Summary

Chapter 12 consists of a single scene from 1966, the earliest independent section in the novel. Fern and Edgar know each other by sight from school, but at her high school Junior Dance they touch for the first time. The chapter is told mostly from Fern’s perspective, which is both melancholy and hopeful. She wonders about aging, and why high school is supposed to be the best part of her life, and she wonders if men and women can ever be happy at the same time. Then, she and Edgar meet. They dance several times but respect the rules of etiquette until a thunderstorm shuts the lights off. In the darkness, they kiss.

Chapter 13 opens on Monday morning, and Cricket prepares the boys for school, grateful for a return to structure and authority. However, when she arrives in her classroom, she finds Miss Nolan...