Big Mouth & Ugly Girl

Matt writes another email to Ursula. He wonders if their meeting on the ravine had a purpose beyond chance.

Ursula replies, agreeing that everything has a purpose.

Matt writes that their hiking together felt oddly familiar and comforting: “That was how I felt. With you. Hiking back down and not needing to talk, like there needed nothing to be said” (156). He deletes his message without sending it.

In a flashback, Matt is back at home just after his hike with Ursula. He tells Pumpkin he was not really going to commit suicide; “[e]ven if Pumpkin didn’t believe, Pumpkin trusted him” (158).

Matt remembers feeling Ursula’s fingers close around his. He realizes he has never held anyone’s hand like that before.

Matt and Ursula have a long email exchange that starts at midnight on a Sunday and lasts until the early hours. Matt asks what Ursula thinks about the lawsuit, and she insists it is not her business. She says she doesn’t listen to gossip, and for this Matt calls her “1 in 1 million” (162).

Matt asks her not to talk about finding him at the ravine. Matt also invites her to hike with him on Saturday. Ursula agrees and emails a goodnight around 1:00 a.m. Matt writes her several long emails after she says goodnight, talking about his family life and admiration for her, and asks her multiple times for her real thoughts on the lawsuit. He also asks if he could call her on the phone sometime.

While sharing lunch with Matt, Ursula marvels at how similar they are. For example, “Matt had a kid brother and I had a kid sister, almost the same age; and we both liked them, a lot” (170). Ursula feels a deep connection to Matt, though she avoids talking about parent troubles with him. She likes that he is her height and has such a connection to his dog Pumpkin. Her favorite moments spent with him are their long hikes together.

Noticing her improved moods, Ursula’s mother asks if she is back on the basketball team. Suspecting that Ursula may be developing a romantic relationship, her mother also mentions her growing use of the phone. The pestering continues until Ursula evades, saying, “Mom, worry about Dad, OK?” (175). This unintentionally hurtful comment causes her mother to drop the subject.

On her way to school Ursula wonders if her father is having an affair. At her locker, basketball player Courtney Levao appears and tells Ursula that Ms. Schultz misses Ursula’s presence on the team. Accepting Courtney as genuine, Ursula loses interest in the conversation when Matt appears. They rush off together.

Ursula’s father returns from another business trip, and Ursula asks him for a dog. Her father says he is allergic: “You wouldn’t want me to be allergic to home—would you?” (179).

Ursula’s mother finds out that Ursula “and that Donaghy boy are—friends?” (179). She disapproves of this relationship based on Matt’s reputation and asks if they are a couple. Indignantly, Ursula reminds her mother that she has never truly taken an interest in Ursula’s life and is only doing so now because she disapproves of it. Ursula’s mother calls the Donaghys “grasping, vulgar, opportunistic people” (181). She insists that Ursula will be implicated in the lawsuit and demands to know the extent of Ursula and Matt’s relationship, which Ursula avoids disclosing.

At school, everyone has “an opinion of the new friends” Ursula and Matt (185). They are seen everywhere together. No one is sure whether they are a couple or not.

Rumors spread. Stacey Flynn thinks “Matt is in a state of shock… Going out with Ursula Riggs is, like, a symptom of his nervous breakdown” (186). Stacey has not reached out to Matt since the investigation, it being “too awkward” (186).

Impacted by her mother’s words, Ursula tells Matt she thinks the lawsuit is a mistake while they are out on a hike. Matt has trouble accepting this even though he has previously confided that the lawsuit has overtaken his family life. He laments, “Now that the lawyers on both sides were into it, and so-called developments were leaked to the media, it was getting complicated like some disease that breaks down one organ, then another, then another” (190).

When Ursula parrots her mother’s words, saying some people think the lawsuit is just for money, Matt turns to her in tears: “My dad isn’t rich like yours, Ursula. Maybe the Donaghys need money” (191).

Matt walks ahead, and Ursula follows behind. Wondering if Matt is crying, Ursula realizes she herself is.