The Yard (Julianna)
- Juli is having some realizations about her family. She never thought about money much before, but Bryce's mean comments about her house being a dump have her thinking. Even though her parents both work super hard, they never buy new things or go on any trips… and they never fix up the front yard.
- So one day Juli tells her parents that she wants to make the yard her new project. This starts a pretty intense conversation. Juli learns that her parents don't own this house but rent it, and she realizes that her parents don't have a lot of money because they spend it taking care of her Uncle David. Juli has never met her uncle before, but she knows that he is her dad's brother and that he is disabled.
- After this discussion sparks a fight between Juli's parents, everyone calms down and makes up. Juli feels super lucky that her parents are so awesome.
- The next day Juli decides to do her part for her family by working on the yard. And then the next day Bryce's grandpa comes over and introduces himself as Chester Duncan. He wants to lend a hand.
- At first Juli is offended that Bryce's grandpa would feel sorry for her after the whole eggs incident, but soon it becomes clear that Chet didn't know anything about Bryce throwing out the eggs. And it turns out Chet has some pretty awesome stories, which makes cleaning up the yard and building the fence go by a lot faster.
- One day Chet tells Juli a theory of his. Remember how Juli and her dad talk about Mr. B's theory that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts? (You can hop back to Chapter 4 for a refresher.) Well Chet's theory is a wee bit different: "with people it's sometimes that the whole is less than the sum of the parts" (8.100).
- Juli realizes that this is true of a lot of her classmates, especially that obnoxious Shelly Stalls. But what about Bryce? She can't figure that guy out.
- As Chet and Juli have more convos, he gives her some advice about Bryce: try to see what's under the surface. Well Juli is definitely having some trouble with that one. They also end up talking about how Juli's parents rent the house and about Juli's Uncle David.
- After about a week of this yard work, Bryce finally comes over to apologize. But the funny thing is that the apology doesn't necessarily make Juli feel better—now she just feels "uneasy" (8.148). Poor Juli can't figure out whether she's happy, sad, angry, or just peachy.