The School Story

Chapters 7 through 9 begin to tackle some of the logistics issues in the girls’ plans, deepening the conflict and increasing the stakes for Natalie and Zoe. Both girls have a casual knowledge of the publishing industry when they hatch their plan, but separately they work toward a better understanding of what they must do to accomplish their goal of publication. These chapters continue to explore the symbolism of Cassandra Day as well as the major themes of the book. 

Chapter 7 follows Natalie as she goes to her mother’s publishing office after school and begins to consider the reality of getting a book published. At the beginning of the chapter, Natalie is already feeling like her confidence in the publishing plan is hanging by a thread. She feels “Cassandra Day was still alive, but she wasn’t exactly in tip-top shape” (35) as she heads into her mother’s office. Here, Natalie learns about the slush pile, which is a collection of unsolicited manuscripts the office works through every now and then. These envelopes with potential books sit in the publishing office for months, and “[m]ost of those people get sent a rejection letter” (38). The slush pile comes to symbolize the difficulties of publishing. As Natalie learns about the hundreds of potential books that go neglected and rejected, her confidence in her own book plummets. By the next day, “Cassandra Day was nowhere to be found” (41). 

Chapter 7 uses figurative language to help convey how both Natalie and her mother feel about the slush pile as well as convey the theme The Power of Positive Thinking and Perseverance. When Hannah talks about the slush pile to Natalie, she explains how she keeps an open mind about the manuscripts. Hannah explains how most manuscripts receive a rejection after someone reads just a few pages. While Natalie believes “That’s not fair” (39), Hannah goes on to explain that “The good [stories] stand out like roses in a snowbank” (39).

This simile explains why Hannah maintains a positive perspective on the slush pile, even though most of the stories get rejected. Natalie, however, still feels overwhelmed by the idea of the slush pile and the difficulties it represents. After her conversation with her mother, Natalie relates her anxiety about publishing to the way their bus is stuck in traffic in the Lincoln Tunnel. She thinks “about the enormous weight of all that water pressing down on the tunnel” (40). This is a metaphor for the stress Natalie feels about the plan to get her own book published. 

Finally, Chapter 7 introduces Letha Springfield, Hannah’s boss. Letha is the closest the book has to a main antagonist. She has disdain for Natalie, and she puts enormous pressure on Hannah to complete assignments, speaking with “no warmth” as she assigns work to Hannah. Letha plays an important antagonistic role in the way events unfold for Natalie, Zoe, and Hannah as the book progresses. 

Chapter 8 opens with a parallel to Chapter 2. While Chapter 2 traces the origins of Natalie’s interest in reading and writing to her upbringing, Chapter 8 does the same for Zoe and her interest in listening and talking. This chapter helps create a fuller picture of Zoe’s family dynamic as she grew up listening to her sisters, her parents, and her nanny communicating with one another. Even before she could talk, “[Zoe] joined every conversation, waving her hands and gurgling” (43). This chapter also shows how Zoe later used her speaking gifts to communicate too much, getting her in trouble in pre-school because “Zoe would not put her hand up and wait to be called on. She just talked” (44). The details provided in the first part of Chapter 8 help to characterize Zoe as a fast talker, who knows how to get her way. This characterization helps show how Zoe is able to accomplish parts of her plan to get Natalie published as the book continues. 

The second half of Chapter 8 parallels Chapter 7. While Natalie learns about the difficulties of getting published through her mother in Chapter 7, Zoe learns about the same difficulties in Chapter 8 through reading Publishers Weekly and talking to her father. However, Zoe’s attitude contrasts Natalie’s. Zoe comes to realize that “[p]ublishing wasn’t so simple after all” (49), but she knows “she had won the argument about not giving up” against Natalie and must maintain that energy (49). Zoe’s approach conveys the theme of The Power of Positive Thinking and Perseverance by showing that she is not discouraged by the logistics of publishing. When Zoe talks to her dad about getting a hypothetical book published, Mr. Reisman uses a metaphor to talk about literary agents. He says he’d get “a great agent, a real bulldog” and continues the metaphor by saying he’d “point my bulldog at the red meat” to explain how having the right go-getter agent would make all the difference for someone wanting to be published. This information helps Zoe decide the next steps she should take to help Natalie. 

Chapter 8 also gives some insight into Zoe’s motivation and also introduces Natalie’s book as a motif for The Effects of Loss theme. Zoe considers why she’s so persistent in getting Natalie’s book published, which leads her to think about Natalie’s relationship with her father. Zoe understands “how much Natalie loved her dad, and how hard it was for her to lose him” (53). Upon reading Natalie’s book, Zoe picks up on the relationship between the main character and her father. Zoe believes “Angela’s dad [is] the hero” of the story (54) and thinks “[t]he book was like a good-bye poem from Natalie to her father” (55). Knowing this, Zoe decides “[g]etting the book published would be good for Natalie, and good for her mom, too” (55). Zoe’s analysis of the father’s role in The Cheater and how it relates to Natalie’s grief sets up The Cheater to act as a motif for the theme of loss, communicating how Natalie uses her writing to work through her remaining grief about her father’s death. 

Chapter 9 returns to the theme of Honesty Versus Deceit when Zoe introduces Natalie to her new agent, Sherry Clutch. Zoe reveals shortly after that this is just a name Zoe has made up for herself, driving the girls further into deception territory should they move forward with their plan. Natalie, who hates dishonesty, initially becomes angry, but she eventually relents in a moment that parallels Zoe’s thought process in Chapter 8. Natalie realizes that “It wasn’t whether the book got published or not. It wasn’t whether Zoe was absolutely crazy—which she was. The important thing was Zoe herself, her friend” (59-60). With her realization that pursuing the plan would be something she’s doing for Zoe, Natalie musters confidence in herself and her friend and brings her Cassandra Day persona out for the conversation. 

The characterization, symbolism, and themes explored in chapters 7 through 9, as well as the compounding of the main conflict, help drive the narrative forward as the girls decide what steps they must take next.