Rafe Khatchadorian is the main character in Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life, by James Patterson. Rafe is a twelve-year-old and in the sixth grade at Hills Village Middle School. He is mild-mannered, kind of shy, secretive, and only trusts his best and only friend Leo and his mom. He has trouble adjusting to middle school life and all the rules, so Leo encourages him to break them all in a game called OPERATION R.A.F.E. Even though he knows he is doing bad things he tries hard not to hurt anyone.
Rafe has a vivid imagination. He doesn’t think anyone notices until one day his teacher makes him draw instead of …show more content…
Since Leo is his only friend he will do just about anything he wants, like breaking all of the school rules. Even when he wants to stop breaking the rules to stop making his mom unhappy he is lured right back in. “But we’re only getting started here. You can’t quit now.” (Patterson 128). It is only after meeting Jeanne when his agreeableness works for him and she convinces him to try being a good student rather than a bad one. “It’s not the end of the world, you know. It’s not even the end of the school year. There’s still time’ (Patterson, 224)
Art is Rafe’s talent and passion. Throughout the book, he sees his school as a prison and his teachers as monsters, but, he doesn’t just see it in his head, he draws all of it. Unfortunately for Rafe, it ends up getting him into the biggest trouble of his life, impresses everyone. “Holy smokes, kid. Did you do all this? (Patterson, 241) His greatest piece of art is a giant mural that he draws on the gym wall. It is also what ends OPERATION R.A.F.E. once and for all because it gets him arrested and put on house