48 pages • 1 hour read
Ally CarterI'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2006A 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 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Cameron “Cammie” Morgan, the narrator and protagonist of the novel, opens by telling the reader the book is a covert operations report on a mission from the previous school semester. Cammie is 15 years old and a sophomore at Gallagher School for Exceptional Young Women, which is really a school where teenage girls learn to be spies. As the daughter of the headmistress, Cammie returned to school early, and the main story begins on the first day of the previous semester with Cammie watching as her classmates return from break.
Cammie’s specialty is staying unnoticed and has earned the nickname “Chameleon.” From a hiding place in her dorm room, Cammie listens to her classmates tell one another about their travels and adventures over the summer. By contrast, she spent the break visiting her dad’s farm in Nebraska, something she isn’t eager to share. Liz, one of Cammie’s roommates, arrives, and the two head down to dinner, concerned that Bex, their third roommate, isn’t there yet. Liz is sure something terrible happened because “Gallagher Girls are never late” (7).
At dinner, another sophomore comes to Cammie and Liz’s table in a panic because their old Covert Operations professor has been replaced. The teachers enter a moment later, down one from the usual count of 21. Cammie’s mom begins her welcome-back speech but is interrupted when a man who “would have made James Bond feel insecure” bursts in (12), followed by Bex. The man takes his place at the faculty table, and Bex joins her friends, saying nothing about the newcomer.
Chapter 2 Summary
The new teacher’s name is Joe Solomon, and he’s an immediate heartthrob at a school of teen girls. Cammie, Liz, Bex, and the rest of the sophomore class stay up all night talking about him and what his presence means. The next morning, they all take extra care with their appearances. As a result, they miss breakfast, and by the time Covert Operations rolls around, the girls are starving but beyond excited for their first class with their new teacher.
The Covert Operations class takes place in an underground classroom only accessible by an elevator with retinal scanners to make sure unauthorized students don’t enter. The girls find the classroom empty and spend the five minutes until Mr. Solomon arrives trying to figure out where he came from. When he gets there, he asks a rapid-fire series of general education questions, which the girls answer, but when he asks questions about what they’ve observed since he entered the room, none of them have any idea. Disappointed, Mr. Solomon informs them that they are smart but “also kind of stupid” (19).
Mr. Solomon lectures them on how they’ll have to learn to observe better if they want to survive in the field, making veiled comments about Cammie’s dad, who died on a mission and whose body was never found. Cammie gets more and more upset but says nothing out of a dual sense of anger and a desire to remain unseen. Mr. Solomon lets the class go 45 minutes early, and they emerge into the main part of the school to find a Code Red in progress. Another professor rushes to Cammie and grabs her arm, saying “your mother needs you. Now” (23).
Chapter 3 Summary
A Code Red means someone who doesn’t know the school is for spies is approaching. Bex and Cammie follow their professor through the organized chaos of students rushing to cover activities and the hallways rearranging themselves to hide anything spy-related to the headmistress’s office. Senator McHenry and his family, including his daughter Macey, are pulling up the long driveway as they speak, and due to all the upperclassmen being indisposed, Cammie’s mom needs Cammie and Bex to give the family a tour. Cammie and Bex agree, knowing their real mission is to “make sure they never know just how exceptional we really are” (28).
Bex and Cammie give Macey a tour, making the school sound boring and terrible to attend by emphasizing things like their ugly uniforms and the lack of cell service. Down one hallway, the girls find purple smoke pouring out from the crack beneath a door to the Research and Development department. Bex and Cammie try to direct Macey away, but she refuses to move until Mr. Solomon arrives and offers to show her something on the second floor. The girls follow him upstairs, where he leads them through the school chapel with its stained-glass windows. Cammie is amazed by the beauty she’s never noticed before and, remembering how poorly her class noticed things in Covert Operations class, feels “that we'd just had our first CoveOps test. And we'd failed” (38).
After Mr. Solomon leaves, Macey tells Cammie and Bex that there’s no way he’s only there to teach. A guy as good-looking as Solomon is probably going to have an affair with one of the teachers, and given how attractive Cammie’s mom is, Macey expects the two to get together soon.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
These opening chapters introduce the main characters of the novel, as well as the Gallagher Academy. Cammie, Liz, and Bex are best friends and roommates, and each girl has her own specialty as a spy. Cammie blends in while Liz is the brains and Bex is the muscle. Over the course of the book, the girls face challenges for which their unique skillsets give them an edge while working together. The Gallagher Academy is top-secret, and it’s cover story for the nearby town is as a school for rich girls. As a result, the school has a reputation as snobby, which becomes a major plot point later in the book.
Mr. Solomon’s arrival at the school is both foreshadowing and a way to deliver information about Cammie’s dad. Mr. Solomon worked with Cammie’s dad in the field and knows first-hand how it feels to lose a partner. In the past, Covert Operations was taught by someone who told stories from their time in the field, but from the first day, Mr. Solomon forces the girls to face the gaps in their education, something Cammie and the others initially struggle with. Mr. Solomon’s emphasis on observation forces Cammie, Bex, and Liz to do better and increase their spy capabilities by the end of the book. Mr. Solomon’s lecture about being observant and Macey thinking he will get together with Cammie’s mom foreshadow events that deeply disturb Cammie and force her to grow.
Cammie noticing the beauty in the chapel is the first time she realizes how poor her observation skills are. Despite having attended the school since the seventh grade, she never noticed the detail of the windows or how the sunlight plays through them, things she’s likely seen hundreds of times. Cammie noticing beauty here also foreshadows how her increasing observational skills allow her to notice Josh—something she thinks is beautiful.
