A boy who can find meaning in anything and thinks school is under threat because of this... Genre: Young Adult Fiction - School/Slice of Life (though somewhat Surreal later), probably mid 2000s, any help appreciated [s]

[Shayne]

*possible spoilers, can't remember enough to say though

It opens on a boy who lives quite superficially, acting tough and hiding his intelligence to seem cool. He had two friends as a child, both sisters, that he now often blows off to hang out with his "gang".
I can't remember most of the gang, but there was one "ratty" boy that the main character is surprised to find has a girlfriend near the end of the book.
Anyway, the boy is living rather comfortably, at least on the surface, until he starts seeing threatening messages in everything he sees; school billboards, flyers, signs around town, etc.
He then kind of loses it, first trying to save the school, but nobody listens to him, so he just runs away I think...
Anyway, I think it ends with him realizing all his "friends" from the gang have moved on and don't want to hang with him anymore, and he finally goes and apologizes to the two sisters from his childhood.
They forgive him and their father says something like "the prodigal son returns".

Any help is greatly appreciated! ;)

[Tab]

Do you remember anything about the cover?

[Shayne]

Sadly, no.
For some reason the title "Agent Orange" keeps coming to mind, but I can't figure out if that's this book, or another one I read about the same time.

[Brittany]

There are quite a few books titled Agent Orange, but none of them seem to fit your description. Though there is Code Orange, it's a YA book with a smart/slacker male lead

[Shayne]

That's it!
Thank you very much, Brittany.

[Brittany]

No problem! Always happy to help connect someone with a long lost or forgotten book :)