54 pages • 1 hour read
Claire SwinarskiWhat Happened To Rachel Riley?
Nonfiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 5-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary
On October 3, Anna looks up a news article from June of the previous year that describes a fire breaking out at Kincaid Farms Event Barn. Reportedly, a minor who was trespassing unintentionally set the fire. It canceled a dance scheduled for later that night for the East Middle School seventh graders.
Cody and an unnamed person message about his absence at the Harvest Fest this year. He claims that things feel different both because of the barn fire and because of “the other stuff too” (87).
On October 5, Principal Howe emails the parents of the eighth graders, thanking them for making the fundraiser a success.
On October 6, Elizabeth, one of Anna’s classmates, passes her a note asking her to join the Global Leaders Club. She then has to write a note to their teacher, Mrs. Cleary, apologizing for writing notes in class.
On October 7, Anna records an interview with Rachel. Rachel refuses to help Anna with her podcast application. Anna brings up the fire, and Rachel states that she “can’t deny” being the person who set it. However, she refuses to answer further questions about the fire being unintentional or what Rachel might have been doing at the barn at midnight. Rachel questions why Anna is interested at all, and Anna asserts that she knows what it is like to be lonely; she doesn’t think anyone, including Rachel, deserves to go through eighth grade this way. Rachel states, “You’re too nice for this school, Anna” (94).
Unable to sleep at night, Anna lies awake thinking about Rachel. She has always cared about things, even if not the global issues that her classmates Elizabeth and Malika are trying to address through their club. Anna thinks about Rachel calling her “nice”; however, she knows that there is a difference between being nice and caring, and Anna is the latter. Anna doesn’t understand why Rachel would be treated badly just because a dance got canceled and wonders if the others did something mean to Rachel first. After tossing and turning for hours, Anna finally drags her pillow and quilt to Nik’s room at almost 3:00 am and falls asleep on the rug.
Chapter 6 Summary
Anna receives an invitation to Bee’s birthday party with instructions to bring a swimsuit.
On October 13, Anna emails Babcia. Anna’s last email made Babcia sad, so Anna reassures her by listing some of the good things in Madison: Maja enjoys her new job; Kix and Jesse, their dogs, have a yard to run around in; and Nik is a lot happier here. However, Anna does miss the big Polish community back in Chicago. Anna ends the email by listing the remaining 24 species of penguins, with Babcia having named four in her previous message and asking if she knows who the most famous penguin researcher is.
Nik messages Anna while she is out, as some of her friends mentioned a “game” that boys at Anna’s school played last year, which they brought over to Nik’s school.
Anna records herself for the podcast, listing all the questions that her investigation into Rachel has established. She wonders why Rachel burned down the barn, whether it was an accident, and why the other kids are so angry about it.
Anna tells her parents about being invited to Bee’s party. She doesn’t know what to get Bee, so she buys her one of her favorite books, Song for a Whale. However, Anna feels self-conscious from the moment she is dropped off at Bee’s: All the girls are crowded into the hot tub in bikinis, while Anna is carrying a one-piece. She lies about not having a suit, but Jordan and Bee insist that she borrow one of Bee’s suits and join them.
As Anna looks through Bee’s drawer for a swimsuit, she finds a framed photograph of Bee, Rachel, and Jordan hidden underneath the clothes. Bee comes up and sees Anna holding it and once again refuses to answer questions. She gives Anna a suit that will fit her well and asks her to forget about Rachel and come downstairs and enjoy herself.
In the hot tub, Anna hears the girls talk about a volleyball game and asks if that is the “game” Nik mentioned. The others immediately clam up and pretend that they don’t know what she is talking about. Anna feels even worse when Bee opens presents later and Anna’s book appears out of place among the other presents of clothes and gift cards. However, Jordan kindly helps her feel better, telling the other girls that it is a really good book.
When Nik picks Anna up after the party, Anna confesses that she didn’t have fun. Nik empathizes, stating that eighth grade is tough. Nik continually gets texts while she drives and reveals that Bronson won’t stop texting her, even though she isn’t romantically interested in him.
Chapter 7 Summary
On October 18, Principal Howe emails Lana McLeen, asking her to help chair the upcoming eighth-grade Winter Ball. Lana is a wedding planner, which will help her do a good job with the décor. Principal Howe suggests reaching out to the Hunts for parent volunteers.
