Setting of Danger Zone

The setting of Danger Zone takes place in Granham High School at the beginning of the story. The town of Granham is located in Minnesota, and I think Granham is fiction, because I couldn’t find the town of Granham in Minnesota, just the town of Graham, Minnesota. The gymnasium where Jim plays basketball is located behind the Granham High School in a separate building. There, Jim plays and practices basketball. In the gym, there are bleachers that are situated like the bleachers in North. For the time period, I don’t know what it was because the author didn’t say.

When Jim decides to join the U.S.A.,”Teen Dream Team” Jim is flown into Los Angeles, California where he meets the team and also where the team practices before flying to Rome for the tournament. In the area of Los Angeles where the team stays to practice, it’s decent, but surrounding that area there are many neighborhoods where gangs lurk. The story takes place there for a few chapters.

For the majority of the rest of the book, the setting takes place in Rome. The team gets used to the gym there, and they reside in a motel whenever they’re not in the gym. The coaches tell the team they have to stay in the motel and not to wander, but Jim figures he coaches weren’t going to be strict on that. Jim explored the city and visited a flower shop to order flowers to be sent to his girlfriend.

A day after one of the U.S.A.’s Teen Dream Team’s games, The mayor of Rome visited the motel where they were and gravely reported that after Augustus got into a fight with a spectator, the spectator turned out to be a Neo-Nazi and his gang made threats of killing the team. The team was escorted by many bodyguards and they were taken to a military compound to assure their safety. The bedrooms seemed like prison cells to Jim. Jim’s room was quite small. It had one tiny window with bars across it, a lumpy cot in one corner, and the door was thick and solid.

The last change in setting was after the last game in the tournament. The U.S.A Teen Dream Team won, and the spectators crawled over the barriers to get closer to them. Suddenly, a man stepped forward with a gun. He aimed it at Augustus, and a police officer tackled the man. The tackle didn’t stop the man from firing. Jim leaped out of the way, but the bullet hit him in the leg. He was immediately taken to a hospital. The doctors treated the wound as best they could, but Jim’s leg was really messed up. He was taken to a hospital in Rome where the best surgeon was. The surgeon told Jim he wasn’t a miracle worker, and Jim told him to do the best he could. Augustus showed up and stayed with Jim while he got his surgery.