Shattering Glass

The opening quote comes from Ginger Donalson:

Simon Glass was amazing at Homecoming. We’d been just kind of being nice to Simon because of Rob and, face it, he was getting more presentable every day. But Homecoming—he came into his own. He didn’t hang on Rob’s coattails, he took over, got confidence or pride, or…something. It was the greatest night. No bad endings. Everybody was happy (104).

Simon dances with all the Homecoming nominees, including Ronna, and this makes Young feel like he’s “swallowed fish bones” because it’s clear that Simon has a crush on her (105). After the dance, Young takes Ronna home and they kiss on her front porch. He feels like he “fell off the edge of the world” (107).

The next morning, Young picks up Coop and they go to the school library to take the ACT. Coop is terrified because he needs a score of eighteen to qualify for any football scholarships, and he’s afraid that if he doesn’t get the score he’ll end up just like his dad.

After the test, Coop is so upset that he doesn’t want to eat and decides to work out. Young starts to drive Ronna home, but she says that instead they should go to the Houston Zoo.

The opening quote in this chapter comes from John Ronald Perry, Ronna’s dad:

Ronna told me this was all about their fathers. Young’s grandfather was a heart surgeon of some renown, but his father was a small town G.P. I think he saw his own shortcomings in Young. Bob’s father wanted an athlete, but Bob was the scaredest kid I’d ever seen. I didn’t know Rob’s dad but, of course, we all heard the story later (112).

That Sunday, Young spends the day at Ronna’s and plays croquet with her family. He notices how competitive her family is, but that they seem to really like each other. Young says, “I free-floated through the next week, quick meetings with Ronna between classes, her joining our crowd at the table and rubbing her toes against my ankle, taking her home and kissing her, overheating my engine on the den couch” (114). Bobster is still trying to teach Simon to drive, and Simon is still marking absences on Lance’s file, just to mess with him.

One afternoon, Simon and Rob program the bells so that they continuously go off. School is canceled as a result, and Rob makes sure to give Simon the credit, in order to increase his popularity amongst the student body.

With school canceled, Ronna and Young go to her house. Her parents and siblings are gone, so they curl up on the couch and make out. Ronna subtly asks Young if he’s ever had sex. He thinks about the “image of the camp counselor” and says that he has, but only once, “And it was lousy. It was one of those I’ve-got-to-get-this-done-so-I-can-be-a-real-guy kind of things” (117). Ronna admits the same, but says that she promised the next time she would do it for herself, not for the guy. Ronna takes him up the stairs to her room. Young says she “slid her hands under my shirt; her lips moved against my ear” (117). She says she wants to show Young that he’s special, and “she did” (117).

The opening quote comes from Alice Danvers, the most unpopular girl at B’Vale when Young and his friends were there. She says:

Doesn’t anybody get it? Maybe five years in and out of therapy has given me insight you normal people don’t have. Those boys looked at Simon Glass and each saw a reflection of what he hated most about himself. That’s what happened when Simon saw me. I might be a little crazy, but I’m not dense. But if I’m that smart, why didn’t I see through the Lance game? Same reason the others didn’t see through Rob. It was something I wanted, so I chose not to see (118).

The next day, while everyone is hanging out in the Commons, Alice, the “school’s female outcast, sidled up to Lance like a lanky spider” (118). She tells Lance that she wanted to thank him for the card. Lance asks her what she means, and “[s]omething like confusion or even suspicion flashed through Alice’s face. She slid away” (119). Lance storms off, and it’s clear that someone set him up to be a joke because he “couldn’t appear anywhere without catcalls and crude jokes. Now that a former outcast and a present one had publicly embarrassed him, Lance might as well have been covered in open sores” (120).

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Ronna and Young spend the day under her covers. He tells her he loves her, and they eat something her family invented called a thickery, “two huge chocolate-chip cookies with a center of vanilla ice cream” (122).

The opening quote in this chapter comes from Ginger Donalson:

How did I know about Bob and the ring? Simon told me. I thought he was just being nice. He said he was telling me so I wouldn’t notice it was missing and ask Bob about it. It never crossed my mind to wonder how Simon knew the story. Not then (123).

The group takes Simon to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get his license. Afterwards they get pizza, and Rob says now that Simon has his license, they can put the rest of the plan into action. Everyone is confused because it seems like Simon is already popular. Rob says the only way to judge if Simon is truly popular is to get him voted Class Favorite at the next dance. Young thinks, “I didn’t understand. Why was this thing with Simon so damned important? What hole was in Rob that only the triumph of Simon Glass would patch?” (127).

On the day the group gets out for Christmas break, Rob tells Ronna to sit by Simon at the lunch table because he needs to talk to Young. Coop refuses to eat his dessert because he wants to stay in shape, and Simon says he’ll eat it instead. Coop warns him not to because he’s starting to gain back the weight he had lost. Simon says he doesn’t need to be in shape anymore, that people like him because he’s funny, not attractive. But Rob insists that Simon can’t change the plan. Simon defies Rob and gets a candy bar, then he tells everyone to watch the show. Across the lunch room, Alice is giving Lance a cake. Lance tells her he doesn’t want it, but she insists that in the note he wrote her, he said he loves strawberries. Lance is fuming. He tells Alice, “you dumb twitch. I didn’t write you a letter. I didn’t send you balloons, or a card, or wish you happy birthday. Somebody is playing a joke, and you’re a fool…You’re a dog. An ugly dog” (130). Lance shoves the cake off the table and it lands on Alice’s shoes. Ronna goes to help Alice. Young knows Simon is behind the scheme and asks him why he would do that to Alice. Simon says it was about embarrassing Lance, not Alice.

