Wonder

At the age of five or six, Jack Will eats ice cream with his younger brother Jamie and their babysitter, Veronica, in front of a store. He sits next to Auggie, and when he sees Auggie’s face, he gasps. Though Auggie doesn’t hear, Via does. When Jamie notices Auggie, Veronica makes them all leave the store so that Jamie won’t say anything mean. As Veronica, whom they call “Vonica,” pushes Jamie’s stroller away, she chastises them for acting so rudely toward Auggie. Jamie asks if it’s Halloween because he believes Auggie is wearing a mask. Jack Will tells him that Auggie isn’t wearing a mask, Veronica tells them again to hush. She’s upset that they left so quickly, but she admits that she didn’t know what Jamie would do or say. Though Jack Will feels that they didn’t do anything wrong, she says, “Jack, sometimes you don’t have to mean to hurt someone to hurt someone” (137). Jack Will admits that this is his first time seeing Auggie, and he sees Auggie repeatedly around the neighborhood from then on. In fact, everyone knows who Auggie is because of what he looks like, even though Auggie doesn’t know any of their names.

Jack Will finds out that both Charlotte and Julian, who are classmates of his, are also going to be welcome buddies. Though his mom wishes he’d step up like they are, he tells his mom that Julian is a fake person and that Charlotte is just a teacher’s pet. His mom further scolds him, and when he tells her what Auggie looks like, Jamie walks in. Jamie confirms what Auggie looks like by admitting that a troubling nightmare he’d had about zombies was from seeing Auggie. When Jamie calls Auggie ugly, his mom gets even angrier and berates them both. Finally, Jack Will agrees to be a welcome buddy. He changes his mind because, “[…] if a little kid like Jamie, who’s usually a nice enough kid, can be that mean, then a kid like august doesn’t stand a chance in middle school” (141).

Jack Will admits four things. The first is that it’s possible to get used to Auggie’s face. The second is that Auggie is actually a really cool, funny person. The third thing is that Auggie is smart, which helps Jack Will because he can cheat off of Auggie—only in emergencies. The fourth thing is that Jack Will wants to be genuine friends with Auggie, despite his earlier stance against being Auggie’s designated “welcome buddy.”

Though Jack Will thinks that Summer is pretty weird already, the whole “Bleeding Scream” answer is almost too much for him. He has no idea what she’s referring to, and he also knows for a fact that he didn’t do anything to warrant such cold treatment from Auggie. In fact, it’s more like Jack Will wins in the scenario because he’s Auggie’s only friend, especially with everyone still playing the Plague. There are a few kids who don’t care about the game and talk to Auggie occasionally, including Reid Kingsley and the two Maxes (both Dungeons & Dragons fans).

Jack Will also realizes that their ex-friendship is still awkward, however, because they sit next to each other in nearly every class. Moreover, everyone’s noticed that they aren’t together all the time anymore. On the other hand, the entire situation now means that Jack Will can hang out with whomever he wants. In truth, however, even though Jack Will can now be in the popular group, he doesn’t want to be. He only enjoys hanging out with Auggie.

It snows for the first time right before Thanksgiving Break. Jack Will is excited about the snow because it gives them one extra day of vacation with all the school closures. Moreover, this means that he doesn’t have to think about all the drama unfolding with Auggie. His father takes him and Jamie sledding at Skeleton Hill, and he finds an old, beat-up sled propped against Old Indian Rock monument. Though his father tells him to leave it, he takes it home and fixes it up. When they return to Skeleton Hill, the sled, which he’s nicknamed Lightning, works really well. That Monday back at school, the snow is now mushy and gross. He and Auggie barely say anything to each other, which hurts Jack Will because he wants to tell Auggie about his sled.

“Fortune Favors The Bold” (148) is Mr. Browne’s December precept. The students are supposed to write about something bold they’ve done. Jack Will thinks that the bravest thing he’s done is befriend Auggie, but he doesn’t want to write this because the answers are sometimes showcased on the wall. Instead, he writes something trivial about overcoming his fear of the ocean. Jack Will wonders what Auggie wrote about.

Jack Will admits that his parents aren’t rich like Julian’s. His father is a teacher and his mother is a social worker, and they rent an apartment. He always overhears his parents discussing finances and what they can do without. At recess, he hangs out with Julian, Henry, and Miles, and gets annoyed at Julian for not wanting to go to Paris. Julian finds Paris boring. Miles tells them that he got a new, expensive sled. Jack Will suggests that they go to Skeleton Hill and wants to tell them about his new sled. Julian makes fun of Skeleton Hill for being a dump, and then makes fun of Jack Will for not knowing that Skeleton Hill is built on an old Indian burial ground. Miles then says that he dumped his old sled at Skeleton Hill and that someone took it. Julian jokes that a hobo’s taken it. Jack Will realizes that he’s the “hobo” (150) who took the sled. He leaves. 

Science is Jack Will’s worst subject, though he pretty much dislikes all of them. Now that he and Auggie aren’t friends anymore, he can’t copy off his notes. When he learns that they have a new project assignment—this time a science fair project—he imagines himself making the Home Alone scream on the inside. This then conjures other things, and he suddenly realizes what the “bleeding scream” refers to. As he figures out that Auggie wasn’t Boba Fett for Halloween but the Bleeding Scream, he admits that, “I felt like I was going to puke” (152). 

