Colin Fischer is a 2012 novel by Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz. Colin, a fourteen-year-old with Asperger's syndrome, is attending high school alone after years of going to school school with an aide. Early in the school year, a gun goes off during popular girl Melissa Greer's birthday party, and school bully Wayne Connolly is the prime suspect. But Colin knows Wayne couldn't have brought it - there was frosting on the gun, but not on Wayne's hands. Colin sets out to clear Wayne's name.
Colin Fischer contains examples of:
- Accidental Innuendo: In-universe example - one boy starts laughing when Colin tries to question him about the gun, causing Colin to wonder if he accidentally phrased the question as a joke or if his reference to the gun carried some sexual connotation he wasn't aware of.
- Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving: After Colin solves the mystery, his father lists all the things he did that he wasn't supposed to and ends it with "In forty-eight hours, you've broken more rules, started more trouble, and caused more chaos than in all your fourteen years on this planet. You also saved an innocent boy."
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Colin becomes a basketball prodigy by calculating the ball's trajectory.
- Big Brother Instinct: When Colin's brother Danny was born, Colin learned everything he could about child care, spent as much time as possible with him, and even created a dossier called "Things We Know About Danny" for Danny's first birthday. His feelings are not reciprocated - Danny mostly finds him weird and annoying.
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject: When Colin's father tries to question him about why he left school early on his first day, Colin keeps changing the subject to a meeting he knows his father is dreading. Later, he tries to talk about asparagus while his father lectures him about all the rules he broke.
- Character Name Alias: Colin tells a gang member his name is Tommy Westphall.
- Exact Eavesdropping: Colin happens to be cleaning toilets in detention when he overhears Rudy and Eddie talking about how Rudy helped Eddie get the gun.
- Eyes Always Averted: Colin tries to avoid eye contact, which he finds alarming and physically uncomfortable.
- Fascinating Eyebrow: Colin spent hours practicing his eyebrow quirk in front of the mirror so he could look like Spock.
- For the Evulz: This appears to be Rudy Moore's motivation for getting Eddie to bring a gun to school - he wanted to destroy someone's life, just to see if he could.
- Go to Your Room!: Susan Fischer says this first to Colin for lying about his whereabouts, then to Danny for calling Colin retarded.
- Her Boyfriend's Jacket: Sandy Ryan wears her boyfriend Eddie Martin's Notre Dame jacket.
- Kuleshov Effect: Colin thinks of himself as a walking Kuleshov Effect because of his naturally blank face and emotionless voice.
- Parental Fashion Veto: In seventh grade, Melissa used to show up for school in dark trousers or long skirts, go into the girls' room, and come out in ripped jeans or a miniskirt.
- Porn Stache: Mr. Turrentine's mustache reminds Colin of "a silent movie cowboy villain or perhaps Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin."
- Proof Dare: When Colin accuses Sandy Ryan of owning the gun, the response he gets is "You can't prove anything!"
- Put Off Their Food: When Colin starts talking about undigested human remains found in shark stomachs, Melissa pushes her tray away.
- Ransacked Room: Danny ransacks Colin's room to spite him, causing Colin to have a meltdown.
- Rebel Relaxation: Danny slouches casually against a wall while talking to his friends at the mall.
- Sensory Overload: During his first math class, a bully plays loud noises on a phone, causing Colin to bark from stress and curl up in a ball.
- She Is All Grown Up: Melissa was bullied when she was younger for her acne, braces, and wild hair. Over the summer before high school, the acne and braces disappeared, her hair became more manageable, and she developed enough curves that she's now one of the most attractive girls in class.
- Sherlock Scan: Colin is good at these, like deducing that a detective is a gang intervention officer based on the traces of a removed tattoo on his neck and things he said that implied he suspected a gang connection to the shooting.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Colin wears glasses.
- String Theory: Colin creates a map of his classmates' social status and relationship to each other on his bedroom wall, using colored yarn to represent friendship, romance, and rivalry.
- Swirlie: Wayne gives Colin one on his first day of high school, before he even has time to make it to homeroom.
- Technically a Smile: Colin notes that the look in his classmate Rudy Moore's eyes never seems to change, no matter what his mouth is doing.
- Teen Idol: Sandy has a poster in her locker of a teenage singer whose high-pitched voice makes Colin cringe.
- Your Mom: Wayne responds to a threat with "I haven't been so scared since I saw your mom naked. Which would be... last night." Colin notes that suggesting you have had sex with someone else's mother is "a vile insult and provocation across nearly every culture and language."
