67 pages • 2 hours read
Tamara Ireland StoneEvery Last Word
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2015A 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 6-10 Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: "By Your Side"
It is Thursday morning, the day that Samantha is supposed to meet Caroline in the theater to reveal the life-changing secret. It has been all that Samantha could think about lately: “The last few days have been brutal, with Caroline’s words running through my head in an endless loop. I can’t imagine what she wants to show me today or how it could possibly change my whole life” (47).
When lunch rolls around, Samantha makes her way to the theater. She hides behind the theater stage curtain, as instructed. Caroline finally arrives to collect her. Caroline whispers “follow me” (48) as she disappears backstage. Backstage, there is a closed door that leads to a steep, narrow staircase. They move down the staircase, which leads to a narrow hallway painted dark gray. At the end of the hallway, there is another series of doors; Caroline stands before one of them: “[Caroline] ignores my question and points to the doorknob. ‘Okay, I’m going to be by your side the entire time, but this is all up to you from here. You have to do all the talking’” (49). Samantha’s worry is increasing, as she does not know where or what she is doing, and her instincts are telling her to flee. With Caroline’s encouragement, however, they continue forward. They enter the door into a small room that is painted entirely black and contains cleaning supplies like mops and brooms. At the back of this room, there is another door, also painted black so that it is barely visible. Samantha knocks on this door, and a girl answers: “First there’s a click, and then the door swings toward me and I see a pair of eyes in the narrow opening. ‘Who are you?’ a girl’s voice whispers” (50). The girl is wary of Samantha but recognizes Caroline and lets the two of them pass when Caroline says that “she’s with me” (50).
Inside the room, there are several kids from school milling about, although Samantha is so nervous that she does not fully take in her surroundings. A tall lanky boy with sandy-colored hair approaches and grills Samantha on how she heard about this place, and why is she here. Caroline does not intervene:
Caroline made it pretty clear she isn’t going to do anything to help me at this point, but that doesn’t mean her words can’t get me the rest of the way into the room. ‘I heard that this place might change my life, and, well...I guess my life could use some serious changing, so I thought…’ I trail off, watching him, waiting for his face to relax, but it doesn’t (52).
The boy with sandy-colored hair says fine, Samantha is allowed to stay—but just this once. With the confrontation over, Samantha is able to take in her surroundings more clearly: “The room is long and narrow and, like the janitor’s closet, painted entirely in black. But the ceilings are twice as high, and even though it’s dark, it’s not claustrophobic at all. At the front of the room, I see a low riser that appears to be a makeshift stage. Smack in the center there’s a wooden stool” (53). The walls are covered in scraps of paper in all different colors and shapes: “I reach for one of the pages, running the corner between my thumb and forefinger, and that’s when I notice handwriting on each one, as distinctive as the paper itself. Loopy, flowing cursive. Tight, angular letters. Precise, blocky writing” (53). Samantha begins to ask Caroline what this place is, but she does not have time to answer when a heavyset girl by the name of Sydney takes the stage.
Sydney holds up the top of a Chicken McNuggets container and tells the group that she wrote the following last night at McDonald’s and proceeds to read aloud a series of poems about the experience of eating nuggets. When she finishes, she yells “Stick me!” and the audience throws glue sticks at her and applauds. Sydney uses one of the glue sticks to tack the poem to the wall. Next, the boy with sandy-colored hair takes the stage holding a guitar, saying that he is about to read a poem that, in his opinion, “sucks” (57). The audience starts booing and throwing balled up paper at him, which Caroline explains is one of the group’s rules: “You can’t criticize anyone’s poetry, but especially not your own” (57). The boy strums his guitar and sings a brief poem: “Like sunlight dancing on my skin,/You’ll still be in my mind./So I’m only gonna say,/So long, Lazy Ray” (58). The audience claps and tosses another round of glue sticks at him. Samantha is blown away by the boy’s poem and the experience in general: “Because while all of them are clearly enjoying this moment, none of them look quite as surprised as I am, and I’m pretty sure their arms aren’t covered in goose bumps like mine are” (59). One of the audience members finally explains to Samantha this secret group calls themselves Poet’s Corner.
Chapter 7 Summary: "An Overwhelming Urge"
The following day, Samantha sees members of Poet’s Corner everywhere: “The next day, I see them in the places they must have been all along” (60). As one of the popular kids, Samantha has overlooked the social misfits who populate Poet’s Corner; now that she is part of the group, she sees them anew. Most members now subtly acknowledge Samantha when they see her in the school’s halls, with a nod or a hint of a smile. However, AJ, the boy with sandy-colored hair, ignores her completely.
