No More Dead Dogs

Later that night, Wallace calls up Rick and Feather’s houses, but they’re at the production of Old Shep, My Pal. Suddenly, Wallace realizes one of them might be planning to destroy the performance. Despite Mr. Fogelman’s order not to come to the performance, Wallace goes because he can’t bear the thought of all that hard work being ruined. The drama club may have turned on him, but he “refused to do the same to them” (156).

Wallace sneaks into the school and finds Rachel in an otherwise empty hallway. He tells her about the possible attack on the show and not to tell anyone else so that the cast doesn’t panic. Rachel returns backstage, and Wallace watches the production from the football coach’s office. The play is amazing, and Wallace gets chills listening to his dialogue being spoken in front of an audience.

Feather leaves the performance and goes to his locker. Thinking he’s getting something to ruin the show, Wallace tackles him and finds out it was just a camera. The boys realize anyone could have had Wallace’s jersey, and they find the recording of the post-game party from last year in the coach’s office—the last time Wallace saw the shirt before it showed up in the shredded scripts. Amidst the partying, Dylan steals Wallace’s jersey out of his locker.

Wallace and Feather run backstage, where Dylan is hiding. Dylan admits to everything and tells Wallace how the play’s ending was changed so Old Shep lives. Dylan put a cherry bomb on the Old Shep prop, and Wallace runs onstage, jumping atop the prop with a pillow just before it explodes. 

There’s a moment of absolute stillness before Rachel gets the show back on track. They finish to a standing ovation, and Rachel drags Wallace backstage. She demands to know who attacked the show, and Wallace can’t bring himself to tell her it was her brother. Instead, he says he did it, shocking Rachel as well as himself because “after fourteen years of total honesty, I, Wallace Wallace, had told a lie” (173).

Rachel learns it was Dylan, not Wallace, who attacked the play. She wants to be mad but realizes she has to live with her brother and so makes amends. Dylan gives her a letter that came in yesterday’s mail. It’s from Julia Roberts and tells Rachel she’s crazy about Wallace and “don’t let him get away” (177). Seeing it in writing, Rachel knows it’s true. She’s scared to talk to Wallace again after how she treated him but is determined to try.

She sits with Wallace at lunch one day. Wallace apologizes for lying and asks if Rachel wants to hang out sometime. Rachel wants to say yes but is nervous it will hurt Trudi. A moment later, Trudi joins their table with Cavanaugh, her new crush, in tow. Trudi invites Cavanaugh, Rachel, and Wallace over to watch a movie after school. Wallace and Rachel agree, and Wallace teases Cavanaugh into joining them. Cavanaugh fires back that Wallace’s spot on the bench at football games is waiting for him, to which Wallace says he’ll take it because it’s “exactly where I want to be” (179).