Percontation Points

P: 6/5/26 M: 6/12/26

Chapter 3.2

“Literature is different from math and science because we don’t always have one correct answer. So I ask not what are you keeping out,” she says, turning to face us, “but what are you holding in? The answer will be different for each of you.”

Literally not one of these kids had better be in a single class with the word “theoretical” before it. God forbid that they get into the soft sciences, like anthropology or psychology. …Oh wait. I forgot that they won’t be graduating from high school. Not with them collectively flunking all of their lit classes.

“We on the staff are all aware that Brighton has a reputation where the humanities are concerned, chiefly our literature classes.” He pauses to let that sink in, still reclined like a sleeping puma ready to shred our skin when we least expect it. Greta and I steal glances at each other. Her face has gone so pale even her freckles have disappeared. “Unfortunately, that reputation is starting to spread into the STEM community. I will not be a laughing stock. I’m expecting both of you to be the kind of leaders Brighton deserves. The kind of leaders I can feel good about standing behind when universities come calling.” He drops his arms and leans forward to turn a picture frame around on his desk. “Mr. Hanson, this may interest you.” It’s a picture of a young man and a younger Dr. Whiting at a graduation. MIT banners are unmistakable in the background. “That’s Devon, my son. Graduated a few years ago. And let’s see…” He turns to the bookshelves along one wall and points to another picture. “My daughter Annabelle is there now. In fact, she’s one of Dr. Bell’s research interns. You’re a fan of Dr. Bell’s research, if I’m remembering correctly?” My ears are on fire and the heat has dried out my mouth. I’d choke if I tried to answer. “You must be proud,” Greta says beside me. He looks her straight in the eye. “As proud as a Stanford man can be.” Holy mother of batshit. He’s passive aggressively threatening us.

I seriously don’t know what he thought was going to happen. The way that he’s acting in class is straight up stupid. It’s not “class valedictorian” behaviour, that’s for sure.

Brighton recruits students from all over the state. The facilities are immaculate, the teachers are top in their fields (at least math and science), and the students are indulged like rock stars.

And that’s the problem. They’re treating them like fucking Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong after they got back from the moon. Not a bunch of LITERAL CHILDREN WHO STILL HAVE FOUR MORE YEARS OF STATE-MANDATED EDUCATION THAT THEY MUST GET THROUGH.

“No one threatens Greta Lynn McCaulley,” she says through gritted teeth. “We carry on.” “But—” “We. Carry. On.”

Chapter 3.2 summary: Time continues to pass. They continue to ignore Ms. Finch, and only do the bare minimum in her class. One day after school, the principal calls out to both Charlie and Greta, who are the valedictorian and salutatorian, respectfully. In his office, he’s pointedly “It would be a shame if the top two students were so bad as to lead the rest of the school down a path of evil, wouldn’t it? Oh, what’s this? My son, who graduated from MIT a few years ago. And this is my daughter, who works with Dr. Bell. You wanted to study at MIT under Dr. Bell, didn’t you, Charlie?” It’s kind of a low blow, but honestly, at this point, it’s kind of what Charlie and Greta needed to hear. However, Greta only views the entire thing as a challenge. She’s not going to back down. Even though Charlie is starting to question why they even care so much.

Chapter 3.3

“I don’t want to talk about Jo.” “Well, neither do I, but my principal felt the need to drag me into his office this afternoon and threaten me if I mess with her.”

In the principal’s defence, he would have called Charlie and Greta in to chew them out, regardless of if Charlotte was involved or not. It kind of seems like the entire school is dead set on chasing every single lit professor out the door. Charlie being able to get into Charlotte’s pants seems rather secondary to actions that were already going on at Brighton.

“What home?” Charlotte’s voice drowns under a roll of thunder. “My sister’s house? My stupid, selfish father’s house full of sad memories and empty bottles?” She stands, clutching her book. “What home, Charlie?”

I’m sorry that your life sucks. But that’s literally not an excuse to drag other people into your drama. People that, I’d like to add, you don’t even fucking know.

