61 pages • 2 hours read
Sarah DessenAlong for the Ride
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary
The next morning, Heidi is amazed that Auden found the mistake in her payroll. She’s so thankful, she offers Auden a position as her accountant. Robert and Heidi argue about Auden visiting not to work but to enjoy family time—Robert’s clear jab at Heidi for her not accepting Auden as a babysitter. Auden takes the job, agreeing with Heidi that extra money before school would be great.
Her brother Hollis calls and laughs about the picture frame and how he purposely wanted it to be “cheap and ridiculous,” to earn the “stupidest” graduation gift award” (77). He thought she could switch out the picture in the frame frequently, to have “lots of best of times, each one topping the last” (78). His idea resonates with Auden, inspiring her further to seek adventures.
Auden heads to the boutique for work, where Maggie, Esther, and Leah are busy pricing clothes. Leah shows her the back office and supplies. Auden is put off by the vividly pink and orange office, complete with Hello Kitty and boas, but Heidi’s background in business shows. Her books are organized, the mistakes coming in the last few months while she was pregnant. Auden revels in numbers that make sense—no drama or guessing, just straight answers. She falls into the work, her studious mind drowning out all else.
At nine o’clock that night, Auden hears blaring pop music from the main boutique. She ventures from the office and watches the girls dancing, their quitting time ritual. When Leah tells her the dance is mandatory, Auden declines. After work, they discuss plans for the night, dating, and college, but Auden remains silent. One of the curly-haired bikers, Adam, rides over and invites them to the bike course. Jake is with him. Before Auden can walk away, Jake asks her why she left so quickly after they were intimate, and Auden tells him it was a mistake. She hurries away, but he shouts that she’s a “freaking tease” (89). While she power-walks the boardwalk, she sees Eli, who nods but takes the hint she doesn’t want to talk.
Chapter 6 Summary
When Heidi puts on the sound machine, Auden can’t handle the noise. Heidi claims Thisbe only sleeps with the highest volume wave sound. Auden thinks the real sea should be enough, though she doesn’t share her opinion.
Auden relishes her daily few hours at work so she can escape the noise, Heidi’s worrying and chattiness, and her dad’s sulking if his writing is unproductive. At work, he overhears Maggie, Esther, and Leah talking about Eli. She learns Eli’s background, that he used to bike like a pro and that it’s been a year since something with his “best friend Abe” happened. Since then, he hasn’t biked, but he manages the bike shop.
That night, Auden impulsively follows Adam and Wallace, two of the bike shop boys, to the jump park. Auden watches the bikers tackle the obstacle course of curves, jumps, and terrain. The bikers perform tricks, race, and sail over jumps. She stays in her car until Jake hits on a blonde girl nearby. She slinks from her car to avoid Jake, standing far in the trees to observe the bikers. Maggie is in the bleachers, and though Auden thinks she’s there to pine for Jake, she puts on a helmet. Maggie joins Adam on the course and soars through the tough jumps easily. Auden watches her in awe.
Eli appears nearby, another quiet bystander. When Auden brushes past him, Eli says, “Already leaving. Not exciting enough for you?” (105). Unlike with other boys, Auden doesn’t feel nervous, and she wants to say more to him, not less. Aware of his biking history, she asks if he jumps, but Eli responds no and then asks her the same. She explains she hasn’t had the opportunity to ride a bike in a while and she’s not outdoorsy. Eli encourages her to do it now, but she refuses. He tells her there is no shame in not knowing how to ride a bike. Auden retorts that she can ride a bike, but reflects internally that she only rode one with training wheels years ago. Eli accepts her decision and reasons, and Auden rushes to her car.
Chapter 7 Summary
At work, Auden unexpectedly hears her mom’s voice. She rushes out of the office and finds Victoria inspecting the pink boutique with disdain. Victoria complains about the degradingly skimpy swimsuits and base femininity of Heidi’s store.
