This chapter things basically finish devolving into a romantic sitcom B-movie. Noah goes with her to her art class, there’s a substitute so he pretends like he’s supposed to be there, and then he stripes half-naked to be a drawing subject while everyone insists that that’s what their teacher had planned.

At this point, I don’t even care that Noah is an ass that rolls right over Mara’s objections to him being in class and the teacher’s objections that he not strip. I don’t care about all the teenage girls who dissolve into fainting spells at the sight of his bare chest as if they’ve never been to an Avengers movie. I can’t. We have reached beyond the point of my caring. Not only is more of the same bullshit we’ve already had before, but it’s now gotten so ridiculous and contrived that I just do not care anymore.

They talk about her artwork afterwards, and for the first time in the entire book Noah is actually halfway decent and supportive. Then it’s lunch time, continuing on the parade of “plot, what plot?” that is so standard for the middle of these sorts of books.

“If you want to go, we can go.”

He raised an eyebrow. “That was easier than I expected. My body must have addled your good sense.”

I sighed. “Why do you insist on making me hate you?”

“I’m not making you hate me. I’m making you love me.”

Damn him for being right.

“So you’re giving in?” he asked. “Just like that?”

I started walking. “How much worse could it be after everything else today?”

That doesn’t sound like someone who’s smitten. That sounds like someone who is emotionally exhausted.

Speaking of emotionally exhausted, now that Noah knows without a doubt about her history, her episodes, and her deep-seated emotional issues…the fact that he manipulates and preys on her emotions just seems ten times worse. Saying that he’s addled her with his good looks might be a joke in a different context, but when he literally knows that her emotional stability is stretched thin already, admitting that he’s trying to stretch it more on purpose is…scum.

Mara admits that having the entire school speculate about her sex life is no fun at all, and Noah gets angry saying he was trying to make it clear she was different to avoid just this. And he does that by…taking his shirt off in class and staring directly at her while smirking? Kissing her in the middle of a crowded hallway? Good lord, what was he doing to other girls if his actions right now are supposed to indicate chastity?

And if he was really that concerned, he would have listened to her way back when she said she didn’t want to be all buddy-buddy with him during school in the first place.

People would think I was a slut. They likely already did. And even though Noah was different—seemed different—from the person Jamie had warned me about, that didn’t mean our thing wouldn’t be over tomorrow.

Mara is upset that everyone thinks she’s a slut despite doing nothing except drawing Noah’s attention and being unable to shake him. She’s upset that everyone would think she’s a slut despite not having sex at all, much less with only one man.

She then proceeds to do exactly jack-diddly about her assessment of Anna as a “slut,” even though she now knows Anna didn’t sleep with Noah and the only indication she has of her “sluttiness” is Jamie’s word.

She also doesn’t change her opinion of Anna despite knowing that “Having everyone stare and wonder what sort of hijinks your vagina’s been up to isn’t as thrilling as one might imagine.” Regardless of what your sex life really is or isn’t, having people talk about it and make judgments on it sucks, a fact that Mara has firsthand knowledge of now. And…and nothing.

Skip ahead to exams week. Mara tells us in summary that she’s done very well in History and English, and passably in Algebra thanks to Jamie’s dedicated tutoring.

Also, Mara has been taking her Zyprexia this whole time and reports feeling better and having no bad dreams.

Interesting, since everything I’ve looked up on the subject says that the first few days on the medication (at least) can cause slow reaction times, disordered thinking, bad dreams, headaches, and excessive sleepiness. Doesn’t seem like something you want to be dealing with in the middle of your exams. They suggest not driving or doing anything that requires you to be alert.

Other side effects include weight gain, high blood pressure and blood sugar, dizzy spells upon standing, and susceptibility to dehydration. (Mara has already complained repeatedly about the heat before starting the medication.)

Every page I looked at also points out that it’s primarily used to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Both of which, I don’t think I need to point out, require MORE THAN ONE FUCKING HOUR-LONG OFFICE VISIT IN ORDER TO DIAGNOSE.

