Summary

Michigan, p. 49 – 73. On her first day of school, Cat put off going to class, and encountered Marlena, who convinced her to skip. Marlena then took Cat to a cabin on the school grounds, where she unsuccessfully tried to convince her to smoke a joint. Then, after they left the cabin, Marlena took Cat through the woods to an isolated motel/cabin where Ryder lived and where Cat discovers that he cooked meth. In narrating her discovery, Cat comments on how she realized, in that moment, what he was doing; how she said nothing; and how that decision ultimately defined who she was going to grow up to be.

Six months later, four months before she died, and after they had spent many days running away from school, Cat asked Marlena why she still hung out with Ryder even though he cooked the...