Eliza works tirelessly on her pages for the rest of Christmas break. She spends hours on high-quality drawing to make up for her lack of productivity and the late posting. She has a plan to finish Monstrous Sea by the end of the spring semester; all she has to do is post four pages a week until graduation. She argues with her mother about the need to take a break, telling her that people are counting on her—people whose role in her life is not less significant because she interacts with them online. Her mother asks her to at least come down to open presents. Eliza was working so hard, she didn’t even realize it was Christmas Day. Eliza is touched by the fact that her mother listened when she said she needed new clothes and picked some things out for her.

Wallace sends Eliza an email, acknowledging that it’s a “weird” thing to do because that isn’t how they usually communicate. He’s decided to tell her everything about his past, including the fact that he didn’t move to Westcliff from Illinois—just from the other side of town, where he attended the same school as Cole.