Jack Will can barely focus in class because he’s still thinking about what he said about Auggie on Halloween morning. Meanwhile, Ms. Rubin assigns partners for the science project and Jack Will gets partnered with Auggie. Julian mistakes the look of dread on Jack Will’s face for him not wanting to be partnered with Auggie. He then asks Ms. Rubin if Jack Will can switch partners, which angers Jack Will. Jack Will says he doesn’t want to switch and storms out of the room. When Julian goes after him and derides him for not taking the chance to ditch “that freak” (154), Jack Will punches Julian in the mouth.

Jack Will can’t explain to his mother or Mr. Tushman why he punched Julian. With the two of them demanding an answer, however, he breaks down crying. He learns that he knocked out one of Julian’s baby teeth. Instead of being expelled or formally suspended, however, Mr. Tushman tells him to stay home for the rest of the week because they’re about to break for winter. In that time, he can think about his action and then write apologies.

Jack Will’s family gets a holiday card from the Pullmans. He and his mom discuss how horrible Julian’s mom has been because she photoshopped the school picture to take Auggie out. He then explains why he hit Julian, as well as explaining that he and Auggie are no longer friends because of the Halloween Incident.

The chapter is compiled of different types of digital communication between characters. There’s an email from Jack Will to Julian in which Jack Will apologizes for punching Julian, and an email from Jack Will to Mr. Tushman in which he apologizes, though he doesn’t say why he hit Julian. There are also emails between Jack Will’s parents and Julian’s parents, in which Jack Will’s parents apologize for his actions and promise to pay for any dental bills. Mr. Tushman receives a passive aggressive email from Julian’s mom, and fires back that Jack Will is virtuous and that the school’s done nothing wrong in admitting Auggie. There are also Facebook posts and text messages between Jack Will and Auggie. Jack Will tells Auggie that he knows why he’s mad and apologizes. He then admits that he punched Julian, and Auggie figures out it’s because of something Julian said about his face. The two then promise to be friends again. 

Though Mr. Tushman promise a clean slate for Jack Will, Jack Will finds that things are very awkward when he returns. Everyone’s ignoring him, including his former friends. At lunch, his seatmates look nervous when he sits down, and when they go to get their lunch, they don’t return. Jack Will feels horrible that something like what happened to Auggie is happening to him. Instead of being stared at, he goes to the library.

Charlotte asks Jack Will to meet with her in private because she knows why everyone is ignoring him. He learns that Julian threw a large holiday party over winter break and invited close to 200 people. Parents were in attendance as well. At the party, Julian told everyone that Jack Will hit him because he has emotional problems. According to Julian’s mother, Jack Will “[…] snapped under the pressure….” (171). Julian’s mother is also questioning the school’s decision to admit Auggie because it’s not an “inclusion school.” She thinks that Auggie has a neurological disability, which he doesn’t, but the school did change a few things that might have made Auggie feel a bit uncomfortable. Jack Will is livid at the news, and gets even angrier when he learns that no one is talking to him because of Julian. Julian thinks that if Jack Will loses all of his friends, he’ll eventually ditch Auggie. The girls are supposed to be neutral in all of it. Jack Will thanks her, and they briefly mention how Julian’s mom photoshopped their class picture and gave the copy to parents. She promises to tell Jack Will if she hears anything else.

Jack Will tries to sit next to a group of boys who are neither popular nor unpopular, with embarrassing consequences. The boys seem nice enough at first, but then they never return to the table after getting their food. The lunch lady scolds them because changing tables isn’t allowed, and Jack Will leaves with his food and finds Summer’s table.

It’s revealed that Jack Will saw Auggie on the first day of school but purposely didn’t sit next to him. He felt overwhelmed by being around him all the time, so he sat with Luca and Isaiah on the other side of the room. He feels like a hypocrite for this, especially because he saw how brave Summer was to sit next to Auggie on that first day. Now, he’s sitting with Summer and Auggie and they’re treating him like he’s always been there. He catches them both up on what Charlotte told him about the party, though he keeps out how Julian’s mom thinks that he snapped from being forced to spend time with Auggie, and that she thinks Auggie has neurological disabilities in addition to his genetic condition. Though Jack Will still finds it strange to not have anyone want to sit next to him, Auggie tells him that it’s quite commonplace in his world.

Summer receives a list of the different sides in the “war” from Charlotte. She tells Jack Will that Charlotte likes him, but Jack Will says it doesn’t matter because he has the Plague. He immediately regrets saying it, but Auggie informs them both that he already knew about the game. Summer, like her mother, thinks they’re all too young to be dating. Auggie says that not rushing into things is great because, otherwise, he’d have tons of girls throwing themselves at him, which makes them all laugh.

Jack Will visits Auggie’s house, but he’s nervous because he’s not sure if Auggie told them about what they now refer to as the Halloween Incident. He realizes that Daisy is the dog on the greeting card. They then search for a science-fair project to work on as it’s January and they still haven’t picked anything. Auggie wants to make a sundial or a lamp that works from potatoes, but Jack Will thinks it’ll be too much work. Via interrupts to tell Auggie that she wants him to meet someone. When Auggie introduces Jack Will to her, Jack Will can tell right away that Auggie’s told Via about the Halloween Incident. When he later asks if Via knows about the Incident and if she hates him, Auggie affirms that both are true. 

Via brings in her boyfriend, Justin, to meet Auggie. Jack Will notes that Justin looks nervous, and remembers that it’s probably always like this when someone sees Auggie for the first time. Auggie asks him if he’s Via’s boyfriend, while Jack Will asks if he has a machine gun in his fiddle case. They then learn that Justin is in a zydeco band, and that zydeco is similar to Creole music from Louisiana. They both find it funny, however, that Justin is from Brooklyn and not Louisiana.