At the end of the school day, Samantha is in the parking lot approaching her car with Alexis appears out of nowhere. Alexis informs her that there was a last-minute cancellation at the spa, and since Samantha is her next oldest friend, she can now join her birthday party. This means that Hailey is the only member of the Crazy Eights who will not be invited to the party: “And now I know precisely where I reside on [Alexis’s] social ladder: second rung from the bottom. Hailey occupies the last one, and as soon as she learns I’m invited to Alexis’s birthday and she’s not, she’ll know it too” (61). Even though Samantha does feel guilty about Hailey, she also is relieved to not be the “fifth wheel” (62) for once.
At swim practice later that day, Samantha finds herself thinking of the song that AJ sung at Poet’s Corner. During dinner with her family, she is still thinking of the song and Poet’s Corner in general: “I’m picturing that room and its walls, covered in torn notebook pages and ripped-up napkins, pieces of brown paper lunch sacks and fast-food wrappers, and how all that chaos and disorder gave me such a strange sort of peace” (64). When she gets into bed that evening, Samantha refrains from taking a sleeping pill, which is her usual nighttime routine. Instead, she digs up her old color-coded notebooks, given to her by Sue: “The yellow notebook was for happy thoughts. The red notebook was for when I was angry and needed to vent. The blue one was for when I was feeling good. Peaceful. Not happy, not angry. Neutral. Somewhere in the middle” (65). Crawling under the covers with her blue notebook, Samantha begins to write:
I put pen to paper, and off I go, writing about the one thing that makes me feel healthy and happy and...normal. Cutting through the surface. Hearing the whoosh and the silence. Pushing off that cement wall with both feet, feeling powerful and invincible. Loving how the water feels as it slips over my cheeks (66).
Two hours later, Samantha is still writing; at three in the morning, she finally drifts to sleep, elated by her writing session.
Chapter 8 Summary: "Let Me Hear"
It is the day of Alexis’s birthday and the girls—that is, the Crazy Eights minus Hailey—arrive at the spa. Alexis’s mother presides over the event, giving each of the girls a gift bag before they enter the spa. Unfortunately, because Samantha was a late addition to the party, Alexis’s mother does not have a bag ready for her. In lieu of a bag, Alexis’s mom promises to buy Samantha something from the gift shop of the spa. Despite being only 16 years old, Samantha and the rest of the girls are given anti-aging treatments at the spa. After their treatments, they make their way to a popular nearby restaurant.
At the restaurant, there is another snafu. The reservation is for two tables, so the group needs to separate. Alexis, Kaitlyn, and Olivia at one table; Samantha and Alexis’s mother sit at another. Samantha is upset that she is excluded from the friends' table and forced to sit with the mom:
The two of us make small talk for the next twenty minutes while I try not to stare at my friends laughing and chatting and waving sympathetically at me from the other side of the room[...]I excuse myself to go to the restroom and hide behind a potted plant out of view, holding back tears as I text Mom, telling her about my not-so-perfect spa day (72).
Samantha is driven home immediately after the lunch, skipping on the sleepover Alexis has planned for that night. As they drop Samantha off at her home, Alexis says that she hopes Samantha "feel[s] better," while Kaitlyn and Olivia say that the group will “miss” (73) her that evening, but Samantha knows they are being fake.
Samantha begins to cry upon entering her home: “The mascara I carefully applied at the spa is everywhere but my eyelashes, and my whole face is bright red and puffy” (73). There is a knock at the door, which takes Samantha by surprise. It is Caroline. Samantha has forgotten that she invited over Caroline to watch a movie that night. Even though Samantha tried to clean herself up, Caroline can tell that she has been crying: “‘Do you want to tell me what happened today?’ she says, as if she knows my red eyes and puffy face had something to do with my friends” (75). The two girls sit in Samantha’s room, and Samantha tells her everything that happened, all the horrible events of the day. Caroline understands and sympathizes with Samantha wholly and completely: “I’m not sure if that made sense, but Caroline’s looking at me like she understood it perfectly. It’s like I can read her mind right now. She doesn’t like that my friends hurt my feelings, intentionally or not” (78).
