Schooled

Even though Hugh likes Capricorn as a person, he likes him more for the pressure Capricorn takes off of Hugh. Now that Capricorn is the target of all of the middle-school bullies, Hugh is able to move through school without drawing too much negative attention. Instead, it’s Capricorn who gets things thrown at him by the boys on the back of the bus.

On this particular day, the bullies in the back throw lit matches at Capricorn’s head. Just as Hugh tries to warn Capricorn, Mr. Rodrigo, the bus driver, clutches his chest and falls out of his seat. Everyone freezes, except for Capricorn, who runs up the aisle and jumps into the driver’s seat. Naomi gives Capricorn directions to the hospital, and despite being pursued by the police, Capricorn does not stop until he gets Mr. Rodrigo to the doors of the emergency room. Once Mr. Rodrigo is brought into the hospital, Capricorn is arrested. Again.

As Hugh watches Capricorn getting put into the back of a police cruiser, he is ashamed of his thoughts:

Cap had just been arrested at gunpoint; Mr. Rodrigo was in danger of his life. And what was I thinking about? That if Cap went to jail, I would be back in business as the number-one punching bag at C Average Middle School (77).

Capricorn uses the teen soap opera, Trigonometry and Tears, to try to make sense of life outside of Garland Farm. The grownups on the show are constantly overreacting, so Capricorn is not surprised “when the police, the superintendent, the principal, the bus company owner, and Mrs. Donnelly all took turns screaming at” him (79). Only Rain commends him for saving Mr. Rodrigo’s life.

One morning, Naomi joins Capricorn on the lawn for Tai Chi. When he goes to leave for another bogus press briefing set up by Zach, Naomi gives him a warning: “Watch out for Zach and Lena. Watch out for all of us. We’re not as nice as we pretend to be” (81).

When Capricorn finally finds the right room, he is surprised to see at least 20 kids waiting for him. To Zach’s annoyance, they all want to ask Capricorn about driving the bus and getting arrested. By that point, Capricorn had memorized the names of 54 students, and he uses the press briefing to learn the names of even more students.

After answering questions about the bus ride, students want to know what is happening with the Halloween dance. At first, Capricorn feels overwhelmed, but then he remembers what Rain told him about the farm: “Back in the sixties, when Garland was a working Commune, the biggest jobs went to the people who were best qualified to handle them” (83). At that point, Capricorn starts delegating responsibility to the students. When asked how they are going to pay for everything, Capricorn goes along with the assumption that there is some sort of budget for the dance.

Sophie is thrilled when her absent father shows up and promises to stay around for a few months. However, when he takes her for a driving lesson, she notices that he is not as patient as Capricorn. Unfortunately, though, it’s now too risky to drive with Capricorn, since he has been arrested for driving the school bus without a license.

Sophie’s dad is shocked when he sees Capricorn practicing Tai Chi in the yard, saying, “God bless America! […] That’s the stray your mother brought home?” (86). Sophie’s dad puts his salesman skills to use and strikes up a conversation with Capricorn.

Afterward, Sophie’s dad presents her with a very belated birthday gift: a silver bangle with multi-colored stones. However, instead of letting her try it on, Sophie’s dad tells her that he needs to get it engraved. Capricorn stares at the bracelet, thinking that it’s beautiful.

Capricorn is making progress in memorizing the names of all 1,100 students. He is now at 129. Capricorn wishes that he could talk to Rain more often. There is so much he does not understand about life at school. For example, it does not make sense to him that the students seem more interested in how he drove the bus than Mr. Rodrigo’s recovery.

Capricorn’s occasional talks with Rain cause him concern, however. Rain had always said that “when people are negative, they’re trying to put duct tape on their own damaged souls” (90). But Capricorn notices that Rain herself seems to be on “a negativity trip” (90) when she talks about Mrs. Donnelly and Sophie. It seems like Rain is less capable of living her ideals when she is away from Garland Farm.

In the meantime, while Sophie and Capricorn have not become friends, exactly, she does start to treat him more like a little brother, giving him advice about hair and skin care. Capricorn’s feelings for Sophie are less brotherly and more romantic: “Everything about Sophie had a kind of shine to it. After years of studying art with Rain, I still couldn’t remember a color as intense as the glitter polish Sophie painted on her toenails” (91).

Meanwhile, students keep approaching Capricorn and asking about the Halloween dance. In response, Capricorn deputizes his fellow students to arrange the snacks, desserts, and music. When they ask how everything will be paid for, he repeats what Rain had always told him: “When you spend your life worrying about money, pretty soon money becomes your life” (94).

Hugh overhears someone referring to him as “Cap’s best friend” (96), which he agrees with, to a certain degree. While he has tried to help Capricorn navigate school, he has not been successful in getting Capricorn to hang out, so when Capricorn offers to teach Hugh how to tie-dye shirts, he jumps at the chance. The two meet in the art room the next morning with a couple of plain white T-shirts. As they begin dying the shirts, Miss Agnew, the art teacher, walks in. When she recognizes Capricorn, she praises him for saving Mr. Rodrigo’s life. It turns out that Miss Agnew is also a fan of tie-dye. She lets Hugh and Capricorn skip their first-period class in order to have Capricorn teach her art class how to tie-dye. Soon after, there is an announcement over the PA system alerting students that they can join the eighth grade president in the art room for an impromptu art class, and that they should bring any white pieces of clothing that they have on hand. Around 80 students attend the class; Hugh watches as Capricorn talks to the majority of them, trying to learn each of their names: “before my eyes, it had turned into the eighth grade president’s coming-out party” (99).

