“I dislike confrontations of any kind, and I avoid physical conflict most of all.”

The protagonist, Kyle, characterizes himself as a peaceful person. Even though Daren is bullying him in school, he does not stick up for himself because he is smaller than Daren and dislikes physical confrontations. Kyle’s peacekeeping attitude serves to show his emotional intelligence and growth in maturity.

“Of course, it’s always easy to know the right choice after it’s too late to go back and change your mind. Figuring out the right choice ahead of time is the hard part.”

The author foreshadows through Kyle’s inner monologue that the Davidsons made the wrong choice by going on their vacation to Oregon. If they had known that the earthquake and tsunami were going to happen, they would have made the right choice by not going at all.

“I didn’t want to spend the first really good vacation of my life hiding from Daren, so I knew I had to take some action.”

Kyle demonstrates his self-awareness as he understands his conflict avoidance will hinder his enjoyment of his family vacation. Daren serves as a foil to Kyle’s character, and as Kyle is motivated to change the way he responds to Daren, his bully remains static until the novel’s end.