53 pages • 1 hour read
Ned VizziniBe More Chill
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2004A 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 27-33Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 27 Summary
The bell rings, and school starts, but Jeremy stays in the bushes with Rich, Abby, and Brooke. They smoke weed together, but Jeremy’s SQUIP filters out the active compounds so that he will not get high. The SQUIP warns him not to drink or use other chemicals that would impair their communication. Jeremy begins to kiss Brooke while Rich makes out with Abby. The SQUIP coaches him mentally on how to pleasure her, advising him to play with her nipple. She seems uncomfortable, and when Jeremy takes off her shirt to lick her nipple, he discovers that she has an infected nipple piercing. Brooke is embarrassed, and they stop kissing, but the SQUIP tells Jeremy to be nice to girls unless they are “ugly,” because she might tell her friends that he was a good kisser.
Chapter 28 Summary
Jeremy goes through the day at school with his SQUIP off but turns it on at rehearsal. He watches Christine, finding her more attractive than Brooke. The SQUIP informs him that if he has sex with other women, he will begin to give off pheromones that will make Christine more attracted to him. Mark snaps him on the back of the neck with a rubber band. The SQUIP tells him to confront Mark while Mr. Reyes is distracted by the other actors, and he does. Mark is playing Kill All People on his Game Boy again, and the screen begins to distort when Jeremy approaches. As the SQUIP suggests, Jeremy aggressively tells Mark not to mess with him and punches him in the neck. However, when Mr. Reyes asks what is going on, Mark claims that they are just messing around and hugs Jeremy, who notices that the Game Boy screen changed to a message warning Mark that he will die if he bullies Jeremy. The SQUIP reveals that it has power over other small electronic devices.
Chapter 29 Summary
During the rehearsal, Jeremy is in a scene with Christine. The SQUIP helps him to remember his lines and recommends that he act cute so that when Christine and Jake break up, she will want him instead. When Christine, playing her part as Puck, leans down to sprinkle fairy dust on the sleeping Lysander, Jeremy growls and pretends to bite at her fingers. Christine does not find this cute and tells Mr. Reyes that he is messing around. The SQUIP decides that because this did not work, Jeremy should try making her jealous by sleeping with Chloe.
Chapter 30 Summary
After school, Jeremy calls Chloe and asks if she would like to hang out. She invites him to Jason Finderman’s house party that weekend and says that she will be rolling, meaning that she will be taking ecstasy. The SQUIP warns Jeremy that if he uses ecstasy, he will need to turn the SQUIP off, but Jeremy agrees since it seems likely that he and Chloe will hook up. Chloe asks for $25 for the drugs and requests that Jeremy drive her home afterward. Jeremy and the SQUIP formulate a plan to steal the money from his mother’s purse and steal her car that night, even though Jeremy does not know how to drive.
Chapter 31 Summary
As the week passes, Jeremy becomes included in the popular circle of students at his high school. He learns more gossip, and the SQUIP teaches him to smile at girls more so that he knows who likes him. Buying new clothing and hygiene products, such as an anti-dandruff shampoo, changed his appearance. When he goes to math class, he is not embarrassed by the last name “Heere” anymore, instead answering, “Yo,” when the teacher calls his name (170). Jenna begins complaining about her friend Elizabeth’s sexual history again, and Jeremy now has the confidence to call her out. He tells her to stop talking and accuses her of inventing “Elizabeth” as an alter ego.
Chapter 32 Summary
Against the advice of the SQUIP, Jeremy invites Michael to go to the party with him. Michael refuses because he is still angry at Jeremy for abandoning him at the mall. He accuses him of behaving differently and says that Jeremy only wants him to go to the party because he can drive them. When Jeremy denies this and says that he plans to drive himself, even though he has no license, Michael is worried. He agrees to go to the party only to make sure that Jeremy does not get into a dangerous situation.
Chapter 33 Summary
The SQUIP prepared Jeremy for the party by having him outline his sartorius muscles in pen to make them appear more prominent. He leaves his father watching football and backs his mother’s car out of the driveway while using a prank call to distract his father. Michael arrives, and they leave his car in the driveway so that nothing will appear suspicious. Jeremy drives them to the party while the SQUIP instructs him on how to maneuver the vehicle safely. When they arrive, Jeremy and Michael approach the house but are turned away by Jason Finderman’s brother, Carl, who says it is too crowded. Chloe arrives and invites them in, bypassing Carl. She offers Jeremy the ecstasy, and the SQUIP tells him to turn it off because the drugs will affect their ability to communicate.
Chapters 27-33 Analysis
Throughout these chapters, Jeremy’s social acceptance by the cool students begins to make him more confident. The SQUIP’s recommendations make Rich, Brooke, and Chloe like him, and his inclusion in their social circle allows him to stand up to other students who disparaged him in the past. Jeremy’s aggressive confrontation with Mark and his verbal humiliation of Jenna indicate that he is now able to act on his internal desires without fear. The scene in math class during roll call parallels the very first chapter of the book, juxtaposing the old Jeremy with the new one.
However, there are two people who appear to like Jeremy less under the control of the SQUIP: Christine and Michael. While the SQUIP’s behavioral modifications worked on Anne, Brooke, and Chloe, Christine is not amused by his attempt to flirt with her during rehearsal. Similarly, Michael accuses Jeremy of “doing a revisionist thing” with the nerdy aspects of his personality (173). Because the SQUIP does not consider Michael a valuable social connection, it refuses to help Jeremy apologize to him or invite him to the party. The people who knew the real Jeremy best are the ones who are least impressed by his new persona, suggesting that even when he follows all of the rules to be cool, there is no failproof method for making everyone like him. Even though Jeremy disliked the nerdy aspects of his personality, Christine and Michael appreciated those characteristics.
To earn this new social standing, Jeremy frequently has to use illegal drugs such as weed and ecstasy and smoke cigarettes. Ironically, the SQUIP is forced to recommend these drugs, even though the alterations they make to brain chemistry would impair the SQUIP’s ability to function. The SQUIP filters out the chemicals in the weed and cigarettes, making it clear that Jeremy is using these substances to fit in with his peers, rather than because he enjoys their effects. The SQUIP foreshadows the danger that Jeremy will face at the house party, warning him that if he drinks alcohol, the SQUIP might start telling him to kill everyone. The speculative technology of the SQUIP exposes the paradox facing teenagers who use illegal substances to fit in: The chemical impact of the substances might actually impair their judgment and social skills.
