Merryweather High is in the midst of a political battle over its school team name. It started out as the Trojans but was changed at the start of the year after the name was deemed too risqué. The team became the Blue Devils, which was again considered too controversial, so the name was changed to the Tigers. The Ecology Club protested using an endangered species as the team’s name. The student council decides to hold a poll with four choices: The Bees, Icebergs, Hilltoppers, or Wombats. Melinda makes fun of each name, finding them all a little ridiculous.

Melinda is told to stay after school for extra help but deceives her parents and cleans out the closet she plans to spend time in. She hangs a poster of Maya Angelou, brings in some books, and uses the time to read or play movies over in her mind. Melinda’s physiological stress symptoms worsen as she wakes up with her jaw clenched and head aching. She still cannot speak to teachers or her parents and feels like she has “some kind of spastic laryngitis” (51). Melinda wishes desperately that she could confess what happened at the party and feels like she is being eaten from the inside.