Without Samantha saying it, Caroline knows that Samantha has been writing poetry and asks to hear one of the ones she’s written recently. Samantha’s jaw drops, in disbelief that Caroline effortlessly seems to know her so intimately. At first, Samantha balks, saying that her poetry is stupid and not worth reading aloud. With Caroline’s encouragement, Samantha picks one called “The Drop,” which is about swimming. Caroline likes the poem and says that they have to make sure Samantha is somehow able to join Poet’s Corner. Samantha agrees, but she is doubtful since the “keymaster” (81) AJ does not seem to like Samantha. Caroline responds that it is not that AJ does not like Samantha, it is that she hurt him, and he does not know how to handle that. Samantha does not know what Caroline is referring to, and Caroline refuses to tell her. Caroline does assure her that Samantha will “figure it out in time” (81). Clutching her blue notebook, Samantha asks for Caroline’s help: “‘I want to get back to Poet’s Corner, but I don’t know how. Will you help me?” (82).
Chapter 9 Summary: "We Fixed Him"
It is the next morning and Samantha’s mother asks her if she wants to discuss the incident at the spa yesterday. Samantha replies no, that she has already worked it out with her friend Caroline last night. Samantha’s mother is pleasantly surprised at the mention of a new friend.
The following day at school, Samantha notices AJ in the hallway at his locker, and she recalls Caroline’s words about how she hurt him: “I can’t figure out what I did, and somewhere around two thirty this morning, I decided I was going to find out the first chance I got” (84). Samantha approaches him and tells him how much she enjoyed the poem-song he recited in Poet’s Corner the other day. She goes on to tell him that she found the experience inspiring and that she has been writing poetry every day since then. AJ is surprised that Samantha has been writing: “AJ crosses his arms like he doesn’t believe me, but at least now I can read the look on his face. He’s surprised. Maybe even intrigued” (87). Samantha desperately wants him to invite her back to Poet’s Corner, but he leaves for class without offering.
After AJ leaves, Kaitlyn rushes up to Samantha and, referring to AJ, she asks Samantha why she was talking to Andrew Olsen: “[Kaitlyn] lets go of me so she can point at him, and together we watch AJ open a classroom door and disappear from sight” (89). Samantha is confused—she does not remember Andrew Olsen, so Kaitlyn reminds her: “‘Andrew Olsen. Remember? Fourth grade. Mrs. Collins’s class?’ Kaitlyn must be able to tell by the look on my face that I’m not connecting the dots, because she breaks into this huge grin. She shakes her hips and sings, ‘A-A-A-Andrew…’ to the tune of the Chia Pet jingle, and then she starts cracking up” (88). Then the memories come flooding back to Samantha, and she soon recalls what it is that she did to AJ/Andrew to hurt him. She and the rest of the Crazy Eights, in fourth grade, severely bullied him for his stutter and teased him mercilessly on a daily basis. Kaitlyn laughs as she recalls the ways in which they taunted AJ, and she does not seem to realize how horrified Samantha is to relive these memories. Kaitlyn returns to her original question and wants to know why Samantha was talking to him. Samantha says they have a class together; she also informs Kaitlyn that he no longer has a stutter.
Later that day, Samantha finds Caroline and informs her that she has finally figured out what she did to AJ to hurt him. Caroline suggests that apologizing would be the first thing to do to make it right. Caroline offers her help with the apology and together they spend the next three hours working on a single poem in the first row of the theater:
When I get stuck, she feeds me word after word until we find the perfect one that sums up what I want him to know. When I’m done, we have a poem that doesn’t say ‘I’m sorry’ in so many words, but it talks about regret and second chances, a fear of not belonging that runs so deep it changes you into someone you don’t want to be. It’s about seeing what you’ve become and wanting—craving—to be someone different. Someone better (91).
Samantha is firm in her resolve to convince AJ and the group to let her into Poet’s Corner as a full member.
Chapter 10 Summary: "That Narrow Hallway"
It is lunch period at school and Samantha is eating with the Crazy Eights. She makes an excuse that she needs to return a book at the library and leaves the lunch table early. Instead of the library, however, she makes her way to the theater, down the staircase and through the hallway to Poet’s Corner. When she knocks on the door, AJ is not happy to see her and wonders aloud if her friends put her up to this: “I was expecting him to be surprised, but not quite so pissed. My hands start shaking and my legs feel like they’re going to give out, but I force myself to stand tall and look right into his eyes like Caroline told me” (94). Samantha makes her case to AJ through the door. Pulling the poem that she and Caroline composed from her jeans pocket, she tells him that she has something she would like to read to the group. AJ brusquely rejects her, saying that only members are allowed in Poet’s Corner and that she, Samantha, is not a member. He tells her that she does not belong here. As a last-ditch effort, Samantha presses the poem into AJ’s hand and apologizes: “I didn’t remember at first. It was years ago...I don’t know, maybe I blocked it out or something. But anyway, I know what I did now, and I am so sorry. I’ll never be able to tell you how much I regret it. But I’m truly, genuinely sorry. And mortified” (95). Tears spring to Samantha’s eyes as AJ closes the door, retreating into Poet’s Corner. Dejected and upset, Samantha returns to the Crazy Eights, who are now seated under their tree in the school courtyard.
