68 pages • 2 hours read
John David AndersonPosted
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 6-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Fish”
The next day, the sticky notes become a staple within Eric’s group. Bench and Deedee use them for jokes and weekend plans. In English class, Wolf passes Eric a note asking if he minds having Rose sit with them again. Eric doesn’t answer, but during lunch, he sees Wolf and Rose at their table, laughing “Like old friends” (90). Rose is good at origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. To demonstrate, she takes Eric’s napkin and asks him to name an animal. Wanting something difficult, Eric asks for a Komodo dragon. Rose folds the napkin into something resembling a fish, insisting it’s a Komodo dragon.
Someone stops by to announce one of their classmates is going to run “the Gauntlet” that afternoon. The Gauntlet is a steep hill with an obstacle course of trees, and running it involves coasting down via bicycle without flipping or crashing. Rose says it sounds dumb. Wolf agrees, but an angry Bench states he’s going and demands to know if Eric’s going with him. Feeling trapped, Eric agrees, even though he doesn’t want to go. Bench picks up his lunch tray and leaves. Wolf waves, but Bench’s hands “[are] so full he [doesn’t] wave back” (98).
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Gauntlet”
On the way to the Gauntlet that afternoon, Eric thinks about his uncle, who used to disarm bombs in the army, and he compares middle school to a minefield. Bench interrupts Eric’s thoughts to discuss lunch and how things feel different—wrong even—at their table since Rose joined them. Bench dislikes Rose’s presence, but Eric doesn’t have an opinion.
After the challenger crashes and fails the Gauntlet, Bench asks Eric if he’d ever try the hill. Eric says no, but Bench says he would to protect his reputation, adding that it couldn’t be too difficult not to crash. Eric notes that not crashing is good advice for any situation and wishes “it were always that easy” (114).
Later that night, Eric receives an email from Rose. It’s a link to a video about making origami Komodo dragons. Eric tries with a sticky note but ends up with a mess. The email makes him feel bad about how he treated Rose at lunch. It doesn’t feel right to ignore her now, so he responds with “[M]aybe I should just start with a fish” (116). He sends the email and refreshes a few times to check for a reply.
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Revolution”
The next day, students outside of Eric’s group start leaving sticky notes on lockers. Deedee is certain they started “A communications revolution” (120), but Eric shrugs off the idea. When Eric enters English, Rose is sitting in his seat; she soon returns to her own seat. Mr. Sword passes out copies of Julius Caesar and gives a lecture on ancient Rome. One of the bullies makes a snide remark about Romans being gay, which bothers Wolf.
Eric goes to lunch with Bench, where they find Rose already seated with Deedee and Wolf. Bench refuses to join them and pulls Eric aside to tell him about how his sport teams make fun of Rose, calling her “Moose.” Bench leaves, and Eric joins the group at the table, feeling mismatched, “Like when you accidentally put the wrong shoe on the wrong foot” (129).
Using one of Deedee’s dice, the group plays a game: If Rose rolls an even number, she shares a secret; if she rolls odd, one of the boys has to share. After Deedee and Wolf tell serious stories, Rose snatches the dice and rolls even. She reveals she had many mean nicknames at her last school, which makes Eric feel guilty about “Moose.” Rose rolls odd, but the bell rings before Eric can share anything. She says he’s off the hook, but “the look in her eyes suggest[s] otherwise” (138), leaving Eric nervous.
Chapters 6-8 Analysis
Chapter 8’s “communications revolution” explores how people deliver messages. Deedee’s proclamation serves as both exaggeration and foreshadowing. It’s an exaggeration as the idea of leaving messages for others existed for centuries, as far back as humans writing on cave walls, and writing messages by hand is less technologically evolved than texting or other electronic communications. Deedee also unwittingly foreshadows BMS’s students learning about posting messages where everyone can see them. Later on in the story, a new revolution emerges. Until that point, sticky notes and texts are primarily used for sending mean or unimportant messages, with mean messages emphasizing that Anonymity Gives People Power and Words Can’t Be Taken Back. In a future chapter following the “TOTAL ROMAN” incident hinted at in the Prologue, students and staff alike will post positive messages as a united front. The students will eventually learn that messages don’t have to be cruel or meaningless; they can also be used to show support and encourage healing.
Bench’s thoughts on the Gauntlet in Chapter 7 show how he and Rose are both different from and similar to each other, deepening the theme of Similarities and Differences Are Illusions. Bench says he would run the Gauntlet to protect his reputation, while Rose later runs it to both protect her reputation and save her friends (Chapter 16). Rose replaces Bench in the group in more ways than one. She physically moves into his space at the lunch table and stays with the group at the end of the book when Bench leaves. They also play the same role within the group—protector. Bench is overly concerned with his reputation, though he does come to the group’s aid when they’re in need (Chapters 18-19). By contrast, reputation doesn’t matter to Rose, and she defends the group without a second thought (Chapter 15). Regardless of these substantial shared traits, Bench harbors bias against Rose because she is a girl and not fit, furthering the book’s discussion of how gender roles function in middle school and foreshadowing Bench’s eventual departure for a different social group.
Related Titles
By John David Anderson