Over lunch with Auden, Victoria critiques Robert’s slow writing, the name Thisbe, and Heidi’s lack of backbone. After Auden shares that her studying is going well but the Economics textbook is hard without a professor, Victoria advises her to not be like other students and wait for help. Auden remains silent until Victoria disparages Heidi’s shop again. She defends Heidi, stating she isn’t as ditzy as she appears. She’s a savvy businesswoman whose seasonal shop makes money year-round. Victoria assumes Auden is falling into the “fluffy and insubstantial” world of female stereotypes (119). Auden denies that she’s changing and reminds Victoria she doesn’t like pink or the shop’s items, that she just works there. Victoria teases that if she does like the store, it’s fine because everyone has secrets. Auden spots her mother’s graduate student behind them in the hotel’s pool. Auden looks pointedly at the student, her mother’s lover, and agrees about secrets.
Auden is too upset by the chat with Victoria to work. She watches the sunset from a beach bench, but she calls her mom to ask to make up over breakfast the next day. Victoria is deep in curriculum development, so she declines and states the trip was a mistake. She wants to know the “gory, mockable” details about Heidi and Robert’s “silly lives” though (125). Maggie comes to check on her. When Auden admits she isn’t okay, Maggie quietly sits beside her.
Chapter 8 Summary
After Maggie calls Auden’s mom a badass and shows her Victoria in a college catalog, they bond over education. Auden apologizes about Jake again, regretting her involvement, which Maggie appreciates. Jake was Maggie’s first love and heartbreak, but Auden can’t relate. Maggie invites her to come to a house party, and Auden accepts. Maggie tells nervous Auden that it’s like any other weekend house party, but Auden has no reference because she has never been to one.
While absorbing the party’s dancing, loudness, and cat-calling, Auden attempts to fill the girls’ cups at the keg. Auden doesn’t like to ask for help, especially with a “stupid” task others assume you know how to perform. Eli fills her cups, teasing her that maybe kegs are an outdoor activity, relating to their talk at the bike course when she said she wasn’t outdoorsy. She and Eli chat easily, but Maggie pulls Auden away saying, “Abort,” and hurries outside. The party’s host, Belissa, confronts Auden about “flirting” with Eli, calling her a “skank.” Flustered, Auden doesn’t know how to react. Maggie, Esther, and Leah assure Belissa that she wasn’t flirting and that she’s new in town. The girls leave quickly.
Maggie, Esther, and Leah explain that Eli doesn’t talk to anyone, so they’re amazed that he’s so friendly with her. They explain Eli’s past: since kindergarten, Eli and Abe were inseparable. They were excellent BMX bike racers and earned sponsorships. After a bike competition, Eli and Abe were in a car accident, and Abe didn’t survive. Ever since losing Abe, Eli became quieter, quit biking, and lost his BMX sponsorships. Eli didn’t go to college either. Auden feels terrible about Abe’s death, and she now understands why everyone is astounded that Eli talks to her and smiles at her.
Later that night, Auden visits Eli at the bike shop. Auden suggests they talk, and Eli responds that “she knows” about Abe by her pitying look (151). Eli liked talking to Auden because she didn’t know his past; he treated her normally, not feeling sorry for him. Auden saves the situation by saying she doesn’t feel sorry for him, but she’s angry he didn’t warn her about Belissa. Eli confirms that Belissa isn’t his girlfriend, but Auden reveals she’s not the social type with the knowledge to avoid someone’s ex-girlfriend.
When Auden mentions a late-night diner with gross coffee, Eli brings her to a laundromat with a bakery/coffee shop in the back. The elderly owner serves them coffee and homemade pie. She joins Eli for errands, like picking up bike parts. They hang out until five o’clock in the morning. Comfortable with him, she tells Eli she thinks it’s too late for her to recreate things she missed, like slumber parties. Auden doesn’t feel there is a point in trying to experience classic kid or high school things, but Eli believes there doesn’t need to be a point, which is a new, interesting idea to Auden.