“You’re the mystery woman, asking about theoretical cats and refusing to explain what’s going on with you and your sister. You lay all this shit out at my feet, but don’t bother to explain any of it. What am I supposed to do?” There is a tiny moment where I can see past the seething anger in her eyes. One tiny moment when I can see something else—fear, confusion, hunger, maybe even hope. But then it’s hidden again, deep below Charlotte’s surface. She spits the words, “Figure it out, genius,” at me before turning to leave, but I step in front of her.

Um… no. You don’t get to barge into their lives, put all of this shit onto Charlie, and then be angry that he can’t “figure it out on his own”.

“I don’t need this,” I say, and every atom in my body feels how wrong it is, but I turn away from her.

Chapter 3.3 summary: Charlie is annoyed to find Charlotte sleeping on the sofa when he gets home. He tells her that he got chewed out because she’s been encouraging him to cause trouble for Jo in school. However, Charlotte does finally give both Charlie and the readers a glimpse into her life. And as I had previously thought, it does really fucking suck. And again, I’m sorry that it’s happening to her. But that’s literally no reason for her to encourage Charlie to tank his own life simply to make Charlotte feel a bit better. For Charlotte to have an inch of control in her own life. He pointedly tells her that she’s this kind of annoying pest who says all of this garbage, and leaves him confused. She tells him to “figure it out”, and tries to leave. But Charlie stops her, and tells her no. That she has got to get the hell out of their lives. That he doesn’t care about her, because he doesn’t fucking know the first thing about her. And it hurts him, but even he knows that it’s something that she needed to hear.

P: 6/4/26 M: 6/11/26

Chapter 3.0

Greta grabs a rubber band from the pile on the table and aims it at me. “I mean it. Chances of me killing James are much less if he’s got a witness around. You’re doing him a favor.”

Quick question: why are you with him if you clearly dislike him that much? But then again, I also don’t know why Greta is so upset that she watched Charlie leave. She doesn’t even seem to like Charlie all that much, either.

“My ancient ass had planted perfectly good roses before you drove over them.” Should have said ass. Your ancient ass is some sweet alliteration. Or is it assonance? Crap. Ms. Finch is a bad influence.

Oh no, not… LEARNING. ANYTHING BUT THAT!!

Exasperated, I snarl, “Show me then. Teach me, Obi Wan.”

Oh, so you know what fucking Star Wars is, but not Spider-Man?

I watch her back as she shuffles to her rocking chair. She closes her eyes, and I guess she is remembering the smell of her youth and the big orange moon.

Chapter 3.0 summary: In science class, they partner up to do an experiment. “Alone” with Greta, she confronts him about last night. About how she’d seen him outside, and then he’d dipped. She tries to use the excuse of not wanting to be alone… with her own boyfriend. But Charlie doesn’t know how to properly explain to her that he’d rather have spent time with Charlotte. In fact, Greta doesn’t seem to know a thing about his relationship with Charlotte, other than “the girl you touched at the doughnut shop”. After school, Mrs. D shows Charlie her greenhouse, which is full of roses that she’s cultivated and bred, that are ready to be planted in her front yard. She then starts in on this really long-winded explanation about what different roses and their scents mean to her. Charlie mainly seems kind of frustrated over the entire thing, and refuses to learn a single fucking thing from anybody who isn’t a maths professor.

Chapter 3.1

“This is my future.” I pick up the MIT catalogue. “This is who I am.” “Some ass puppet on the front of a brochure?” A hybrid scream/groan gurgles up from my chest. “Why do you need my help?” Charlotte looks away, her breathing ragged. “I need more time—” “For what?” Charlotte practically spits her answer in my face. “To figure my shit out.” “See? I don’t know what that means.” Frustration, fueled by anxiety, is crawling up my spine. I don’t even try to keep my voice low. “We’ve all got shit to figure out!”

WHY THE FUCK IS SHE DEMANDING THAT CHARLIE DO ALL OF THIS SHIT FOR HER?! If she’s unhappy with the way that her SISTER is treating her, then she needs to have a conversation with the woman! Not offloading her own problems onto a virtual stranger!

