The Winter Session at the Devon School begins with a mood much different than that of the Summer Session. The carefree attitude has disappeared and the old instructors have returned to reassert control. As he attends the opening church service Gene notices that several younger teachers are missing since they have gone off to fight in the war. Everything has changed from how he had known it before. Leper's room across the hall has been inhabited by a new student, Brinker Hadley, and Leper has been sent off to live in some isolated corner of the campus. Gene pauses before greeting his new neighbor across the hall, for he is still assigned to the same room that he shared with Finny, even though his friend has not yet recovered enough to return to school. The changes at Devon in the Winter Session are seen in the room
"across the hall...where Leper Lepellier had dreamed his way through July and August amid sunshine and dust motes and windows through which the ivy had reached tentatively into the room, here Brinker Hadley had established his headquarters. Emissaries were already dropping in to confer with him."Chapter 6, pg. 66
The loss of that old serenity which had been present during the summer is reflected in this change of residents, from a romantic lover of nature to a boy described as militaristic and authoritative. Leper used to keep snails in his room, and now Brinker's neat paper files have replaced his snail trays.
Wandering across the campus, Gene says that in fact two rivers flow through the center of Devon's property; the first is the Devon River which is near the tree where Finny fell and the other is a slimy, dirty mess called the Naguamsett. He walks down to the Crew House where he is to be assistant crew manager for the school's rowing team. There, Quackenbush, the team's crew manager, confronts him for being late to their practice. He calls Gene "maimed." In a fit of rage, Gene attacks Quackenbush, and in the struggle both boys stumble and fall into the dirty waters nearby. Gene wonders why he would become so inflamed at being called "maimed," wondering if it was in defense of his handicapped friend Phineas. However he feels more as if it were in defense of himself, as if it were he, not Phineas, who was maimed. Increasingly he acquires Finny's traits and identity. This is the second act of violence he has committed thus far, in addition to the attack on Finny; yet the summer had been so careless and free. Now with fall beginning, he finds himself becoming more hostile.
While walking back toward the dormitory after his fight, still dripping wet from his fall into the river, Mr. Ludsbury reprimands Gene for his irresponsible behavior during the summer. Since the substitute headmaster, Mr. Prud'homme, has left and Ludsbury is back, he declares that there will be no more activities such as gambling on the school's property, a deed in which Finny had prodded Gene to participate. Gene submits to the headmaster's will and only stares at him guiltily, offering no words in reply. To conclude his little speech, he informs Gene that there is a long distance telephone call waiting for him.
The phone call is from Phineas, who mentions briefly that Gene acted crazy when he came to visit him at his home in Boston, by saying that he had caused the accident intentionally. He refuses to believe that his friend would do such a thing. Gene speaks about his position as assistant crew manager, much to Finny's disgust. Indeed, just as when Stanhope had said that Finny could no longer play any sports, Gene had decided that he too would do the same, as if he himself were maimed as well.
"I didn't trust myself in [sports], and I didn't trust anyone else. It was as though...boxers were in combat to the death, as though even a tennis ball might turn into a bullet. This didn't seem completely crazy imagination in 1942, when jumping out of trees stood for abandoning a torpedoed ship. Later, in the school swimming pool, we were given the second stage in that rehearsal: after you hit the water you made big splashes with your hands, to scatter the flaming oil which would be on the surface."Chapter 6, pp. 76-77
During the summer, sports had been only for fun, and to Finny everyone always won, as it was with blitzball. Now, after the end of summer and in the absence of Finny, Gene is terrified and afraid of himself being attacked and becomes as paranoid of everyone else as he had been of Finny. Yet Phineas insists that if he is unable to play sports then Gene will have to play them for him. Upon hearing this, Gene again feels another sense of freedom, as great as when he had jumped from the tree after Finny's fall. Suddenly, he rejoices in a new understanding that it is his destiny to become a part of Phineas. He tries to alleviate the guilt he feels about the accident by becoming the great person that Finny had been before his fall from the tree.
