Julian narrates this chapter as he goes to his first-period class, The door to the classroom is locked. It takes him a while to see the sign the teacher has posted on the door, which tells students to go to the lab, so he arrives late. Miss West chastises Julian for not remembering to come to the room, as she had reminded the class of the room change the day before. Julian tells her that he was absent the day before but apologizes anyway. Miss West responds with "'It's always something with you, isn't it'" (125). When a girl in the class, Violet, asks Julian if she can use Julian's table if none of his other friends join him, Kristin, another classmate, sarcastically implies that Julian doesn't have any friends.

Adam suddenly calls Julian’s name out from inside a classroom nearby, and Julian sneaks out of his class and goes into Adam's theater class. Adam has been appointed by the teacher to be in charge of the class while the theater teacher goes over lines with students for a performance. Adam pulls out scene prompts from a box on his desk, and the students act out the prompt with a timer.