Chapters 6-10 Analysis
The idea that Samantha is a divided person—the difference between her “perfect” popular self (“Samantha”) and her OCD afflicted, natural self (“Sam”)—is explored in this section. With her new friends at Poet’s Corner, Samantha asserts her identity as “Sam” with more urgency. From the beginning, when she first enters the Poet’s Corner space, she insists that they call her “Sam,” implying that she wants them to know the “real” her. The Crazy Eights, on the other hand, have already rejected the “real” Samantha: “Last year, I asked the Eights to call me Sam. Kaitlyn laughed and said that’s her dog’s name, and Olivia said it’s a guy’s name, and Alexis declared that she would never, ever go by Alex” (28). Poet’s Corner, then, presents new opportunities to Samantha to know true friendship, much different from the toxic and catty friendship of the Crazy Eights.
In Chapter 6, Samantha first discovers Poet’s Corner, a pivotal moment for her. When she retreats down the theater stairs, through the basement and into the janitor’s closet, Poet’s Corner is a place of immediate comfort for Samantha: “I don’t think I’ve ever experienced this sensation outside the pool, but I feel it now, deep in my bones. My shoulders drop. My heart’s no longer racing. I can’t see a toxic, negative thought for miles” (54). As a person with OCD, to have a moment of reprieve from the barrage of “toxic, negative” thoughts is profound. This special place is deeply important to Samantha: “I’m trying to figure out if everyone else is as taken aback as I am, but they don’t seem to be. Didn’t anyone else think that was amazing?” (59).
Writing poetry is a transformative experience for Samantha. When she first begins writing poetry after discovering the Poet’s Corner, she is consumed by the experience: “When I get to the end of the next page I check the clock and realize two things: it’s after midnight and I forgot to take my sleep meds. Normally, that would worry me, but it doesn’t tonight. I’m too elated to sleep” (64). Samantha’s OCD is managed by a two-prong approach of therapy and medication, and her forgetting to take her sleep meds in this section is another indicator that the poetry is having a profound effect on her. She also has a dramatic reaction in Chapter 8 when she returns to Poet’s Corner for a second time and AJ turns her away: “As soon as I close the front door behind me, the tears start falling and the thoughts flood in faster and faster, tumbling over each other, pushing themselves to the front, fighting for my attention” (73). At this point in the novel, it is unclear exactly how Samantha’s newfound passion for poetry will affect her, and if she will even be accepted by the Poet’s Corner group, but Caroline’s promise that joining Poet’s Corner could potentially “change [her] whole life” (38) seems to be coming true.
The politics of teenage girl groups serve as an important backdrop to Every Last Word. The cruelty, superficiality, and pettiness that informs the ways in which some teenage girls function is most evident among the Crazy Eights. The group has a clear hierarchy with Alexis being the leader. In order to cultivate a culture of exclusivity, Alexis dictates who is “in” and “out” in their group. As seen at the spa birthday in Chapter 8, Samantha is alarmed when she realizes that she is one of the lowest rungs on Alexis’s social ladder. In this climate, Samantha’s transformation is made more evident when she begins to shed the values imposed on her by the Crazy Eights. Samantha herself buys into the Crazy Eight’s ideas about conventional beauty, and so when she first meets Caroline, Samantha takes note of her loose-fitting clothing and wonders what Caroline would look like if she would just put a bit of makeup on. However, as Samantha begins her transformation and starts to shed her the toxic politics of the Crazy Eights, her superficiality begins to fall away as well:
As I wait for [Caroline’s] response, I study her eyes. They’re narrow and hooded, but I’m no longer trying to figure out how to apply eyeshadow to open them up. They’re pretty the way they are. Her hair doesn’t seem so stringy either, and I’m not dying to cover up her blemishes. I’m just happy she’s here (77).
Samantha, having experienced the Poet's Corner and essentially a social realm beyond the Crazy Eights, is now able to see Caroline with new eyes. Similarly, she experiences shame when she realizes that she had a hand in bulling AJ, then Andrew, in the fourth grade. These shifts in her perspective lay the groundwork for a personal transformation, one in which she may be able to view herself, and her illness, differently.