Charlotte tugs on the leg of my pants. “Where ya headed?” Crap. Uh, wherewherewherewhere? Somewhere she’d never want to go. “Comic book store.” […] “Look at the expression on Hulk’s face.” “Well, it’s hard being Dr. Banner,” I say, looking up from my book.

We are now 110 pages in, and this is literally the first time that Charlie has mentioned having any sort of interest in anything outside of maths and getting into MIT. He acted like he didn’t know who Spider-Man was. Yet here he is, pointing out the names and struggles of famous super heroes.

On the drive home, I consider her from every angle. But any way I look, she’s beautiful.

Chapter 3.1 summary: When Charlie gets home, Charlotte is waiting to confront him. She tells him that whatever he’s doing to pester Jo at school, it’s not enough. Charlie then demands some answers, and she unloads on him about how their mother died 14 years ago. That Jo is the only mother-figure in her life… But she seems to rule things with an iron-fist. And I get that it must be frustrating, but literally nowhere in any of that does she ever explain why she’s unloading her trauma onto Charlie… who is still a virtual stranger to her. Yes, Charlie has a constant boner for her, but that doesn’t equal romantic compatibility. (How’s that for maths?) Charlie does tell her as much, and that he isn’t there for her to unload all of her own drama onto. Charlotte storms out, but he follows her outside after a second. They both give these really pathetic apologies. Charlie then says that he’s going to the comic store, with the thought that she wouldn’t want to go with him. But she does, and she’s super into comics. As they look through them, she can’t help but to keep comparing herself to the struggles that people like Bruce Banner/Hulk and Ben Grimm/The Thing are dealing with. It comes off as… “How do you do, fellow kids”; the entire thing is made of pure cringe. But it does make Charlotte feel better though. And Charlie STILL has a persistent boner for her.

P: 6/3/26 M: 6/10/26

Chapter 2.8

My allegiance is with Charlotte (and algebra), but I wish I knew more about why Ms. Finch is smothering Charlotte.

I love how he’s doing this simply to get into her pants, but can’t be bothered to ask why her life is like this. Like where are Charlotte’s parents? Why is Jo so controlling over her little sister? We don’t know because Charlie doesn’t actually give a shit about Charlotte beyond her sexually pleasing him.

I’m a theoretical mathematician, thus I will never get laid.

There’s literally nothing wrong with liking maths. Or even being a little too invested in maths. However, as I’ve been saying since chapter 1, the thing that’s stopping girls from fawning all over him is his absolute shit-ass personality.

“But it’s only a garden.” “You’ve never heard of a metaphor?”

NO, BECAUSE HE’S FUCKING FAILING ENGLISH.

How’s that for a metaphor, you old hag?

Chapter 2.8 summary: Some time passes. His English class continues to ignore Ms. Finch. He continues to work on fixing Ms. D’s garden. One day, Charlotte is randomly passing by while walking a dog. She feels sorry for Charlie, and offers to help. However, Ms. D chases Charlotte away after the two teens get into a mud-flinging incident. I’m honestly on her side, since Charlie is so fucking stupid, I don’t know how he managed to get this far in life up until now. After Charlotte is gone, Ms. D tells Charlie that she likes gardening because the garden is constantly changing. She’s clearly meaning this to be a metaphor for how you should also strive to change and keep up with the times. But Charlie is too stupid to function, and he doesn’t get it.

Chapter 2.9

Mom and Dad love [Charlotte]. They love the way she makes Becca more like a normal teenage girl rather than the paper doll she used to be. I get the feeling they’d like some of that normalcy to wear off on me, but Charlotte’s different around me. We juggle lemons in a grocery store, hold hands in my kitchen, and argue over the logic of old movies…and then she shows up at Dimwit’s and lobs mud at my balls? What the hell? How am I supposed to know how to act around her?

If he’d ever interacted with another human being before Charlotte, he’d understand that this is called “socialisation”. It is normal for our species.

