Small Steps is Louis Sachar's sequel to his book Holes. Small Steps follows a secondary character from Holes named Theodore Johnson, also known as Armpit, three years after his release from Camp Green Lake, a correctional boot camp for teens in Texas. Armpit served time at Camp Greek Lake because of a fight he was involved in at a movie theater.
After leaving Camp Green Lake, Armpit tries to start his life over by taking small positive steps. He sets modest goals for his new life in Austin: graduate from high school, get a job, save his money, avoid situations that might turn violent, and lose the name Armpit. His first job is at Raincreek Irrigation and Landscaping. While working, he's approached by X-Ray, his friend from Camp Green Lake, who persuades him to help him buy and scalp tickets to a concert featuring the pop sensation Kaira DeLeon that has been moved to Austin.
Kaira DeLeon is a 17-year-old African-American musician who is on tour and lonely because every aspect of her life is controlled by her stepfather and business manager El Genius. Kaira has been receiving death threats from someone named Billy Boy, but Kaira believes El Genius has been writing them to scare her into staying in her hotel room and to allow him to hire Frank, her bodyguard, as his informant. Kaira doesn't have access to the money earned from her concerts. While she's aware her business manager is controlling, what she doesn't fully understand is that he's also embezzling millions of dollars from her with his girlfriend Aileen, Kaira's tour travel coordinator.
While Armpit is at school and speaking to his crush Tatiana, X-Ray runs through the hallway and hands him $530 because he's sold four of the concert tickets to a mother buying gifts for her children. While Tatiana previously agreed to go to the Kaira DeLeon concert with Armpit, she cancels a few hours before because her friends are against her being involved with him. Armpit takes Ginny, his 10-year-old white neighbor with cerebral palsy, instead. The tickets X-Ray gave Armpit were fake, and despite X-Ray's attempt to delay Armpit and Ginny so that they would see that their seats were taken and stand in the back, they only find out they're fake once Armpit is subject to brute force by a police officer and Ginny has a seizure. Mayor Cherry Lane steps in and stops the violence happening to Armpit and makes the police officer release Armpit so he can tend to Ginny. Once Kaira learns about Armpit and Ginny she invites them to sit in the sound booth to watch her concert in private. Armpit and Kaira become friends.
Kaira and Armpit meet for breakfast at the Four Seasons Hotel, and he tells her his nickname while they walk along the river, hand in hand. When Armpit returns home, he's paid a visit by Detective Debbie Newberg who has been assigned to investigate the fake ticket sales. Armpit makes up a story and corroborates it with X-Ray. This doesn't work because Detective Newberg asks him if he recognizes the possible suspect names Felix, Rex, X-Ray, and Armpit; all of which are the names of the people involved, including Armpit himself.
Armpit receives a love letter from Kaira. The next day, Kaira and Armpit confess how much they miss each other on the phone and Kaira invites Armpit to San Francisco to spend time with her, which he agrees to do. Armpit gets into a fight in the street with Moses, a scalper involved in the Kaira DeLeon ticket scalping case. He and his business partner Felix blackmail Armpit into agreeing to give them the love letter Kaira gave him, threatening otherwise to tell Detective Newberg the truth, which would lead to X-Ray going to prison. Armpit tells them to wait until he gets back from San Francisco, and after he fights Moses, Armpit gets cleaned up and heads in a white limousine to the airport. Armpit is given first-class treatment because of his first-class ticket.
Aileen, Kaira's tour coordinator, has been using El Genius to help her embezzle three million dollars from Kaira's trust account. While El Genius intends to spend his life with Aileen, she has no intention of being with him. El Genius plans to kill Kaira before her 18th birthday to avoid being fired and maintain access to her wealth. He sees the opportunity to frame Armpit for her murder, and El Genius tricks Armpit into getting his fingerprints all over the murder weapon—a baseball bat. When Armpit arrives in San Francisco, he is struck by the luxury and respect he encounters. He and Kaira get into a taxi to the Golden Gate Bridge to get Fred, Kaira's bodyguard, off their tail. Once Fred is nowhere in sight, they walk around Chinatown and Armpit buys Ginny a silk scarf as a gift. Afterward, Armpit and Kaira walk to North Beach and get cappuccinos at a coffee shop.
Armpit explains the trouble he and X-Ray are in regarding the ticket scalping case to Kaira. He asks her to write a less embarrassing letter he could sell to Felix, and she's enraged. She throws her cappuccino in his face and takes a taxi back to the hotel to get ready for her show. On Armpit's walk back to the hotel he regrets asking Kaira for the letter and realizes he's likely to get arrested. He regrets orienting his life around Kaira. Meanwhile, Fred frantically looks for Kaira on the Golden Gate Bridge because he's lost her for the first time.
El Genius plants evidence in Armpit's room and uses latex gloves and the bat with Armpit's fingerprints on it to attempt to kill Kaira. He stabs Fred with the fruit and cheese knife from Armpit's room and just as he's about to deliver a fatal blow to Kaira, Armpit walks in to give her her letter back. Kaira summons all her strength to knock her table lamp onto the floor to alert Armpit to what's going on, and Armpit saves her. With Fred's assistance, he beats El Genius senseless.
When the cops arrive and Fred attests to Armpit's innocence, Armpit is surprised no one blames him for the events that have transpired. Armpit heads back to Austin, trading his first-class plane ticket for an economy ticket so he can leave San Francisco early. He returns home and tells Ginny everything. He's on the cover of every magazine and newspaper in the country and is dubbed a hero. Detective Newberg visits him and says that she knows that he is the Armpit involved in the case of the fake concert tickets, but that the case is being dropped on her orders. Kaira has issues with her vocal cords and may never be able to sing again, and Aileen is caught in Belize, but the money she stole is never recovered.
In late February, Armpit hears Kaira's song about him on the radio. Her voice is more fragile but still clear, and her music is more understated and vulnerable. She sings about taking small steps and references their time together in her music. Armpit realizes his life can't revolve around Kaira anymore and defines a new list of small steps to take: graduate from high school, attend two years of Austin Community College, do well enough to transfer to the University of Texas to study occupational therapy to help people like Ginny, don’t do anything stupid, and lose the name Armpit.
