Among the Impostors

Luke cleans himself up in the creek after mourning the loss of his garden and angrily wonders who is responsible. He calls them “fonrols,” “exnays,” and “leckers” (71). He trudges back to school in dismay but realizes he can’t go inside since everyone is in class. He contemplates running back into the woods, but he knows it isn’t safe anymore. He realizes that other boys must sneak out into the woods regularly, and that the hall monitor was panicked because he was guarding the door to make sure the coast was clear to sneak out. He imagines that they stumbled onto his garden and destroyed it. He decides he’s going to find out exactly who they are and take his revenge.

Sneaking back inside, the door closes on Luke as he tries to peek into the school. He grabs the door in a panic, but commands himself to stay calm. Luke grabs the door, swings it open, and lets it slam shut. Some of the boys are startled but many don’t even pay any attention. The hall monitor looks up and briefly locks eyes with Luke, who is angry because he believes the monitor was involved in the garden’s destruction. Luke waits for the hall monitor to say or do something but nothing happens. Luke joins the hallway traffic and understands that the situation is like a chess game. He remembers watching his brothers play chess and equates the boys at the school to pawns. The hall monitors and other “starers” are “the big, important pieces” like bishops and the king (75). Luke is determined to find out what’s going on in the school.

After dinner, Luke takes a different route and heads back to the door. He realizes he has grown familiar with the school and has matured since his first days at the school. He plans to confront the hall monitors about his garden and the sneaking out if he comes across one, but realizes the monitors only guard the main path to the door. He compares his situation to his friend Jen’s, who died leading a rally to win rights for third children. He decides that while his cause may not seem as important, it still matters because he is the victim of injustice. He hears people whispering and closing the door and follows them outside.

Luke heads outside into the dark and notices the moon and night sky, which he has not seen in a long time. He reaches the edge of the woods and stumbles his way through until he hears voices. He sees a group seated in a semicircle around a lantern and hears a girl’s voice asking why they are having an emergency meeting (80). Luke notices that jackal boy is also there telling the group that the new kid is being strange. Luke realizes that he is the kid being discussed. The group talks about Luke’s background and tries to figure out why he’s at the school because he “doesn’t seem like he has autism or … [that] he’s even agoraphobic” (83).

While listening, one of the girls gets angry when someone calls her Nina. Luke concludes they must all be third children with false identities, and Luke thinks about revealing himself as a third child to them. The boys of the group discuss how they left the outside door open, which Luke realizes was a deliberate test to see how he’d react. The group is incredulous that Luke stayed outside so long and one member claims Luke has become defiant. When jackal boy doesn’t understand the meaning of defiant, Luke reveals himself to the group by defining it as “offering a challenge” (85) as he steps from behind a tree.

Everyone—including Luke—is astonished by his sudden appearance. Luke thinks to himself that his reveal is something his brave friend Jen would have done—not him—and he immediately regrets it. He begins speaking by accusing them of destroying his garden, to which no one understands. Luke leads them to his former garden but when they arrive at the clearing, jackal boy says the group doesn’t know what Luke is talking about. Nina chimes in that maybe some of them accidentally walked through it the previous night. Some of the members of the group start laughing at him for sneaking out to make a garden. Jackal boy calls him a “lecker” again, which he explains to Luke, means a “bumpkin” (90) from the country (90). When he tells Luke he is probably an “exnay” and “fonrol” (91) too, Luke tells them all to leave him alone and runs away.

Luke runs into the woods and hears someone following him closely. He tries to zigzag to escape them but runs into a tree. Jackal boy quickly tackles him, telling Luke he can’t go back now during “indoctrination” (93), by which he means the evening lecture. Jackal boy angrily explains that he’ll be caught, and the rest will be discovered. Luke responds that the only people noticing are the hall monitors and jackal boy seems to have control over them. When jackal boy proudly agrees, Luke determines his only leverage is to threaten to tell on them. He adds that he won’t do it if jackal boy answers some questions. Luke asks jackal boy his name to which he replies that he has two names: Scott Renault and Jason—which is his name out in the woods. He tells Luke that the group is all third children with fake identities, or “exnays” (94). He explains that “fonrols” (94-95) refers to any third child, whether they are in hiding or not.

Jason tells Luke that he harasses him every night because that’s how the group handles new students. He explains that many exnays are traumatized and panicked when they come out of hiding and first enter Hendricks. To prevent them from breaking down and telling their secrets, another student acts as a “friend” (97) to toughen them up. He tells Luke that they test the new student by leaving the outside door open. Based on the student’s behavior, the other kids can tell if the new student is autistic or agoraphobic, like many of the boys at Hendricks, or an exnay. Luke wonders aloud if he passed the test, with Jason responding that it “depends” (98).

Still unsure whether to trust jackal boy, Luke asks him if he knew of Jen Talbot. Jason describes her as “legendary” (99) after Luke explains she was his neighbor. Jason brings Luke back to the group and tells them that Luke knew Jen. They start asking him several questions about her and the rally that led to her death. He tells them about Jen’s bravery and a funny story about how Jen dusted for his fingerprints the first time he went over to her house to make sure he “was who [he] said [he] was” (101). He leaves the story vague on purpose because he’s not ready to tell them his real identity as a third child. When jackal boy asks him his real name, he says that it is Lee Grant