When I get to James’s, Greta is already there. I can hear his deep laugh, and when I peek through the sidelights, I see them in the kitchen tossing bits of bread at each other, trying to catch them in their mouths. Greta lunges to catch one, and they both cheer. I don’t want to intrude, and I know that’s weird because we’re all friends and I’m invited and—I don’t know.

Charlie was invited because they both feel sorry for him. He has literally no friends outside of them. And as we established in an earlier chapter, he has no interests and no hobbies outside of maths. Again, it’s normal to want to try to include your weird friend. But Charlie is making it sooooo hard to want to invite him to things. I mainly feel sorry for James; he wanted to be in a relationship with Greta. I don’t think that he really understood that he was also signing up for the entire “and my friend Steve” business as well.

The heat between our fingers is more intense than the molten cheese that just laid waste to my mouth. Dear god of numbers, help me, but I want to be burned alive right now.

Chapter 2.9 summary: Because of the mud fight, Charlie has to go home and take not one but two showers. As he’s getting out of the bathroom wearing only a towel, he literally runs into Charlotte. The entire thing is about as awkward as you might expect it would be. She tries to invite him to come downstairs and make pizza with her and Becca. But he’s spouting quite the boner, as if things weren’t awkward enough with her having a whole-ass conversation with him while he was wearing ONLY a towel. He goes over to James’s house. But he stands outside and watches them being all lovey-dovey and chucking bread into each other’s mouths. He’s suddenly reminded that he’s the awkward third wheel of their relationship, and decides that he’s had enough of that. So he goes home in time to have some pizza. Which is so hot that he burns his mouth. Charlotte gives him some water, which to the surprise of nobody… only prompts him to pop yet another boner. I’m so tired of this.

P: 6/2/26 M: 6/9/26

Chapter 2.6

“Hey, Sisyphus,” she says. “Ever think of, oh, I don’t know, thinking?” I look up at her, the sun behind her making her skin darker than usual so that her eyes are lost like black holes. “Did you just call me a sissy?” Dimwit tilts her head back and holds her sun hat as she cackles. “You may not be smart, but you sure are good for a laugh.” She rumples my hair, which totally weirds me out. “I called you Sisyphus.” I look at her blankly, and shove a tilting rock back in place. “It’s a myth. Sisyphus was an ancient king. He was punished by the gods and spent eternity pushing the same rock up a hill only to have it roll down again.” “That sucks.” “Guess ya’ll haven’t studied it at your smarty pants school.”

I don’t know how the fuck this dipshit managed to make it to high school. He might be a maths genius, but it kind of sounds like he should have been held back based off of literally every other subject.

I spend ten minutes tinkering with my short answers. I have seven versions of “What has been the most significant challenge you’ve faced?” Every last one of them reeks of bullshit. I read the next short answer question. We know you stay busy with many school and extra-curricular activities. Tell us about something you do for fun. Algebra. Probably not the answer they were looking for. These questions are meant to show what a well-rounded individual I am. The thing is, I’m not round. I’m straight, like an arrow.

The dude doesn’t even have a personality outside of maths class. No video games. Practically no social circle. It also sounds like he’s flunking literally every other class except for maths. I’m all for leaning into your interests, but holy fucking shit. He doesn’t exist outside of maths class.

That’s why I’m stalling on my MIT application. Reality. What if MIT isn’t everything I’ve made it out to be?

Even in the first chapter, Charlie told the readers that in order to cope with his lack of social skills, he decided to ignore them and focus completely on maths. Like yes. MIT is something to get excited about. But so are friends. So are your hobbies. There’s eventually going to be a point down the road where Charlie is 40, friendless, and watching everybody he knows drift away to start their own families. Hope that those equations are going to keep you company in bed, Charlie. Because this is the life that you wanted.

If Ms. Finch can refuse to give us feedback in the form of a grade on that stupid novel, then we’ll withhold our feedback, too. All of it. Every last word.

Again, I’m not quite sure what this is supposed to be teaching Ms. Finch. “The kids didn’t turn in their assignments. Literally none of them for the entire year.” Then the principal goes “Hope you lot weren’t planning to graduate… The state says that you all need this class to finish school. LMAO have fun in summer school going over all of this again!”