Anna emails Sierra Kincaid asking if she could ask her a few questions about last year’s incident for a research project.
On October 19, Principal Howe emails the eighth graders’ parents about an incident of vandalism on a student’s locker that took place that morning.
Cody asks Blake over text message whether he is the one who wrote “RACHEL RILEY IS A FREAK” on her locker (127). Blake denies it but reminds Cody that Rachel threatened to get them all suspended last year. However, Cody tells Blake to leave Rachel alone.
Anna sends a follow-up email to Sierra, who still hasn’t responded to the first one.
Anna convinces Nik to give her a ride to Kincaid Farms, confiding in her that she is still working on the Rachel investigation. There is a wedding taking place at the farm, but Nik and Anna manage to sneak in and find Sierra. Sierra is annoyed that Anna is there and asks her to leave, snapping about the huge construction job she had to do over the summer because of Rachel’s handiwork. Anna realizes that Sierra doesn’t know why Rachel started the fire.
On the way home, Nik and Anna discuss the incident. Nik theorizes that Rachel possibly had a plan in mind, perhaps related to the event taking place there the next day. She believes that Rachel may have had good reasons, as “[m]iddle schoolers aren’t exactly the greatest people to be around” (139).
When they get home, Nik and Anna discover Maja deep in conversation with Lana, who she is working with for the eighth-grade dance. Lana was just telling Maja about the graffiti on Rachel’s locker and how Cody was shaken up by it. To Anna’s surprise, she reveals that Cody and Rachel have been best friends for years since they are neighbors and grew up next to each other. Despite a supposed falling out and the fire, Lana asserts that the Rileys are a nice family
Chapter 8 Summary
On October 23, Anna texts Bee asking for Kaylee’s number. Kaylee’s dog is in Anna’s backyard; Anna recognizes him from Kaylee’s social media. Bee urges Anna to call Kaylee, revealing that Kaylee has been upset about her missing dog.
Grateful for finding her dog, Kaylee feels bad that she was not more welcoming to Anna earlier and agrees to record an interview. Although it is difficult to explain things to a new person, Kaylee thinks that she and the others should talk more about what happened the previous summer.
Kaylee reveals what the “game” is: The previous year, Blake and his gang began a game of “slapping girls on the butt” (148). They kept track of who did it the most, with different girls being worth different points based on their attractiveness. The boys targeted Jordan and Rachel the most because they were worth the most points. Anna expresses that the girls must have been really angry. Kaylee first says that it was funny before she clarifies that it wasn’t; the girls just laughed it off because it made them feel weird.
Kaylee explains that the boys kept track of the points on a website. When Anna asks what the prize for winning was, Kaylee hesitates before asserting that there was none. However, this is why everyone thinks Rachel burned down the barn: She actively hated the game. The day after the fire, Blake also found a note in his locker warning him that someone would show the website to the principal if he didn’t stop the game.
Kaylee explains that everyone is angry with Rachel not just because of the canceled dance but also because she took what the others treated as a joke seriously. It made Kaylee feel bad for not taking it seriously herself, but she admits that it feels good to talk about it now to Anna.
Anna goes for a walk after her conversation with Kaylee, thinking about how unsafe the world is. She wonders whether it is Blake or Rachel who is the more dangerous one and who really should not have been allowed at Harvest Fest.
Chapter 9 Summary
On November 1, Anna emails Babcia thanking her for her list, which reminded her of all the reasons she misses Babcia. Anna puts down her list of things she misses about Chicago, which includes her old school, the lake, all the Polish people speaking in their language, city life, and her old self and self-assurance. Anna ends her email by revealing that Edward Wilson is the most famous penguin researcher; he brought back emperor penguin eggs to London from Antarctica. Anna disapproves of how he took out the embryos and gave them to the Natural History Museum: “They weren’t able to be born, and they couldn’t just keep being eggs, either […] They were frozen in time in London for years” (160).
Kaylee messages Jordan, confessing that she told Anna about the game. She asserts that Anna was nice about it and that it felt good to tell her about it. Jordan appears upset and stops responding to Kaylee’s messages.
Anna finds a paper with “www.thescorecard.com” handwritten on it. She is sure that this was the website used to track the points in the “game,” but when she looks up the URL at home, the site comes up blank. Anna seeks out Nik to help. Nik makes Anna tell her the whole story. Nik is shaken and points out that this is sexual harassment. She asserts that Anna should tell someone about it, but Anna doesn’t know whom to talk to. Besides, this kind of thing happens all the time. When Nik insists that they must do something about it, Anna asserts that it is over and she hasn’t seen anything happen this year.