I did find a few mentions of Zyprexa being used to treat PTSD, but it’s effectiveness is questionable and it’s only been used for severe forms of the disorder. Basically, if she was going to be on Zyprexa for that, she wouldn’t be in school I the first place.

But the book has zero cares for any of that and instead skips merrily along to Mara’s exam in Spanish, which is an oral exam in which the teacher just asks questions to the students in front of the whole class.

When it’s Mara’s turn, Morales asks about a historical figure that wasn’t on their list of topics to be prepared to talk about.

I took World History last year, and it just so happened my final project was on sixteenth-century Panama. What were the odds?

Well, considering the fact that you’ve already used this excuse once in this book (in English on her first day of class) I’d say pretty fucking astronomical. What a totally lazy copout.

And why does the teacher hate Mara so much, anyway? Has she done anything, literally anything, in that class to draw attention besides be new? I get the fact that teachers just suck sometimes, but usually they have an instigating point when they single a student out particularly.

Mara starts rattling on in flawless Spanish about this historical figure, and every time Morales tells her “enough” Mara replies with “I’m not finished” and keeps going.

For a second, my legs threatened to bolt to the nearest desk. But as Morales quickly lost her composure, a juicy thrill coursed through my veins. I couldn’t resist.

She does this expressly to needle and nettle the teacher that everyone knows already has a poor temper.

This goes on through four “sit down” “no” exchanges before the teacher flat out kicks her out of class, and she leaves to everyone applauding her. Because of course.

Fuck that; I’d have kicked her sorry ass out, too. You don’t ignore a direct (and reasonable) command four times purely out of spite and then get to keep your halo.

After she leaves and class is over, Jamie catches up to her and points out that, while he’s very impressed with her teenaged rebellion, since the exam is subjective she’ll probably be failed.

“No one in that classroom is going to back up your story except little old me.

He says, after the whole class applauded her during her exit.

Why wouldn’t they back her up? I mean, does anyone actually hate Mara? We don’t get to see her interact with the rest of the school much, so they seem rather neutral overall, it’s just Anna that has any particular animosity towards her. So…? Besides, Morales would have to straight-up lie about the subject matter or else admit she asked a question that her student wasn’t prepared for in order to fail her, so it would be pretty easy to trip her up. It’s not like she could just say “well her answer didn’t meet my standards” and call it a day.

Jamie recorded the whole thing for posterity, so Mara can use that to contest whatever grade she gets.

She wanders off to meet up with her brother and go home, and Daniel even says that Morales is universally reviled by the student body, so why would no one stand up for Mara again?

What would Morales do, fail the whole class? She would get in trouble for that. Fancy schools don’t like it when an entire class fails at once. It looks bad on their records.

There is more domestic banter about whatever because this book is just so fucking riveting, isn’t it?

his overachieving OCDness.

Well you haven’t treated anything else with tact so far this book, I guess we can’t expect this either.

Mara answers a phone call and it’s some whispered voice telling her that her dad has to drop the case or else he’ll be sorry, then they hang up. Mara tries to get the number off caller ID, but the ID didn’t even register an incoming call at all, much less the number.

Mara freaks out, wondering if she imagined the call or blacked out while deleting it from the call history. Hey, we’re back to the low-level confusing semi-plausible spookiness which is the only part of his book I actually like.

She calls her father and asks what would happen if he dropped the case. Mr. Dyer admits that the judge probably wouldn’t allow it, or at least not allow it without Mr. Dyer having a black eye on his record. So Mara doesn’t say anything, because there’s no proof of the call and if she acts “crazy” again her parents might pull her out of school.

And not being able to graduate on time or go to college right away—that would not help me cope with the stress.

Um, excuse you, have you seen how stressful the college application process is? Or the first year of adulting? I think going through with all that isn’t going to help you cope with the stress.

You know what, everything about this only makes sense if Mara is the only person who thinks she’s crazy. Because I can honestly forgive a lot from this girl who is scared, stressed, traumatized, and probably grossly misinformed thanks to the generally shittiness of our culture when it comes to mental health. But when the plot/people in her life support her weird assumptions and I get the feeling I’m supposed to take this all seriously? Nope. Nope. Sorry, all the nope in the world.