Flipped

Juli opens this chapter by reflecting on her father’s painting ability. She loves their discussions as he paints; he creates landscapes from photos he takes while working as a mason. He paints outside in the backyard, and he and Juli talk about his childhood and her schooldays and interests. Once he asks why she likes Bryce so much, which makes her uncomfortable; he cannot understand her complicated feelings for Bryce. As she gets older, he tells her, “A painting is more than the sum of its parts” (34) and other philosophical ideas.

Juli is not sure what he means until she climbs far up in the sycamore tree. She climbs the tree often, but one day she rescues Bryce’s kite and discovers how alive she feels high in the branches. (She tears the seat of her pants open on the way down, necessitating an awkward departure of backward walking.) By the eighth grade, she realizes how the view, the sensory images, the breeze, and the colors all work together like a magical experience. She tells her father, and he agrees to climb the tree with her that weekend. Juli is thrilled that someone understands and that she can share the tree with her father.

When tree cutters arrive the next morning, she is shocked and panicky. Already in the tree, she refuses to get down. No peers join her. Neighbors arrive, and the police try to talk her down; the lot owner tells her to leave; her mother comes and cries. Nothing works; Juli is adamant. Then her father arrives. He goes up in the bucket of a cherry picker to talk to Juli. She cries; she wants him to look at the view, but he focuses on her and her safety. Juli leaves the tree then.

She is upset for weeks and cannot take the bus to school; she rides an old family bike instead to avoid seeing the emptiness of the lot. One evening weeks later, her father gives her a painting of the sycamore tree he created himself: “I want you to always remember how you felt when you were up there” (43). Juli hangs the painting across from her bed so that she sees it morning and night; she credits the tree’s image with giving her the gift of improved perspective, saying she can see change in her world more clearly now.

When Bryce is in sixth grade, one of his chores is to fetch Lynetta home from Skylar Brown’s house three blocks away when his mother tells him to. Skylar and Juli’s brothers, Matt and Mike, form a band they call Mystery Pisser, and Lynetta likes to hang out at Skylar’s for their practices. One day when Bryce goes to collect Lynetta, the boys call him in to watch Matt and Mike’s boa constrictor eat eggs. Bryce is creeped out to see the snake first swallow the eggs, then crush them in its stomach by wrapping itself around the piano leg and flexing. This gives Bryce nightmares for weeks and foreshadows his trouble with eggs that will play out over the next two years.

One morning in sixth grade, Juli brings fresh eggs to Bryce, explaining that she is giving them to the Loskis because the chickens she hatched from her fifth-grade science fair incubation project were laying eggs. For Bryce, the eggs and Juli’s prideful smile over them bring back a host of annoying memories about the event and Juli’s ability to get an A+ just by hatching eggs and “totally dominating the fair” (48). Her enthusiasm was hard enough to take at the time, and now here she was, happily and excitedly handing over the evidence of her work. The eggs then create a problem for Bryce once Juli leaves. Bryce’s mother does not want the eggs because she is afraid there might be a chick in one of them. Bryce’s father tells him to go to Juli without being afraid and simply ask her if she has a rooster. Bryce opts instead to sneak up to Juli’s fence after school with his friend Garrett and look for a rooster. Bryce sees no rooster but is shocked at the messy, chicken poop-filled backyard.

He tells his family that night there was no fear of chicks, as there is no rooster; instead, he worries about salmonella. When Bryce’s father hears that Bryce did not directly confront Juli, he fears his son is a coward. His mother does not want the eggs, and his father tells Bryce to return the eggs with some excuse that they could not use them. His mother cautions against lying, so in the end, they pitch the eggs; Bryce’s father instructs him to tell Juli straightforwardly that they do not want the eggs anymore.

However, eight days later, Bryce cannot do it; he takes the eggs when Juli brings them and throws them out. He does this for two years until Juli catches him taking the eggs out in the trash one day. She confronts him and, embarrassed that he got caught by her, unloads his complaints about her dirty chickens, filthy backyard, and unkempt house and lawn. Juli reveals that this continued lie on Bryce’s part cost her money, as she has been selling her eggs to others. Bryce feels awful afterward, chastising himself for his poor decisions.

Juli associates the loss of her sycamore tree with change: The family dog Champ dies soon after the tree is cut down, and she discovers Bryce’s ongoing lie about her eggs. She recalls her father bringing Champ home after finding him injured in an intersection when Juli was six. Her mother is hesitant to let the dog stay but eventually allows Champ in the house. Then they notice an unpleasant smell and cannot figure out where it comes from; soon, though, Juli’s mom catches Champ slyly dribbling urine on a table leg to mark it: “I told you it was him. The Mystery Smell comes from the Mystery Pisser!” (65). Matt and Mike love this so much they use the phrase as their band's name. Champ is relegated to the backyard.

Soon after, Juli’s fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Brubeck, convinces Juli to take six fertilized eggs home and create an incubator space and a science log for them for her science fair project. Juli is very nervous about the eggs at first, but her father shows her how to create the incubator, mark a humidity thermometer, and candle the eggs. Juli becomes proficient with the eggs, gets an A+ and blue ribbon for the science fair, and brings the chicks home to keep (with plenty of quiet reassurance from her father to her mother). She loves her chickens and is thrilled when the six hens begin laying eggs a year later. Soon Mrs. Stueby and Mrs. Helms are buying fresh eggs from Julianna, which prompts her to give some to the Loskis as well:

So, through the rest of sixth grade, through all of seventh grade and most of eighth, I delivered eggs to the Loskis. The very best, shiniest eggs went straight to the Loskis, and in return I got a few moments alone with the world’s most dazzling eyes (76).

After the tree is cut down and Champ dies, Juli neglects her egg business until Mrs. Stueby calls, jarring Juli back to action. That’s when Juli catches Bryce trashing the fresh eggs. Confronting him, Juli is shocked and hurt by his diatribe against her home and property: “Just look at it. It’s a complete dive!” (79). Worst of all, Bryce demands to know why she gives eggs to him but takes money from others, insinuating that her kindness to the Loskis results from her continued crush on him and that she is somehow wrong for it. She rushes home in tears despite his closing apology.