Nik finds the most recent version of the website on an internet archive. It contains the names of various boys and point tallies next to the names; Blake was winning. Nik also discovers that the author is someone with the username “BilboBaggins1201.” However, it will take Nik a few more days to figure out who the username belongs to.
Chapters 5-9 Analysis
The plot moves forward, and the rising action begins to build through important revelations and instances of foreshadowing in this set of chapters. The narrative confirms that a fire broke out at the barn the previous year and that Rachel was involved in some form; she claims that she cannot deny it, either. However, this leaves Anna with more questions than answers, as she wonders why Rachel started the fire and whether she did so at all. The text message interaction between Cody and an unnamed person, who the text hints is Rachel, about the “other stuff” that took place last year intensifies the narrative intrigue. Simultaneously, Anna learns about the “game” that boys at the middle school played last year, which is also an important recurring motif in the book. With the latter revelation, the story gains direction and momentum: Rachel’s potential reasons for what she possibly did the previous year become more important. However, the text still leaves several questions unanswered, like the true identity of the website’s author. By balancing revelations and discoveries with questions and red herrings (such as Rachel’s involvement in the fire), Swinarski further develops the narrative tension.
A new central theme emerges in this set of chapters: The Complexity of Holding Boundaries and Exerting Bodily Agency. The existence of the “game” underlines how this is a major issue at play in the story. It is not just what the game entailed but also how scores were set that display how the boys dehumanize and objectify the female body. They decided points based on the perceived attractiveness of the different girls’ bodies. What also fed into the existence and perpetuation of the “game” was the behavior of the girls in question, specifically their lack of protest about it. Kaylee describes how they pretended it was funny and didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, partially because they also saw what happened when one did: Rachel, who took the game seriously and expressed her displeasure, was targeted for doing so. The girls’ response to the “game” underlines the deep social conditioning and belief that they do not have agency over their bodies and will be penalized if they attempt to speak out against the boys’ harassment. In Rachel’s case, one of the consequences she suffers is ostracism and the withdrawal of social support from her peers. This demonstrates how the complexity of holding boundaries and exerting bodily autonomy feeds directly into the theme of The Interaction of Social Pressure and Identity Formation in Middle School.
Concerning this second theme, these chapters explore the different ways in which social pressure can lead to a desire for acceptance, particularly through Anna’s experience. While she started as someone fairly self-assured and clear about who she is and what she values, Anna begins to feel increasingly out of place and bothered when she is with her peers. Bee’s party is a significant example of this, where Anna is upset by how she isn’t wearing the right clothes, hasn’t brought the right gift, and is constantly saying the wrong thing. When she expresses her discomfort to Nik after the party, her sister sympathizes with how tough middle school can be. Nik, who is older and has passed this stage of her life, is more confident and comfortable with who she is today. However, she also had a negative experience when she was Anna’s age. This contrast underlines how questions of social pressure and identity formation are inherent to these transitional years of one’s life, as Anna is beginning to discover.
Just as Anna’s character evolves and develops over these chapters, so does Rachel’s. There are some parallels between the two girls: Despite the discomfort that Anna feels in herself and her lack of self-assurance, she does not back down from her investigation. She continues to ask questions and engage with people about what happened to Rachel, showing her dedication to The Pursuit of Justice and Truth in the Face of Social Resistance. As she learns about the game, the author begins to highlight the similarities between Anna and Rachel; Rachel also persisted in expressing her displeasure about something harmful that was happening despite being targeted for it. She is also less concerned about popularity than she is with justice and speaking out about the boys’ harassing behavior. In exploring this theme, the author highlights the similarities between Anna and Rachel.
Anna’s emails to Babcia continue to be an important, recurring motif, with the references to penguins evolving into a motif of their own. She begins talking about the penguins in her emails, as she is excited about her science project on them. However, the conversation about penguins transforms into a reflection on things taking place in her own life. Anna describes how the embryos from penguin eggs brought back to London were stuck that way, unable to move forward and be born. This mirrors Anna’s sense of feeling stuck in a transitional period of her life. She feels like she is not progressing or moving forward in the way that others, like her mother and Nik, are.
