52 pages • 1 hour read
Emery LordWhen We Collided
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A 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 1-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Vivi”
The first chapter of When We Collided begins with the protagonist, Vivi, carving “Vivi was here” into the trunk of a tree at a local park in Verona Cove. Although Vivi has only been in Verona Cove for a week, she is already in love with it. Verona Cove is a tiny coastal town in California with “only one of everything” (10), including a grocery store, drugstore, and diner. It is early in the morning when Vivi goes to Betty’s Diner for breakfast. Though there are not any tables available, Vivi chooses to sit with Officer Hayashi, an older gentleman who generally prefers to sit alone. Vivi is convinced that Hayashi is “no curmudgeon” (11). She then discovers that he named his German shepherd dog Kubaba, who “was the only queen of Sumer in her own right” (11).
Vivi eventually wears Hayashi down and sits with him for breakfast. She is designing a dress to reflect the word “wabi-sabi” (12). Vivi is also described as having short, curly, platinum blond hair. After having breakfast with Hayashi, Vivi takes a walk on the beach and throws her medication into the ocean. After flinging the pill into the water, Vivi goes to her job at the pottery shop. As she opens up the shop for the day, she meets two “townies,” people who live in Verona Cove as opposed to those who simply vacation there, a 17-year-old boy with nice hair and his younger sister.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Jonah”
The second chapter begins with a waking Jonah. His little sister, Leah, is 6 years old and demands to be taken to the pottery shop after filling up her chore chart. Jonah has five siblings in total. His older siblings are already at work, so Jonah is responsible for caring for their three younger siblings. Jonah is worried about leaving Bekah, an 11-year-old, and Isaac, an 8-year-old, alone as they do not get along. Bekah and Isaac break a vase on accident and Jonah grounds them, forbidding them from coming to the pottery shop with him and Leah.
Jonah reminisces about his father, who was an outgoing man that filled up the room with his personality. After his father dies from a heart attack, Jonah’s mother stays in her bedroom, overcome with grief and unable to raise her children for the last six months. Jonah and his older siblings have been running the household and are solely responsible for caring for the three younger kids. Jonah calls Silas, his older brother, and tells him about having to leave Bekah and Isaac at home. After, Jonah goes to his mother. She apologizes for not making breakfast for the younger children and thanks Jonah for all of his help. Jonah and Leah pass by both vacationers and townies on their walk to the pottery shop. After visiting Silas at Verona Cove’s coffee shop, they sit outside of the pottery shop, waiting for it to open.
There, the two siblings meet Vivi for the first time. Vivi is able to coax Leah out of her shell and flirts with Jonah. Jonah and Vivi get to know one another; Vivi tells him that her and her mother were originally from Seattle but have moved around a lot. Vivi and her mother, Carrie, are living in a modern house on Los Flores Street; the house belongs to a man named Richard, the primary patron of Carrie’s art. After learning this, Leah invites Vivi over to the Daniels residence for homemade pizza. Jonah is panicked by this, not wanting a cute girl to see his dysfunctional family. Vivi paints her number on Jonah’s bicep and he promises to text her. Jonah and Leah leave the pottery shop, excited for their dinner guest that night.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Vivi”
Vivi’s boss, Whitney, enters the pottery store. They both chat about Jonah and Whitney is seemingly concerned about the situation. Instead of mining Whitney for more information about Jonah and his family, Vivi declares that she doesn’t “mind being introduced to people’s skeletons firsthand, in person” (31). After work, Vivi returns home and greets her mother, Carrie. Carrie is concerned that Vivi has lost weight and is worried that Vivi has stopped taking her pills. Vivi is furious at the implication and begins to snap her fingers, a habit she has when she gets angry.
Vivi lies and tells her mother that she is taking her medication. In a fit of rage, she curses at Carrie and slams the bedroom door in her face. After, Vivi hugs her stuffed toy dog named Tannest and cries. Jonah then texts Vivi about dinner and she focuses all her attention on getting him to flirt back, thinking: “Oh, Jonah. Silly boy. I will make you flirt back with me” (35). After they agree on a time for Vivi to head over to the Daniels residence, Vivi makes up with her mother. Although Carrie tries to speak with her about needing to communicate, Vivi derails the conversation by bringing up Jonah. The chapter ends with Carrie asking Vivi to let her know if something is wrong.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Jonah”
Jonah is at his father’s restaurant, Tony’s, and he is familiar with every part of the restaurant. His father and Felix were best friends and ran the restaurant together. Jonah is just as in love with food as his dad was. He grew up at Tony’s, so much so that he thought his father’s first name was Chef until he was 4. After Tony’s death, Felix became the restaurant’s head chef. Felix, just like Tony, nicknames Jonah “Peanut” or “Maní” (37). Felix and the other prep cooks tease Jonah for the phone number painted on his arm. After Jonah finishes prep work in the kitchen, he heads home and begins making various pizzas for his family.