Chapters 5-8 Analysis
The artificial wave sound drives Auden nearly mad since she thinks the ocean waves are better for Thisbe. However, the wave machine becomes a symbol of learning not to judge, as the noise works for Thisbe. Often, such as with her mother’s grad student lover or her father not helping with the baby, Auden doesn’t speak her mind. The wave machine is a steady backdrop for Auden to learn to use her voice later in the book. She speaks up a bit to her mother when she defends Heidi and opens up to Eli about missing out on many things she wished she tried. Her journey to feeling the freedom of expression is underway.
Auden relishes the definitive, coherent numbers of accounting. She falls into numbers, which make sense to her, unlike the girlish universe of Maggie, Esther, and Leah. Auden doesn’t understand or value their dances, gossip, or fashion disputes. Usually unsocial, she cannot stop her growing feelings and curiosity about Eli, and she wonders about the mention of Abe in connection to him. Slowly, Auden begins to find ways she can relate to the girls, such as through her budding romance with Eli or bonding over college and their mothers’ high expectations.
Gradually, Auden peels back her outer layers to share her thoughts, feelings, and past with the girls and Eli. After the fight with Belissa when Auden froze, she explains her social life has been almost nonexistent. Maggie, Esther, and Leah say this explains why Auden slept with Jake and felt surprised when people drew conclusions about her. It also explains why she mostly keeps to herself. Though they thought she was stuck up, the girls decide she just didn’t know how to hang out. Auden feels ashamed that she did think she was better than them, judging them and assuming her superiority based on their looks, topics of conversation, and highly effeminate personalities. She doesn’t share this information with them though, as even she knows it would hurt their feelings.
Likewise, Auden learns to open her heart and become more emotional with Eli. Perhaps because she knows about the tragedy with Abe, she shares her story of social ineptitude and missing experiences she should have had. She fears she’s too old to act like a kid again, but Eli says that maybe she needs to have a pillow fight or go to a dance or ride a bike simply to do those things. Auden is learning that she can relive her childhood and bravely tackle new experiences. Even if she’s nervous, uneasy, or stressed, she is gaining stories that will shape her: stories and memories she may be able to put in The Best of Times picture frame. Auden is entering the social and emotional spheres of life.
Victoria and Auden’s fight in this section is significant to both of their character arcs, acting as an inciting conflict that separates them through the next stages of the narrative. Auden employs her power for the first time by denying her mother’s ideals. Though they have shared the same values for years, Auden argues against Victoria’s assessment that she needs to spend all her time studying and that Heidi is a delicate, unintelligent woman who is promoting a harmful feminine ideology. Auden shocks Victoria when she defends Heidi. Victoria also harshly judges her for becoming friends with people like Maggie and spending her nights with a boy in a new town, a boy who should be only a diversion before she attends college. Auden denies that she’s changing to the degree she insinuates, protesting that she’s simply having a social life and gaining work experience. Normally, Auden is shy and too timid to engage in conflict, so speaking her mind to Victoria is a significant step for her character, which will lead to her becoming more assertive and valuing her independence, even if her parents disapprove of her choices. Though Auden is hurt and upset by Victoria’s judgments, she doesn’t regret their argument. She thinks that Heidi deserved her protection.
Auden also feels her mother is too judgmental. Casting judgment and misjudging others are key themes that Victoria and Auden express well—though Auden is learning not to make assumptions about people without getting to know them. She misjudged Maggie, Esther, and Leah as delicate, ditzy girls with no admirable qualities until she spent time with them. The girls are fun, supportive, smart, and loyal. They protected her from Belissa’s wrath at the party. By accepting her into their group and rescuing her from Belissa’s anger, the three girls show Auden that she can trust others and be vulnerable with them. In contrast, Victoria judges Heidi, her entire store, and Maggie as not worthy of her time or interest. She doesn’t allow herself to get to know them on a deeper level, which would change her perspective. The theme of persevering, of trying instead of quitting, is also developed in this section in terms of becoming more socially and emotionally competent.
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