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Oskar continues to be bullied for the next four years until the last of the bullies flunks out of school. From then on, his problem is no longer being bullied but being rejected, in particular by girls. His revenge fantasies gradually turn to fantasies about living in a world where even a soft boy like him could be accepted. At first he imagines himself living in a country where such a thing is possible, but his research soon convinces him that no such country exists, at least not on Earth; so instead he imagines himself living on another planet with intelligent life that is sufficiently advanced that the females no longer have to rely on tough males to protect them and can therefore accept soft ones. Hoping to learn whether such a planet exists, he begins reading books about astronomy, and soon he develops a consuming interest in it for its own sake. He saves up money from a summer job and buys a telescope, and from then on he spends all his spare time stargazing on clear evenings and reading astronomy books on cloudy ones.