Chapter 9

In chapter seven Matt wrote emails to his "friends" requesting contact. Now in chapter nine my estimates were confirmed. The rumors did their job, his friends stay away from him and are not disposed to revive social contact with him. That's tough news for Matt where his situation was just about to get better again. Fortunately it does get better in the end. Ursula's and her friend's testimonies had payed off. Matt suspending is canceled and Matt has permission to go to school again from the next day on. He's happy.

Chapter 8

Since chapter eight, I think, Ursula has gotten into a "save-Matts-innocence-rush". To keep that up she is now even picking up a conflict with her parents who are hardly trying to keep her away from acting as Matts whitness. But she wins it, goes to Mr. Parrish and fullfills her promise to Matt. To guarantee 100% backup for Mr. Parrish Ursula wins a second whitness, her friend Eveann mcdowd. For me,that raised intensity of Ursulas input for Matt has gone too far to still speak of basic reasons like a pronounced sense for justice. I think we are about to enter level two: Love.

Chapter 7

In the beginning of chapter seven, Matt is working on his PC, checking his emails (he was suspended from school for at least 3 days). He notices the email from Ursula and is sceptic about it. He does not believe that the email is originally from Ursula but from a (former) friend of him, named Skeet, who is kidding with him. So he decides to contact his friends to maybe revive his social connections after he lost them caused by the rumors. Then he finally decides to call Ursula. I have to say that, for me, the following conversation between Matt and Ursula changed my opininion about Ursula almost completely. Ursula is caring about someone else? How..? Why..?? What the..? From the previous chapters I saw Ursula as someone who is seperating herself from "the other" with the objective to not to be able to identify with any of them. To reach that objective it's obvious that she has to concentrate almost everything she does on herself and now she is caring for someone she almost doesn't even know an d even tell that someone, in fact Matt, that she likes him?? Thats weird..

Chapter 6

In the sixth chapter the reader gets to know more details about Urulas life. While watching the news which are reporting about the bomb threat in the school, we also get to know her little sister, named Lisa. Despite she is the little sister, it seems she still gets more attention from her family. Lisa is not like her sister, she is a major girl and so also more liked by her parents than Urula is. To me, that looks like something Ursula does not like but knows how to deal about it/ how to depress it: She switches the topic back to the news and to her lost basketball match which finally makes write an email to her coach, Ms. Schultz, that she quits the team. For the rest of the chapter I can't go much further into detail because I was pissed again (I just skimmed it). I'm getting sick everytime when Urulas is back in her Inky Black crap, saying stuff like "ugly girl, warrior" or "ugly girl, stands alone". I think she is pushing it way to far with her nickname. But how come? I think the reason why she gave herself the nickname "ugly girl" is because she does not want to identify herself as Ursula Riggs, the weird Ursula Riggs, the unfeminine Ursula Riggs that not many usual people like to talk to. On the first view that looks pretty much negative. To push that away she makes it look positive (for herself) by looking at her difference to ther poeple like an advantage, but deep inside,I think it somehow tears her up. However, back to te rest of chapter six. After the evening news her mother and her sister set her up so she retreats into her room and tries to contact Matt by phone to help him out of his ..err.. complicated situation. By reason that no one, exepting the answering machine answers the phone, she sends him a short email with the request to contact her immediately.

Chapter 5

In the fifth chapter, Matts normal student life ends abruptly. The agents tell him what he's charged of and his entire world collapses. During the further interrogation he does some mistakes while trying to explain the agents his innocence. That's the second thing that set me up in this novel. Despite this is a whole new situation to Matt in which he has never been through or in before, the first basic rule, for me, when arrested without having done anything, would be to use my rights. Beneath some ales that would be talk less, think more, get a lawyer, and then explain the situation with clear words. Trying that, Matt gets himself into even more trouble. And here's our first advice of his nickname "big mouth"!

Chapter 4

The fourth chapter has no important value for the reader. Its is very short and tight written. Matt is beeing interrogated by the two FBI agents who arrested him. Not one of the three has any idea what's really going on or what has actually happened.

Chapter 3

The third chapter continues with Ursula Riggs, the "ugly girl". In the beginning she is still having some trouble about the lost game and the way her teammates and her coach now think of her (as a treator, I guess). Then she gets a call from another student which is also an important call to us because this is the point where we get to know the reason why Matt was arrested. A bomb threat allegedly announced by Matt. Just like Ursula, I doubt all those sporadic rumors that Matt wanted to blow up the school, that he planted IED's [*1] inside the cafetria or put a handgun upon his teacher during the drama club lesson from the beginning on. I like Ursula in her typical sceptic attitude but while reading through chapter two and three she really set me up. I don't think she really sees herself as "ugly girl", I think thats just her way to keep outside all the nagtive aspects she has in her life in comparison to the usual students she tries to avoid because they sometimes might remind her on those.
Chapter three is, I think, the first turning point in the novel because this is where you first get an idea of what is happening.

[*1 improvised explosive devices ]

Chapter 2

In the second chapter of our novel we get to know Urula Riggs who also tends to call herself "ugly girl". It turns out that she is the leader of the school's basketball team and a good one. On the other side she has not that many social connections as Matt or other usual students have. She tells us al lot about her life in and out of school and her difference to all the other students (the advantages and disadvantages). She is having a tensious basketball match against the high ranking school basketball team from Tarrytown. The match turns out to a fight, Ursula almost on her own against Tarrytown because her own team can't keep it up any longer. In the end she wins a penalty shot but misses it and everyone thinks she did it on purpose to take revenge on her team that didn't fought hard enough.
In my review of chapter one I mentioned that it created a lot of distraction, tension a.s.o. In chapter two most of us, I think, see that kind of a weirdo everybody has somewhen once seen. Usually this sort of character is nothing interesting in a book or a novel. But while reading the second chapter I got kind of drawn into the feeling that there's something behind that fasade (which of course kept me reading) ugly girl likes so much and I think I was not the only one having that feeling. -.-

Chapter 1

The book starts with chapter one in which the protagonist, Matt Donaghy, is arrested by two FBI [*1] agents during a lesson in his drama Club. We can picturise him as a totally normal kind of tennager/student. He has social connections, he is quite a fine student and maybe a bit popular. The first chapter creates a really big load of confusion and distraction because we see a "fine" protagonist getting arrested by the FBI and neither us nor he himself know why! The fact that he is not arrested by the local police, which would make the situation look a lot calmer, but by the FBI, one of main secret services in the U.S., also creates lots of tension and additional distraction.

[*1 federal bureau of investigation]