79 pages • 2 hours read
Susin NielsenWe Are All Made of Molecules
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. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 26-34Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 26-30 Summary
The morning after her Facebook rendezvous with Jared, Ashley can’t wait to let her friends at school know. As expected, they are envious, which pleases Ashley immensely. She thinks that she and Jared make a stunning couple, and that the obvious care Jared takes with his appearance “says a lot about a person’s character” (126).
Jared asks to come over to Ashley’s house after school. On the walk home, he confides that he was expelled from the private school he once attended. Ashley says that his expulsion must have been unjustified. As they enter the Anderson house, Ashley belatedly remembers that Stewart is already there. Refusing to take a hint, Stewart joins the couple in the living room. Jared seems interested in the porcelain figurine collection on the mantel, and Stewart eagerly points out the name and value of each piece that once belonged to his mother. Jared begins to sneeze and confesses he is allergic to cats. Stewart obligingly takes Schrödinger upstairs and out of the way.
After Jared leaves, Ashley is angry that Stewart didn’t make himself scarce. Her parents have a rule that she isn’t allowed to have boys over unless an adult is present. Stewart casually points out that Jared is his friend too, so he could invite him over at any time. Ashley is pleased with the strategy until Stewart demands something in return. He makes her promise to agree with whatever he says at dinner that night. Stewart has an ulterior motive in helping Ashley. He wants to mend her troubled relationship with her father. At dinner, he tells Leonard and Caroline that he and Ashley would like to invite Phil over for dinner. Even though Ashley is seething, she doesn’t object.
A week later, everyone at school knows that Ashley and Jared are a couple. On Friday afternoon, she attends the Bulldogs basketball game to watch him play. Jared notices that Ashley is shivering from the cold during the game; he gives her his warm-up jacket, which she takes home with her. Ashley enjoys the game except for what she sees as Stewart’s ridiculous performance as the bulldog mascot.
Stewart thinks he gave a great performance during the game. All the fans cheered him, and he feels confident now about his place in school: “Since Jared has taken me under his wing, even phys ed is fine. And Mathletes is just about the best thing that has ever happened to me” (138). Despite Stewart’s rapport with Jared, Phoebe warns him that Jared has “psycho eyes” (139), and that she doesn’t trust him. Jared and Ashley continue to spend time together at the Anderson house, and Stewart leaves them alone. He notices that one of his mother’s figurines is missing, but assumes the cat knocked it under a piece of furniture.
Ashley wakes up on Saturday morning, still cuddling Jared’s warm-up jacket. She says:
It smelled like a mix of Jared’s deodorant and BO. It was heavenly. If I believe Stewart, I guess it means I was breathing in a few of Jared’s molecules. Which is super-creepy and super-romantic all at the same time. (143)
On the way downstairs for breakfast, Ashely overhears Leonard and Caroline arguing about how Leonard and Stewart don’t clean up after themselves. Caroline prefers a neat and orderly house, and Leonard agrees to be less messy.
Ashley announces that Jared has asked her to go to a movie in the evening. Caroline points out that Phil is coming to dinner that night. Ashley hopes that her father will leave before Jared arrives. The evening meal goes reasonably well, with Ashley softening slightly toward Phil until the doorbell rings. She wants to whisk Jared away immediately, but her parents invite him in. Jared is pleasant and courteous to the adults and makes a good impression on them all. By the time Ashley and Jared walk to the bus stop, Ashley has convinced herself that she’s fallen in love.
Chapters 31-34 Summary
Content Warning: This summary section contains a description of sexual assault.
On November 30, Leonard and Stewart put up a plastic Christmas tree in the family room. Caroline and Ashley will get a live tree a few weeks later to put in the living room. Even though Ashley objects to the plastic tree, putting it up is important to Stewart—his mother died two years earlier on this date. He briefly remembers her last day on earth. As she slipped in and out of consciousness, Stewart climbed into her hospital bed to be near her: “She felt so tiny, like a little bird. Her bones were right under her skin. I lay there and breathed in as many of her molecules as I could, so that a part of her could live on in me” (155).
Later that day, Leonard and Stewart commemorate Mrs. Inkster’s passing by visiting her favorite spots in Vancouver and the park memorial bench that they’ve had inscribed as a tribute to her. Leonard and Stewart spend a few moments in private conversation with her spirit. During this time, Stewart thinks back to an earlier conversation he overheard between Jared and one of his locker room buddies. Jared referred to Ashley as a tease but said that he would “break that b**** down” (159). The following night before a home game, Stewart confronts Jared about what he said. Jared refuses to take the rebuke seriously and brushes off Stewart’s criticism.
