Paper Things

Ari is playing with her paper things when Janna comes into the room and asks her if she’s too old to still play with dolls. Ari has nothing to say to that. She is told to go back to bed and sleep some more. When she wakes up again, she hears Gage and Janna arguing. It sounds like Gage and Janna both want Ari to stay with Janna, but Gage only wants her to stay for a short time, while Janna wants her to stay permanently. Ari starts packing her things to leave with Gage. Ari realizes that her decision to leave with Gage is one she is making on her own this time and feels sad knowing that she has to leave Janna, someone she loves, behind. Janna starts to say something, but Gage takes Ari and heads out the door.

Gage insists that Ari stay at Briggs’s apartment for the day rather than go to school while still sick, even though she will get a detention for absence without a call from Janna. Briggs warns Ari to be extremely quiet during the day so that the landlord doesn’t find out she’s there. Gage tells Ari to spend the day catching up on schoolwork. When Ari is alone, she considers playing with her paper dolls instead of working but knows Gage would be disappointed in her. She starts organizing her project on Alcott and editing before taking a break at lunchtime. Ari looks out the window and sees Fran walking by. She dashes out impulsively to give Fran her paper airplane from Reggie. Fran thanks Ari and urges her to go back inside where it’s warm, telling Ari she’s been missed at Head Start lately. Ari goes into the building but realizes she locked herself out of Briggs’s apartment. Fearing being seen by the landlord, she goes outside and crouches on the side of the building, holding herself for warmth. People walk by and look at her, but nobody stops to help. After a few minutes, Ari goes back inside and sits by the door of Briggs’s apartment. She hears the phone ringing inside and knows it’s Gage. When Gage shows up a while later, he is angry that Ari is locked out. Ari cries and apologizes. Gage sits down beside Ari and blames himself for all the hardship she has experienced lately. Ari insists that Gage is doing a great job of taking care of her by being loyal, making sure she does her work, and leaving work early to make sure she was okay.

Ari sits in the detention room working on her Alcott project, finding quotes that inspire her. She comes across one that asks, “What do girls do who haven’t any mothers to help them through their troubles?” and wonders the same about her own life and what her mother would think of its current decline (247). Daniel walks in, interrupting her thoughts, and Ari lectures him for risking getting her in trouble again. Daniel questions why Ari is so set on attending a specific middle school, and Ari answers that it’s a family tradition. For the same reason, Daniel suggests reviving Crazy Hat Day next. Ari figures that she has already ruined her chances of going to a prestigious middle school, so she agrees. She points to another quote by Alcott about the treasure of friendship and tells Daniel it reminds her of him, making Daniel smile.

Daniel convinces Ari to apply to Carter because she has nothing to lose. Ari wonders whose address to put on the form given that she and Gage still do not have a place to live. Ari decides that she has had enough of this fact holding her back and goes to the library to find out where the Housing Authority is located. The librarian suggests finding the housing forms online, which Ari manages to do. Gage finds her and stops her before she can print them off. He yells at Ari for humiliating him and implying that he isn’t doing enough to find them a place. Gage calms down on the bus to Chloe’s, but Chloe is with a friend from university and tells Gage that they must study all night. Gage leaves with Ari, angry and frustrated once again, and asks Ari to call Sasha to see if she can stay there. Ari already knows it’s unlikely to happen since Sasha doesn’t seem interested in talking to her anymore. Ari calls anyway, hoping it might be a chance to finally tell Sasha the truth. Sasha admits that she thinks Ari has been acting strangely lately and feels betrayed by Ari’s secrecy. Ari hangs up, certain she has lost her best friend. She feels invisible again.

Ari and Gage head to the soup kitchen to get some dinner. They hope to sleep at the Lighthouse shelter for the night. In line for food, Ari meets Omar and his family, who are also waiting for food. Inside, she sees Sasha’s new best friend volunteering at the soup kitchen. She asks Gage to fill a bowl for her and runs outside to escape being seen, where she finds Reggie and his dog. Ari offers to watch the dog while Reggie gets some food and realizes that many people in the neighborhood seem to know Reggie’s dog. When Reggie comes back out, he greets them and takes a family to his storage unit. Ari realizes that she and Gage aren’t the only people he helps. Ari and Gage are told that they can sleep in the shelter, and West hopes nobody will notice that Ari is too young to be there. Ari is nervous to sleep in a room with girls she has never met, and her fears turn out to be valid. While doing her project, one of the girls takes Ari’s folder of paper things and starts making fun of the pieces inside. She and some other girls begin defacing the dolls in pen as Ari timidly asks for them back. When the girls get bored, they hand back the folder, but Ari already knows that her precious paper things are ruined.

Ari lies awake throughout the night. When she finally falls asleep, it seems like only moments before she is woken up again by the sound of Gage’s voice. It is still night. She knows that he must be leaving after giving up a bed to someone younger and grabs her bag to join him. Gage tries to convince Ari to stay at the shelter, but she is determined to stay with him, so they head to Chloe’s place. Rather than go inside, however, Gage breaks into Chloe’s car, and he and Ari stay there for the night. Ari tells Gage what she found in Janna’s scrapbook, which Gage finds hard to believe. Gage tells Ari about a housing project for people who are trying to find homes but who need a place to live in the meantime. Ari imagines it being much like her experience at the shelter the night before and knows it wouldn’t be a place she could ever invite friends to. Gage expresses frustration at Chloe’s view of him as “homeless,” but Ari realizes that she and Gage are no different from Reggie or any of the other people they see without a home.