Mark got hit in the head with a bottle because of her.

9. **In chapter seven, what does Bryon begin to discover about his good friend Mark?** Bryon discovers that they are beginning to grow apart from each other.

10. **What happens to Bryon at Terry Jones’ house? How does his attitude change?** Bryon gets beat up by the Shepards. His attitude changes by him not wanting anyone to fight and get even with the Shepards.

11. **In chapter nine, what happens to M&M? Why does this move Bryon?** In chapter nine M&M was found in the hippie house and Bryon and Cathy tried to take him home with them, but instead they took him to a hospital because he took LSD. This moves Bryon because he felt so bad that he felt as if M&M was his little brother as much as M&M is Cathy’s little brother.

12. **What shocking discovery does Bryon make in Mark’s bedroom (chapter 10)? What does he do?** The shocking discovery Bryon makes in Mark’s bedroom is that he finds pills under Mark’s mattress. Bryon calls the cops.

13. **How does Bryon’s relationship with his friends and his attitude toward life completely change?** Bryon’s relationship with his friends and his attitude toward life completely changes by him growing apart from everyone. Also his relationship with his friends and his attitude toward life completely changes by him not wanting to fight people anymore and by not feeling like the same person that he was before.

14. **How does Bryon feel at the end of the book?** Bryon feels like he isn’t the same person as he was the year before and that he is a mixture of both the person he is this year and the person he was before.

15. **What do you think about this book and what life message does it teach?** I thought this book was very good. The life messages it teaches is that there are sometimes going to be times that are difficult and life is going to change but it will eventually get better over time depending on what you do with your difficulties.