Sophie’s dad has abruptly left town, going back on his promise to take her for her driver’s test and leaving without giving her the engraved bracelet she was waiting for. Sophie takes her frustration out on Capricorn. As they watch their favorite show together, Trigonometry and Tears, Sophie lashes out at Capricorn for over-empathizing with one of the characters, saying, “What do you care? It’s a TV show” (102). Because television programming is new to Capricorn, it’s hard for him to watch characters make bad decisions and not be able to help them. He then realizes that the show is a lot like life off of the farm. On the show, characters avoid their problems, and eventually, those problems disappear; on the farm, he and Rain “followed simple logic: you plant tomato seeds, you get tomato plants. No seeds, no tomatoes. Cause and effect” (104). Life at school seems to follow the same logic as the teen soap opera. Capricorn has delegated all of the responsibility for the Halloween dance to others, and somehow the work is getting done without him doing anything. Capricorn thinks, “No wonder T & T was such a popular show. It was practically an instruction manual for life” (104).

Eventually, Mr. Kasigi calls Capricorn over and asks how Capricorn plans to pay for everything related to the dance. When Capricorn does not come up with an answer, Mr. Kasigi, exacerbated, explains that there is a school budget for the dance. He takes Capricorn to the bank, and because he is going to be out of town for a conference, Mr. Kasigi hands Capricorn a stack of pre-signed checks. What Mr. Kasigi does not understand is that Capricorn has no concept of how checks work. He does not realize that when you give someone a check for a certain amount, the money in your account goes down by that exact amount.

On his way home, Capricorn sees the same silver bangle that Sophie’s dad had failed to get engraved for her. Capricorn uses one of the checks from the Halloween dance budget to buy the bracelet for Sophie.

Mrs. Donnelly calls Mr. Kasigi to check in and see how Capricorn is doing at school. When she asks whether he has friends, he says, “Not friends, exactly. More like followers” (110). Capricorn is leading sing-alongs in the music room and has inspired an “army of volunteers” (120) to work on the Halloween dance. Mrs. Donnelly realizes that Capricorn is handling his transition into mainstream society better than she had expected: “I should have realized that Cap was holding his own in his new life. He was still a fish out of water, but he didn’t seem to be quite so thrown by every little thing as he had been when I’d first brought him home” (111). Mrs. Donnelly supports Capricorn’s efforts by lending him her district yearbooks so he can study the names of the other students.

Sophie’s attitude toward Capricorn has improved, as well. Mrs. Donnelly attributes this to Sophie finally receiving the engraved bangle from her dad in the mail. There is no card in the package or return address on the envelope. The inscription reads, “ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE” (112). Mrs. Donnelly is pleasantly surprised that her ex-husband came through this time. She is also aware of Capricorn’s crush on her daughter. When she suspects that Capricorn is trying to work up the nerve to put his arm around Sophie, Mrs. Donnelly interrupts the moment by offering them both some lemonade. She knows that any move that Capricorn makes on Sophie will not be taken kindly.

Even though things seem to be going better for Capricorn, Mrs. Donnelly cannot help but worry:

The pain of my own adjustment from Garland was decades in the past. But it felt like yesterday when I watched this poor boy. I took Frank Kasigi at his word when he said Cap was doing well. But I knew I wouldn’t sleep at night until he was once again with Rain, hobbling back toward the sixties as fast as her pinned hip would carry both of them (113).

When Hugh gets purposefully tripped at Capricorn’s well-attended Tai Chi class, he starts to suspect that his “deepest, darkest fears” (115) are coming true. Capricorn is gaining in popularity, which means that Hugh is back to being the prime target of the bullies.

Hugh notices that Naomi Erlanger, “one of the beautiful people” (116), seems to have turned her attention away from Zach and toward Capricorn. When Naomi, Darryl, and Lena ask Hugh and Capricorn to sponsor them for the “March of Caring,” Hugh takes it more as a demand than a request and empties his pockets. Hugh is shocked when Capricorn uses one of the checks meant to pay for the Halloween dance as a donation to the “March of Caring.” He tries to explain to Capricorn that that money is earmarked for the dance, but Capricorn responds, “I’ve been inside that bank, Hugh. They’ve got plenty of money for everything” (117).

When Capricorn tells Hugh, “I couldn’t have imagined how good it feels when so many people like you” (119), Hugh takes the comment as a personal insult. Hugh has never known how it feels to be liked. The final straw is when Naomi barges into the boys’ bathroom and plants a kiss on Capricorn. Hugh “glower[s] at [Capricorn] through eyes that were barely slits. Hero status wasn’t good enough for [Capricorn] anymore. He had to be a heartthrob too” (119). Hugh declares he is “finished with Capricorn Anderson” (119).