- As per her mother's request, Mae leaves her parents' place. She isn't too happy about it, though. In fact, she's furious, and she feels like they "had no right" to send her away (1.21.1).
- Mae decides to blow off some steam by taking a kayak out onto the bay, so she heads back to her favorite marina to see if it's still open.
- It is, but just barely. The proprietor's son tells her that she can take a kayak out for about an hour, but no longer than that.
- Mae heads out onto the bay, and after staring down a couple of seals, she makes her way to a strange contraption that she sees floating in the distance.
- As it turns out, it's a houseboat (of a kind), and its occupants are home. They invite Mae to come aboard and share a drink with them, and she does.
- After chatting and sharing wine with these two complete strangers—people about whom she knows absolutely nothing—Mae heads back to return the kayak, feeling peaceful and content.
- On Monday morning, Mae finds a slew of messages from fellow Circlers who say that they missed her at various events over the weekend.
- Dan calls Mae into his office before she can get started on her usual round of client interactions, and he lets her know that she's going to be taking on some added responsibilities now that an even newer intake of newbies is joining the team.
- Mae works alone for a few hours until the newbies arrive, and after they join her in the office, her workload increases.
- Not only does Mae have to handle her own customer transactions, but she now has to supply guidance and answers to the newbies, too, whenever they're stumped by the questions that clients pose to them.
- At lunchtime, Mae's coworker Jared tells her that she ought to visit the company clinic that afternoon. Apparently, she was supposed to go during her first week.
- The rest of the afternoon passes quickly as Mae continues to be swamped with work, and at 4 p.m., Mae leaves for her appointment at the clinic.
- At the clinic, Mae meets the glamorous Dr. Villalobos, who fills her in on the health plan that all of the Circle's employees enjoy.
- As she starts Mae's check-up, Dr. Villalobos gets Mae to drink a thick green smoothie. Once Mae has swallowed it down, Dr. Villalobos tells her that she's just swallowed a tiny sensor that'll provide Mae (and the clinic) with continuous readouts of her bodily functions.
- Mae is able to view the readouts on a digital bracelet that Dr. Villalobos gives her, and she's captivated by the new technology.
- As they run through other basic info about Mae's medical history, Dr. Villalobos inquires about Mae's parents' health. When she does, Mae breaks down and tells the glamorous doctor all about her father's MS and the constant insurance battles that her parents are fighting.
- After hearing her out, Dr. Villalobos suggests that Mae look into getting her parents onto the Circle's health plan.
- After her appointment at the clinic, Mae goes to see her friend Annie in her office. There, she tells Annie what Dr. Villalobos suggested about getting her parents onto the Circle's health plan.
- Annie promises to do what she can, and in less than five minutes, Mae's parents are on the company plan.
- When Mae calls her parents to tell them the news, they're elated. Thanks to Mae, their financial stress is now a thing of the past.
- That night, Mae decides to go out and celebrate by taking in some of the many events that the Circle's campus will be hosting.
- Eventually, Mae decides to check out a circus that's going to be performing out on the lawn, and she makes her way over, expecting to find at least a few familiar faces when she arrives.
- At the circus, Mae wanders around and says hello to a few people she knows. Soon, she starts scanning the field for a place where she'll be able to find something to drink.
- As she makes her way over to a drinks booth, Mae sees that one of the circus performers is rushing toward her. He's carrying three swords, and Mae is sure that he's about to run right into her.
- All of a sudden, someone behind Mae grabs her and throws her out of harm's way.
- When Mae looks up, she sees that her knight in shining armor is Kalden—the mysterious man who once hovered over her shoulder and watched her work.
- Kalden and Mae find some food together and bring it all to a spot where they can sit down under some lemon trees.
- When Kalden tries to impress Mae by picking a lemon for her, he winds up with a hard green one. He decides to give the tree a good shake so that the ripe fruit will rain down, and it works—the only trouble is that some of the lemons rain down right onto Mae's head.
- Kalden apologizes, and Mae tells him that it's fine.
- The next morning, Mae calls Annie to tell her about Kalden. Annie pokes fun at some of the characteristics that Mae tells her about—like the fact that Kalden's hair is completely grey—and as they chat, Mae realizes that she doesn't know Kalden's surname.