That night, everyone goes to Simon’s for pizza and videos. Simon gives Bob money to get beer because he's the only one with a fake ID. Bob goes out the door and Young realizes he’s blocking his car, so he follows behind. Young finds Bob crying. Apparently, Lance grabbed Bob from behind and stole his beloved class ring. Bob makes Young promise not to tell anyone because he doesn’t want to be known as the guy who didn’t fight back.

Later, Young drives Ronna home. She asks Young why Rob is so obsessed with making Simon popular. Young says it’s about control for Rob, and his ability to “manipulate people to vote for the prize putz” (135). But Ronna says, “Instead of making Rob more, doesn’t it just make all of us…less?” (136).

On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, with everybody else gone, Young agrees to get pizza with Coop and Simon. Simon pulls up to Young’s house in his new Christmas present: a “spit-shined, brand-spanking-new Firebird” (136). 

The opening quote is from Jeff Cooper, or Coop:

I hate it when people make me out to be some kind of hero. The others did something wrong. There was a time they could have said no and they didn’t. But I did the same thing. I knew when I handed that ID back to Glass that it was wrong, but he gave me something I wanted. Needed. Young handed his life over to Rob the same way. I’ve learned a lot. Finally gotten smart in my old age or something. Young and I both made Rob into a substitute father (138).

He also says that Rob made them feel like successful sons.

Coop, Young, and Simon go get burgers. Coop is worried about his ACT scores, but Simon hands Coop a Christmas present, saying it will cheer him up. It’s a fake ID that has Simon’s picture on it but Coop’s name. Simon says that he will take the ACT for Coop, score the minimum Coop needs to get the scholarship, and that no one will be suspicious. Simon admits that it’s Rob’s idea, and that Rob was the one who knew where to get the fake ID. Coop agrees to the plan and calls Simon a true friend. Simon then gives Young a “leather-bound book, its pages softly ragged” (142). The journal is embossed with Young’s name, and Simon says he knows all writers keep journals. Young thinks, “Glass had tapped into me. And I didn’t like him owning a map of my head” (142). 

The opening summary comes from Young Steward, from his “psychological interview before sentencing”:

Why did I do what Rob asked me to about Ronna? That’s always the first question. If I had never gone to that library and learned what I did, then Rob could never have talked me into it. But once I knew Rob’s secret and I knew, knew what it does to a person—then I needed to patch a hole in him like he’d done for me. And I didn’t think it would be permanent with Ron and me. I thought I could have it all back (143).

The day after Christmas, Young gets a call from Simon asking if Young’s up for a little “detective work” regarding Rob and why he changed his name (144). Young agrees, but only because “Rob knew all my secrets. I wanted to know his” (144). Simon knows Rob’s last-known address in Foley, so he and Young decide to drive to the house, disguised as pizza delivery men, and see if Rob’s dad still lives there. When they get to the house, a woman answers and says that she bought the house from Mr. Baddeck, who is now in prison.

They go to the library and look up old newspaper articles. They “flipped the viewer to the articles that followed the first story. The grainy photos, the headlines, the articles that exposed Rob’s betrayal and shame” (148). Simon says he never wanted to know this about Rob, and Young agrees. They also agree never to talk about what they found out. 

The opening quote is from Debbie Mahon: “I went out with Young a few times, you know. He like, dumped that skinny little virgin queen, Ronna Perry, for me” (149). She also says that she’s the one who dumped Young, despite that he “tells a different story” (149).

The chapter opens with Young watching TV and thinking he understands why Rob “had to control all of us. A central person in his life had betrayed him. It was the secret we shared, what must have drawn us together” (149). By making this connection, Young reveals that the secret both he and Rob share is that they were molested by people they trusted: for Young, it happened with a camp counselor; for Rob, it was his own dad. That night, Young writes a story about “Rob’s sorrow. As I wrote, I began to understand more, pulling off layer upon layer of past hints, clues to the inner Rob that I hadn’t seen. I knew that no matter what, I’d never betray him” (150).

The next day, Young and Coop take a run on the beach with Coop’s dogs. Coop is worried that even if he gets the scholarship, he won’t be able to pass college. Coop also says that he doesn’t “know what to think about Simon. First, I feel one way, but then something sort of, I don’t know, sort of sours around the edges. Like that green junk that grows on cheese” (151). Young agrees.

Three days after Christmas, Rob shows up at Young’s house. Rob tells Young that Debbie Mahon will be his date for New Year’s Eve, instead of Ronna. Rob adds that Simon needs a date for the Favorite’s Dance and that Ronna is the perfect girl. Rob wants Young to temporarily dump Ronna so that she can go to the dance with Simon. Rob assures him that once the dance is over he can be with Ronna again and, most importantly, once Simon is elected Class Favorite at the dance, “the game’s over. I win” (154). Rob begs Young to agree, so he does. Young says he wants to tell Ronna the truth, that he can’t stand to hurt her, but Rob adamantly says no. Apparently, he thinks that if Ronna knows the truth, she’ll tell Simon it’s all a setup. Rob wants Simon to believe it’s all real.