Being in new kid at school can be difficult and emotionally trying. However it can be even more difficult when on one of your first nights there, you get thrown in the lake with your hands, feet, and mouth duct taped. One night, when Miles first arrived at Culver Creek, this dreadful experience occurs to him. He wakes up to find himself being josteled around by the "Weekday Warriors" and realizes he's been duct taped and blindfolded. Suddenly, he feels himself being flung off a platform and plunges into the lake on campus. This plugning can be seen as a sort of baptism or rebirth. It marks a significant change in Miles's life, because being pranked is a ritual performed on all new students. When the teenager first arrived at the school he was simply Miles. However, the Colonel gives him the nickname of "Pudge" as a joke on his twig like bone structure. When he gets thrown in the lake, he officially becomes a student at the school, this truly adopting his nickname and leaving his old name behind. Pudge is cleansed of his old life during this plunge and actually becomes a member of the student body, thus demonstrating it's rebirthing effects. This prank also sparks his friendship with the Colonel, Alaska, and the others because of the way that it brings them together to defeat the common enemy of the "Weekday Warriors, considering their prank nearly killed Pudge. Because of this, it can be determined that this prank is a rebirth and baptism in Pudge's adolesence, because this scene is when he truly becomes a member of the Culver Creek student body and when he leaves his old life as Miles behind.