In it, he wakes up next to Alicia, heavy and unkempt.

After initially trying to avoid her, he agrees to meet Alicia, and she tells him that her period is late. However, on his sixteenth birthday, he receives a call from her, saying that she needs to talk to him. After some time, the relationship's initial enthusiasm peters out, and Sam decides to break up with Alicia. Sam worries afterward, afraid of the possibility he may have gotten Alicia pregnant. Although at first, they use protection, eventually they try it without. They begin dating soon after – and have sex regularly. Sam meets Alicia at a party thrown by a friend of his mother's, and she is attracted to him immediately. This advice tends to come in the form of excerpts of Tony Hawk's book, Hawk – Occupation: Skateboarding, which Sam has memorized. Sam has a poster of Tony Hawk (or as he calls him, “TH”) on his wall that he speaks to, confides in, and asks for advice. Sam's best friends, Rubbish and Rabbit, are skateboarders like Sam. Sam does not have much of a relationship with his father, Dave, and rarely sees him when Dave and Annie are occasionally together, they do nothing but fight. Because she had Sam so young, their relationship is unusual and informal. Sam's mother, Annie, had Sam when she was only sixteen – nearly the same age Sam is at the start of the novel. Nick Hornby's first foray into the young adult genre, Slam (2007) is about an adolescent Londoner named Sam, and his coming of age as a young father.

Slam by nick hornby