First Lit Circle

In our lit circle we are reading The Chocolate War. Our group spent most of the time trying to describe the book to me. Apparently it is about kids in like a private school, maybe a catholic one, and this group of boys have formed like a club and they are like the school's mafia. This group runs the school, they even intimidate the teachers, they get whatever they want and have everyone do it for them. They pick out students and give them assignments, which I really don't understand, they made someone go after school and unsrew all the srews in the desks and everything so the next day they would all fall apart. I'm trying to understand, i'll just have to read more to get caught up and maybe i'll get it.