5James had shown, very early on in his young life, an enormous amount of intelligence, talent, competitiveness, and a fierce, raw ambition, which made his teachers, family, neighbors, and friends specifically take notice. He, somehow, insecurely felt deep inside that he never truly quite fit in anywhere. Having accumulated many friends over the years while living in the co-ops, his inner insecurities and total fear of rejection, topped with his parents' separation and ultimate divorce, have built a solid wall separating his true pain of life's realities and his ability to deal with them. Eventually, he started using drugs to feel good about himself and erase any pain he would encounter that would seem too much for him. This may either be in the present, where he struggled to find an identity, or in his past, from dealing with females to being horrified by the prejudice he dealt with while going to high school in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Eventually, James's steadily progressive means to escape and forget his problems run him straight into crack, and all hell is about to break loose.