The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks Chapters 39-40 Summary

The Return of Bunny Rabbit

  • Even though Matthew had previously said he'd come over to Frankie's place for Thanksgiving, he hasn't mentioned it since.
  • When she finally asks him, he says that Alpha had this skiing trip planned. He's pretty evasive about whether or not she can come along.
  • Frankie then does something bad when he's away from his chair at the library—she goes into his backpack.
  • There, she finds a print out of the emails between her and Porter in which Porter apologized to her. 
  • But since she found these while snooping, she can't exactly say anything. When it comes to violating each other's privacy, these two are even-stevens.
  • For Thanksgiving, Frankie goes back to Jersey to see her uncles and her cousins. Everyone calls her Bunny Rabbit again, which is just the worst. 
  • Her mom brings up Matthew, saying that it's nice that she has someone to take care of her while she's at school. 
  • And Frankie's all, gee thanks mom. She says she doesn't need a babysitter, but no one seems to listen to her.

The Fish Liberation Society

  • While wiling away the hours at home, Frankie tries to figure out what the deal is with the printouts in Matthew's backpack. 
  • After some serious thought, she thinks she's figured it out: Matthew probably made Porter apologize to Frankie about the whole cheating thing, but Porter wasn't supposed to ask Frankie out to lunch. That's why Matthew was so weird about the whole thing. 
  • Frankie spends her time at Thanksgiving just wandering around her mom's house and being bored. Matthew doesn't call her. 
  • She heads back to school, where the next Loyal Order prank involves stealing the guppy statue at school (a classic Bassets prank according to the history) and replacing it with a basset hound lawn ornament. They also deliver a ransom note to Headmaster Richmond demanding the end of mandatory chapel (for freedom of religion reasons). 
  • Surprise, surprise—the prank actually works. Richmond posts a notice that assembly is going to be moved.
  • But instead of returning the guppy, the pranksters deliver a series of clues, which lead to the empty swimming pool of the old gymnasium where the guppy has been hidden.
  • When Frankie tries to talk to Matthew about the symbolism behind the whole prank—how it means that the old values of the school are obsolete—he doesn't seem to get it. And he definitely doesn't want to talk about it. He just wants to make out.
  • So Frankie just excuses herself, disappointed in the whole thing.