She's Not Cute
- Scout and Moose become friends again when they're paired together for a school project. Scout asks Moose for a convict baseball, but Moose says he hasn't found one yet.
- Apparently, Scout has also been making friends with Piper, who says that she might be able to get him a convict baseball. Because of course she'd say that. When Moose asks Scout why he's been talking to her, he says it's because "she's kinda cute" (23.10).
- Scout pushes the convict baseball thing again, and Moose agrees to find one for him.
- During class that afternoon, Moose thinks angrily about this new friendship. How much time have Piper and Scout been spending together?
- After school, Moose takes Natalie on a walk. He asks her about Mrs. Kelly, her new therapist, and Natalie responds by imitating Mrs. Kelly's voice in a comical way.
- Moose thinks that for a second, he sees her smile, and wishes that she could keep talking to him, like a normal person. He tries to ask her opinion of Scout and Piper, but it's too ambitious—Natalie's lost.
- They're hanging around the back wall of the prison, and Moose tells Natalie that they need to look for a baseball. Natalie frowns, trying hard to understand.
- Natalie soon amuses herself with organizing rocks on the ground, though, so Moose looks around and spies a gap in the rec yard wall. Golden opportunity. He's set on finding a ball for Scout before Piper does, though he doesn't know why.
- He glances back at Natalie, who's absorbed in her rock collection. One moment inside the yard won't hurt—and it would be too much trouble to disrupt Natalie. With that, he disappears behind the fence.