If Ms. Finch can refuse to give us feedback in the form of a grade on that stupid novel, then we’ll withhold our feedback, too. All of it. Every last word.

Chapter 2.6 summary: Charlie is working on his MIT application. But as stated on several occasions, Charlie is a loser who doesn’t have any hobbies, he isn’t in any clubs at school, he barely has friends… It’s not exactly something that any school really wants to hear. And even he acknowledges as much. He goes downstairs, and finds Becca asleep in front of the TV, with Charlotte watching it. She invites him to join her, insisting that if he watches Singing in the Rain, he might learn some dance moves. They start watching, and Charlie is mainly perplexed by how stupid that the entire thing is. He finds it ridiculous to do the titular “singing in the rain” because then he’d get sick! Charlotte starts to talk about how Gene Kelly had had a fever during all of this. And Charlie realises that the reason why he’s been stalling with his application is because he’s worried that he’s worked so hard and so long to attend MIT… What if he really needs something else? He then spends the rest of the movie (?) lusting after Charlotte. Upstairs, he thinks about doing maths in order to calm himself down. (I mean, is that any different from taking a cold shower?) But even that’s not doing the trick anymore. He then randomly thinks about how when he stood with his classmates against the lack of tests, that it had “changed his life forever”. Which is the most dramatic “I’m 12 and this is deep” bullshit imaginable. He’s determined to “not do any feedback for Ms. Finch”. Which again: how the fuck is this going to convince her to quit her job when you all collectively fail a class? Ugh.

Chapter 2.7

Everyone is silent, with hands folded on their desks, looking anywhere but at Ms. Finch. The lecture begins and we take notes, but no one asks questions or makes any unnecessary noise.

Oh no, quiet obedience!! Anything but that! /sarcasm —Every teacher, ever.

Inside, Charlotte’s melodic voice is everywhere all at once. It makes my pulse stutter. She’s in front of the microwave, a bag of popcorn turning inside, singing a tune that’s upbeat and sad at the same time.

Quick question: why the fuck is Charlotte always at their house? Like I’m waiting for her to explain why her homelife is so fucking ass that she’s always hanging out with Becca, and why she’s so desperate for Charlie to torment Jo.

“I don’t care what you did. She’s madder than a hatter.”

That’s… not what that phrase means, thanks!! Maybe if you paid attention in literature class, you’d know that. Hell, this isn’t even about Alice in Wonderland; it’s about history. So maybe pay attention in history class?

Charlotte continues. “So if I die, but no one is there to see it, am I still alive until the moment someone notices?” I exchange a look with Becca. What the hell? Becca shrugs and looks like she may say something until Charlotte says, “Or, if I’m alive, but no one notices, does that mean that I’m already dead?”

Calm down there, edgelord. I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of chapters already, but is Charlotte a MPDG?

“Well,” Charlotte says, “that’s nice for the cat, then, isn’t it?”

Chapter 2.7 summary: To answer the question posed at the end of the previous chapter… Charlie’s grand plan to chase Ms. Finch off appears to be… bare minimum participation in literature class. They’ll still attend, still turn in their assignments. But whenever she asks a question, they collectively ignore her. When she offered to write hall-passes for them to go to the library to work on their big project, they collectively ignore her. Like oh no. Not quiet students! At this point, they’re intentionally ignoring extra credit points and are wasting their own time in refusing to work on the project during class. After school, Charlie finds Charlotte making popcorn in their microwave. She says that her sister is really angry over the entire thing… Although the dipshit author wrote that it was making Jo crazy instead. I don’t think that the author meant to write that, but whatever. She says that she won’t go home that night, so Becca asks their dad if Charlotte can stay for dinner, which he agrees to. Charlotte then asks Charlie about the Schrodinger’s cat thought experiment. However, she then asks this real emo shit of “if I die, am I still considered alive until they find my body?” Which is 100% not the same thing and completely missing the point of why the experiment was proposed. Her question makes Becca and Charlie super uncomfortable. Even more so when Charlotte says that it must be nice to be both dead and alive like the cat.