Friday—Four to Close
- Seeing the dead Charlies freaks Vera out so much that she forgets to study for her vocab test. Understandably, she decides that she should stay away from the mall from now on.
- When she gets to Pagoda Pizza, the owner Greg is lecturing Marie about how she's running the business; Vera goes into the back and talks with the pothead guys who work with her.
- Then she goes up front and starts taking calls and setting people up on runs. She gives herself suburbia runs because she's a girl, and going into town alone to deliver pizzas can be dangerous—there are a whole lot of creepers out there.
- She drives past the high school and sees that there's a football game going on. The last game she went to was when she was fourteen, with her dad and Charlie.
- When they dropped Charlie off afterward, Mrs. Kahn (Charlie's mom) was crying and Vera's dad told her to ignore it, which is what he always told her to do when it came to the loud arguments going on over at the Kahn house.
- Vera knew that Mr. Kahn didn't just yell at his wife—he hit her too. And when they argued, Vera could look out her window and see Charlie smoking.
- Even though Vera does a way more thorough job at Pizza Pagoda than the stoners, Marie still keeps them employed.
- Vera can understand Marie ignoring their sloppy cleanup after a shift, but she doesn't know how her dad could ask her to ignore the things that went on next door at Charlie's house.
- At the end of the shift, Marie asks if people will work New Year's Eve, since she'll pay drivers double commission. Vera volunteers because she doesn't have anything else to do now that Charlie is gone.