When he gets home, Silas and Isaac are playing Wiffle ball. After telling Silas about Vivi, Jonah goes into the kitchen and begins to cook. Cooking is easy and all-consuming for him, calming him and allowing him to calm. It is both a comfort and an ache for him, as “in the kitchen, [his] dad is still everywhere” (39). Vivi eventually arrives early to dinner and brings a bottle of sparkling grape juice. Vivi and Leah go to look at her coloring books as Jonah gets dinner ready. Naomi, the eldest Daniels sibling, arrives home after her internship and is displeased to find Vivi there. The three eldest siblings go into the garage and they begin arguing: Naomi is upset that a stranger was invited to dinner without her knowledge; Jonah is angry that Naomi thinks that she has the final say in everything after she was gone at college; and Silas puts a stop to the argument by playing referee. When the Daniels family and Vivi settle down for dinner, she gives a toast to thank them. After, Leah tells Vivi that she wants to be a teacher, but Vivi coaxes the little girl into admitting that she really just wants to be a peacock.
After, Jonah and Vivi talk about past lives. Vivi claims that she was “a dolphin,” “a ballerina,” and “a pack of stratocumulus clouds” (48). As an excuse to touch Jonah’s chest, she tells him that he was once a tree in the Great Plains, “an otter,” and “a sea captain” (48). They then beginning flirting in earnest, and Vivi promises to return the next day with supplies for a Slip ‘N Slide.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Vivi”
Vivi brings supplies for a Slip ‘N Slide over to the Daniels residence. She thinks about Jonah and is convinced that he is the missing puzzle piece for a perfect summer:“He’s the ring to my Frodo, the wardrobe to my Lucy Pevensie. His presence in my life sets me on my journey, and I can feel it, a vital mission pulsing in my bones” (51). When she arrives at the Daniels, they set up the Slip ‘N Slide. Vivi wears a long-sleeved leotard for a swimsuit that discreetly covers up her scar. Vivi, Jonah, and his younger siblings play in the backyard all day. The next day, as thanks, Jonah makes Vivi lunch and leaves it outside of the pottery shop for her. After finding it, Vivi goes to the restaurant where Jonah works and kisses him.
Chapters 1-5 Analysis
In Chapters 1 to 5, Lord introduces the readers to the main protagonists of the novel: Vivi and Jonah. The first four chapters alternate between first-person perspectives, allowing the readers to understand more about the two characters. Vivi’s character is established as confident, eccentric, and volatile. Jonah, on the other hand, is a teenage boy overwhelmed with caring for his younger siblings after the death of his father and his mother’s subsequent depression. Lord utilizes difference voices for each character, preventing the chapters from blurring together.
Jonah’s characterization is clear from the start. He is overwhelmed and exhausted from caring for his siblings and his mother; his empathy and uncertainty are made especially clear in his interaction with his mother and his thoughts on the family's situation:
There’s no point in guilt-tripping. She can’t make herself feel better. I can’t make her feel better—none of us can. The least we can do is not make it worse […] With all her professed gratitude, my mom must understand that we’re doing her job. The three of us older kids are trying to make up for two parents, day in and day out. I’d probably try to shake my mom awake if she didn’t look breakable (21).
The above passage is a paradoxical combination of both weary maturity and bereaved naivety. Jonah’s own grief allows him to better understand his mother, to know that all that he can do is give her time. This knowledge matures him as much as it enrages him. Given the responsibility of caring for his siblings, the restaurant, and the household, Jonah both feels for and is infuriated by his mother’s inaction. The reader is thus both sympathetic for Jonah and cognizant of his actual age.
Lord chooses to introduce Vivi in another way. In the first few chapters, the reader is not given any insight into Vivi’s character outside of her interests and presumptions about other characters. She tramples over the boundaries of other characters and her confidence can often be read as ignorance or self-absorption. Vivi’s interaction with Officer Hayashi is a prime example of this. She explains the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi to Hayashi and speaks over him, more concerned with appropriating it into her own work: “Before he can add anything, I sigh, gesturing to the sweeping cherry-branch dress. ‘I’m trying to translate some of the concepts into couture, but I’m not sure I can mesh them with my personal aesthetics”’ (14). She uses external objects and people as distractions and they similarly prevent the reader from getting to know Vivi.
Vivi’s perceptions of the world and of herself are superficial at best, with a focus on the exterior that lacks the vulnerability that Jonah displays in his chapters. This is a fundamental difference between the two characters. Jonah is consistently looking inward while Vivi seeks to look externally at the world and at others. The characters represent these polar differences in attitude and perspective.