The following Saturday night, Jared invites Ashley to his house. Leonard drops her off and tells her to return by curfew. Initially, Jared is a perfect gentleman and gives Ashley the grand tour of his spectacular home. His parents are very rich, and Ashley is impressed by everything she sees. As they make casual conversation, Ashley asks why Jared was kicked out of his fancy private school. He confides that he beat up a gay student on the school team whom he suspected was sexually interested in him. Ashley finds this news upsetting; she thinks of her own father and how someone with an anti-gay bias might treat him. Despite her misgivings, she doesn’t share her thoughts with Jared.
Unaware of Ashley’s disapproval, Jared gets himself a beer and pours Ashley a glass of wine. Feeling grown-up as she sips her wine, Ashley follows him upstairs to his bedroom. Jared puts Ashley at ease and gets her to sit on the bed with him. Then, he unexpectedly tries to force her to have sex. The housekeeper walks in and puts an end to his plans. Ashley is on the point of leaving when she spies Stewart’s two missing figurines on Jared’s desk. He protests that he only took them as a prank and intended to return them on his next visit. Ashley grabs them and exits angrily. She catches a bus and refuses to tell Leonard why she returned home early. Up in her room, Ashley finds Schrödinger sitting there:
He curled up in my lap, and I petted him and petted him and he purred and purred, and finally I did let myself cry a little bit because I wasn’t one hundred percent totally absolutely positive that I wanted to be Ashley Anderson-Mitchell after all (171).
That evening, Alistair arrives for another sleepover. On Sunday, he and Stewart go to the thrift store to buy Christmas presents for everyone. Afterward, they meet up with Violet and Phoebe for lunch. Phoebe discloses that Jared was expelled from his old school for beating up a gay student. Stewart is disturbed and vows to tell Ashley. When he gets home later, he finds the two missing porcelain figurines back on the mantel. Stewart assumes that Ashley stole them, though she denies this. They get into a fight over the statues. Stewart is so upset that he never tells Ashley what he has learned about Jared.
At school, Jared tries to make up with Ashley. He apologizes for his behavior by leaving a rose in her school locker. Several days later, he arrives at her house with roses for her mother and a Christmas gift for her, a necklace with two intertwined hearts: “I knew what this necklace meant. It meant that we were now officially exclusive.” (183). Jared says he will be away with his parents at Christmas but makes plans to see Ashley on New Year’s Eve.
When Christmas Day arrives, both Stewart and Ashley wake up early. They enjoy shaking presents to guess what’s inside. The gift exchange goes well, and everyone is pleased with what they receive. Leonard has arranged a holiday getaway for himself and Caroline on New Year’s Eve. When Ashley announces that Jared will be coming over that night, Caroline says that Phil will need to be present during their visit. Caroline has invited Phil and his new boyfriend Michael to Christmas dinner. Unlike the previous Christmas, Ashley is pleased to see her father and the tasteful gifts he brings her. She isn’t prepared to like Michael but finds herself approving of his elegant clothing and good manners.
Chapters 26-34 Analysis
Initially, both Stewart and Ashley benefit from Jared’s regard. Stewart is welcomed as the school mascot, and Ashley becomes the envy of all her friends. Fashion and superficial appearance are prominent motifs when Ashley describes Jared. She talks about his hair, his clothing, and his expensive home.
Jared epitomizes the theme of Exclusionary Social Hierarchy. Although Ashley was already at the top of the ladder, she sees herself and Jared as the new power couple who will dominate the school. In contrast, the school’s social outcasts recognize Jared for what he really is: a bully.
Ashley knows the reason for Jared’s expulsion, but is dazzled by his wealth and social status and makes excuses for his bad behavior and cruelty. To Ashley, his good looks matter far more than his bad character. Her willingness to excuse his anti-gay bias is all the more troubling because her own father is gay. At this point in the novel, Ashley fails to defend her father because he would generate gossip within her social group. Phil embarrasses Ashley, but Jared’s hostility toward gay men doesn’t.
Even Jared’s sexual coercion isn’t enough to change Ashley’s opinion of him. All he needs to do is give her a rose, a note of apology, and a heart pendant, and she is willing to overlook his despicable behavior. At this point in the novel, appearances are still all that matter to her. Her superficial interests eventually win her over to Phil’s new boyfriend, Michael. His good looks, charm, and inside contacts in the fashion industry gain Ashley’s approval more than any demonstration of good character would.
However, Ashley’s vulnerability is revealed when she pets Schrödinger. Her crying shows that she is aware of Jared’s cruelty, even if she doesn’t want to admit it. Nielsen is planting seeds for how Ashley will soften later in the novel and embrace more substantive values.
