The Notebook

Nope, you haven't accidentally wandered into Nicholas Sparks-land. There are no waterways filled with white birds here. There is no shirtless Ryan Gosling.

We're talking about Rafe's notebook—the one in which he writes down all the details of Operation R.A.F.E. And the one Miller the Killer winds up swiping and then refusing to give back until Rafe pays him $1 per page:

"I don't have the money for all that," I told him. I'd practically filled up the notebook, and there were something like seventy pages in there.

Miller just shrugged, folded it in half, and shoved it under his arm. "You can take your time," he said, walking away." A dollar a page, Khatchadorian. Unless the price goes up, which it might."

I kind of felt like it already had. (35.30-32)

Yup, that notebook.

So why is this book so important to Rafe? It's just a boring old spiral notebook with a whole bunch of drawings and notes inside, right? Why can't he let it go?

Well, for starters, it's got a whole bunch of really embarrassing and incriminating stuff inside. There are all kinds of drawings, including little doodles about Jeanne Galletta, which are super personal.

But there are also all the rules he plans on breaking and his whole points system. All Miller has to do is turn this notebook over to any teacher and Rafe is toast.

The notebook also represents Rafe's big break from being boring, no-friends Rafe to risk-taking, rule-breaking Rafe. He's got all his plans and dreams for the future in there. Plus a few pretty blush-worthy secrets, too. He can't have a jerk like Miller just browsing through it every night.

Seriously. That notebook is private. It's Rafe's journal. It's his art. He needs it back…even if he has to pay through the nose for it.