- After she gets off the phone, Mae tries to find Kalden in the Circle's company directory, but she doesn't have any luck.
- When that doesn't work, Mae indulges in some pleasant memories of the way Kalden had kissed her when they parted ways the night before.
- Over the course of the next couple of days, Mae tries to track Kalden down using the Circle's social feeds, but she can't find any sign of him.
- Mae eventually asks Annie for help, and Annie becomes concerned when she realizes how hard this guy is to find.
- As Annie tells Mae, the Circle has had some experiences with stalkers and spies before now.
- By the end of the week, Mae is feeling frazzled by Kalden's invisibility, and she feels like his determination to stay off the radar is not only strange, but aggressive.
- On Friday, Mae gathers with the rest of the Circle's employees for another Dream Friday presentation. Today, they're watching a press conference being held in Washington, where one of America's congresswomen is calling for a federal investigation into the Circle.
- Senator Williams argues that the Circle has become a monopoly, and, as such, it should forcibly be broken up by the federal government.
- After the presentation, Mae finds Annie, and the two of them head out together to find some food.
- As they walk, Annie and Mae chat about Kalden, and Annie reiterates her worry that he may be some kind of nefarious spy. She asks Mae to tell her the next time she sees him.
- As Friday draws to a close, Dan asks Mae to meet with him in his office before heading out. She does, and, after praising the high reviews that she's been getting from customers, Dan starts to give Mae a talking to.
- As Dan tells her, Mae hasn't been participating in the Circle's various on-campus events nearly as much as she should be. Not only that, but she hasn't been using the campus much at all—she hasn't been shopping at the company store, using the company gym, or exploring any of the other fine facilities that the Circle has to offer.
- After telling Mae that he'd like to see her working to be more present on campus, Dan passes her off to two familiar faces—company ambassadors Josiah and Denise—who take her into a nearby conference room for another little chat.
- Like Dan, Josiah and Denise hammer home the point that Mae should be attending way more of the "totally optional" events on campus (1.28.65). They go even further than Dan, though, and grill Mae about her social media presence, too.
- As Denise and Josiah grill her, they're shocked to discover that Mae has hobbies—like kayaking—that no one else knows about.
- When they discover this news, Denise and Josiah imply that Mae has been acting selfishly by keeping knowledge and experiences to herself rather than sharing them with the wider world.
- Denise and Josiah just can't understand why Mae doesn't want to share more of herself with her fellow Circlers. Doesn't she care about participation and community?
- Before they let her go, Denise and Josiah ask Mae to participate in "a special program" (1.28.183) that might help her to combat the self-esteem issues that they suspect are at the root of her reticence.
- Mae heads back to her desk after her meeting with Denise and Josiah.
- After berating herself for being such a selfish, no-good slacker, she decides to get to work on her social media presence right then and there.
- Over the next several hours, Mae works at her social media presence like a fiend—joining groups, commenting on threads, adding "smiles" to people's pictures and posts, and "zinging" her thoughts about various company programs.
- Soon, Mae's "PartiRank" (that is, her "participation rank") on the Circle's social feeds has improved considerably, and she feels totally wiped out.
- Rather than heading home to sleep, Mae decides to spend the night in one of the dorms on campus.
- When she gets there, Mae decides to take another crack at her social media circles to see if she can increase her PartiRank even more.
- Finally, shortly after 3 a.m., Mae decides to call it a night.
- The next morning, Mae receives thousands of congratulatory "smiles" and messages from her fellow Circlers.
- Mae spends the entire weekend doing whatever she can to strengthen her PartiRank, and she continues working at it during all of her spare time the following week.
- Over the course of the week, Mae follows hundreds of people, writes comments galore, and joins group after group.
- Finally, on Thursday night, she decides to pull an all-nighter so that she can break into the PartiRank's T2K (that is, its top 2,000 users) while everyone else is asleep.
- As Mae works, she thinks about Kalden and wonders where he's gone.
- Then, since thinking about Kalden frustrates her, Mae decides that what she really needs is "someone who could be known"—not to mention someone who "could be located" (1.30.14).