The answer should be a :)
He was inspired to write Freak the Mighty because of a boy who used to live a few blocks away from him.
From the options above the one with strongest connotation to replace one poor word would be: (C) Miserable
Speech is not innocent and words are sometimes, consciously or unconsciously, charged with an interpretation different from what is said. In this miserable case it could be taken in a derogatory way or simply as a person who is having a bad time and being very sad feels miserable. Although surely, there could have some other interpretation of the word.
