52 pages • 1 hour read
Julie BuxbaumTell Me Three Things
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 5-9
Chapter 5 Summary
Jessie remembers how helpless her dad became when her mom received her stage 4 ovarian cancer diagnosis: he struggled to keep up with the day-to-day household details that his wife always managed, but he and Jessie “made do.” Even two years later, Jessie still cannot bring herself to “remember who [her mother] was in a way that doesn't make [her] keel over” (37). Her dad's elopement had come as a complete surprise because he used work trips to cover up his visits with Rachel. When he announced that they were moving to California, to escape “[their] rut” (39), Jessie hardly reacted to the news, feeling numb to the whole ordeal.
Their massive new home, despite being immaculate and beautiful, does not feel homey and makes Jessie feel like an unwelcome guest. Rachel, whom Jessie finds “exhausting to be around” (40), calls everyone to a family dinner for the first time since Bill and Jessie moved in. They announce Bill got a job as a pharmacist at the grocery store near their school, which embarrasses Theo. He storms away from the table, humiliating Bill, and Rachel does little to reprimand her son.
After dinner, Jessie sits outside on the porch, and Theo comes to join her. He starts smoking some weed that his therapist prescribed for his anxiety. As he relaxes, he tries to reassure Jessie that he is “not an asshole,” and that under different circumstances, they might be friends. He is momentarily genuine and expresses his sympathy to Jessie for losing her mom. Jessie reciprocates the sentiment, and as Theo leaves, he reminds her he still probably will not talk to her at school.
Chapter 6 Summary
Feeling “a bit self-pitying” later that night, Jessie writes to SN, and they briefly commiserate about their unhappiness. Unable to sleep, Jessie tiptoes to the kitchen to make herself some tea, but she stumbles upon her dad and Rachel in the den, crouched over photographs, looking “like a real married couple” (51). Jessie assumes they are looking at Rachel's “before” pictures, before her first husband died, which makes Jessie cry. Witnessing this intimate moment, Jessie thinks that “suddenly, everything feels irrevocably broken in that way it can in the middle of the night when you are alone” (51). She silently returns to her room, afraid to see them kiss, for it would be too painful for her to see.
Chapter 7 Summary
Fifteen days into the school year, Gem and Crystal (two of the blonde girls who whispered about Jessie a week ago) have started actively gossiping about Jessie in English class. Jessie refuses to engage with them and instead strikes up a conversation with Adrianna. Feeling brave, Jessie then approaches Ethan in his usual spot at the Koffee Kart during lunch. She tells him she does not feel comfortable working with him on the English project if he plans to do all the work. At first, Ethan does not understand why she would not want to get an A without any effort, but when she insists that it would be against the honor code and that she can find a new partner, he reconsiders. During their conversation, she keenly observes his facial features and finds him extremely attractive.
Later, Jessie and Adrianna (Dri) chat in gym class, commiserating about mean girls and how college is “so close and yet so far away” (59). Jessie suspects Dri might be SN and tests her theory by alluding to a line from his email, but Dri does not seem to recognize the reference.
Chapter 8 Summary
Theo, who “approaches getting dressed as an act in costuming” (61), is ready for a party at Heather's house on Saturday night. Having slightly warmed up to each other, Theo and Jessie banter in the kitchen, and he tries to convince her to join him, but she declines and decides to stay home.
She writes to SN, asking if he is at the party. They chat flirtatiously, but the tone changes when he admits he is not having a good year either. He tells her she has “sad eyes,” and Jessie admits to herself she tends to hold tension in her brow, which reminds her of her mom. She decides she does not want to be known as “the sad girl,” no matter how she feels. SN tells her about the party, and he admits he finds that kind of socializing “small and unimportant” (67), and talking to her feels more significant.
Chapter 9 Summary
Jessie remembers how she and Scarlett would talk about what a “perfect” day for each of them might be. Her dream day was always simple, but now that her mother has died, she cannot imagine ever having a perfect day. She remembers all of the detailed things she loved about her mom and their relationship and concludes that “perfect days are for people with small, realizable dreams. Or maybe for all of us, they just happen in retrospect; they’re only now perfect because they contain something irrevocably and irretrievably lost” (71).
Chapters 5-9 Analysis
Jessie painfully recalls her mom’s cancer diagnosis, detailing just how much her family fell apart without her mother acting as “the glue” to hold everyone together. Jessie had to step up and take on the adult responsibilities that her dad could not manage, forcing Jessie to mature faster and go through certain milestones on her own. Two years later, Jessie is still processing the trauma and grief and cannot think about her mother without “keeling over.” Jessie concludes that “certain facts”—like her mother being gone— “tend to render everything else irrelevant” (38), which is why she approaches the massive changes in her life with such numbness and ambivalence, and why she can never imagine having a perfect day again.
Rachel attempts to bring this grieving lot of “strangers” together over a nice family dinner, but Theo’s outburst ruins any chance of relationship-building or celebration. Later, in a moment of transparency with Jessie, it becomes clear that he is struggling with anxiety, and he genuinely expresses his sympathy to Jessie, but he is not at a point in his healing where he is ready to accept new family members into his life. However, this moment on the porch marks the beginning of him making an effort in his relationship with Jessie, as they warm up to one another over the coming chapters.
Chapter 7 marks the start of the other meaningful relationships that become crucial during this transitional period of Jessie’s life. She approaches Dri, at SN’s suggestion, and Dri is quick to enfold Jessie into her friendship with Agnes. Jessie tries her best to remain unshaken by Gem and Crystal’s taunts, which speaks to her self-assurance, but Dri and Agnes’ friendship provides the necessary support and encouragement that it takes to endure high school bullying. Jessie knows herself and knows that she is a capable student who does not need someone else to do the work for her, and so she approaches Ethan about their “Waste Land” project. This conversation is their first real “meeting,” even though, unbeknownst to Jessie, she has already been speaking to him as SN. Jessie instantly starts to develop a crush on him while simultaneously deepening her relationship with SN.
SN noticing her “sad eyes” reinforces the theme of visibility: he is both literally seeing her, noticing Jessie from wherever he is at Wood Valley, and also astutely noticing something as personal as her grief, which manifests in her eyes. They are both looking for this kind of connection—one that is intentional, deep, meaningful, and stands in stark contrast to the superficial interactions they observe at drunken parties. Those kinds of social settings seem “small and unimportant” to them because they both have experienced losing a family member—something much bigger and significant than most of their peers have. Only two weeks have passed since Jessie first arrived at Wood Valley, but Jessie and SN can already sense how important their relationship is becoming.
