Opening
A carton of eggs becomes the fuse for a long-smoldering misunderstanding. From Bryce Loski's disgust and avoidance to Julianna "Juli" Baker's hope and heartbreak, Chapters 5–6 trace how a simple gift curdles into betrayal, forcing both teens to see each other—and themselves—more clearly.
What Happens
Chapter 5: Brawk-Brawk-Brawk!
Bryce traces his fear of eggs to sixth grade, when he watches Juli’s older brothers’ boa constrictor swallow eggs and crush the shells inside its body. The image lingers. Soon after, Juli shows up at his door with a carton of fresh eggs from the hens she hatched for her science fair—an exhibit that outshines Bryce’s own volcano. He accepts the carton but recoils inside.
At home, suspicion hardens. Bryce’s mother worries about fertilized embryos; his father, Rick Loski, sneers at the Bakers’ “standards” and calls Bryce a coward for not asking Juli about a rooster. Instead of talking to her, Bryce and his friend Garrett Anderson spy on the Bakers’ backyard. They see a dirt-packed, chaotic pen and conclude there’s no rooster—but their logic is shaky. When Bryce reports that “they’re all chickens,” Rick explodes at the uselessness of the answer and declares the eggs unsafe, citing the Bakers’ “unsanitary” yard and salmonella.
To avoid confrontation, Bryce starts a two-year routine: smile at the door, take the eggs, toss the carton in the trash. One eighth-grade morning, the kitchen can is full, so he sets the intact carton on top and heads to the curb—only to find Juli still on the porch. She notices the eggs. He lies that they’re broken; she opens the carton and sees the truth. Cornered, Bryce blurts out that his family won’t eat anything from her “disgusting” yard. Juli stammers that other neighbors pay her for eggs and bolts home in tears. Watching her cry for the first time, Bryce feels like a “complete cluck-faced jerk,” finally forced to face his cowardice.
Chapter 6: The Eggs
Juli narrates the same stretch of time as a cascade of losses: the city takes her beloved sycamore tree, then her dog Champ dies, and then the eggs. She rewinds to fifth grade, when her father, Robert Baker, helps her build an incubator for a science fair project. She names her embryos, charts their development, and hatches six chicks—a triumph she wins by being meticulous and devoted. The hens thrive but destroy the lawn; when they begin to lay more than her family can eat, two neighbors, Mrs. Stueby and Mrs. Helms, start buying the extras for two dollars a dozen.
Juli decides to give a free weekly dozen to the Loskis as a neighborly gesture—and, secretly, to steal a private moment with Bryce, whose dazzling eyes undo her. For two years, those early-morning exchanges feel almost magical; she believes he waits by the door for her knock. After weeks of grief, she resumes deliveries. That morning, she lingers on the porch, uneasy. Bryce comes out with the trash. Her eggs sit unbroken on top of the pile.
Confusion turns to hurt. He claims they broke; she lifts the lid and sees they didn’t. When he finally spits out the truth—that her yard is a “dive” and his family fears salmonella—Juli suddenly sees her home through his contempt. Realizing he has been throwing away her gift, and that everyone could read her crush, she walks home “embarrassed and confused,” her heart “completely cracked open.”
Character Development
Both protagonists confront who they are beneath their habits—Bryce the avoider, Juli the idealist—and that recognition begins to change them.
- Bryce Loski: Avoidance defines his choices—spying instead of speaking, lying instead of owning up. His father’s scorn pressures him into a two-year deception that ends in needless cruelty. Seeing Juli cry punctures his excuses and sparks the first real self-reckoning.
- Juli Baker: Passionate and disciplined, she pours herself into caring for animals and her science project, then channels that care into a quiet ritual with Bryce. The discovery of the egg deception shatters her idealized version of him and pushes her toward harder-earned insight and Coming of Age and Personal Growth.
Themes & Symbols
These chapters crystallize Perception vs. Reality. Juli experiences the egg deliveries as intimacy and goodwill; Bryce experiences them as a problem to avoid. The same backyard appears as either practical and purposeful or disgusting and dangerous. The dual narration lets us inhabit both truths until they collide.
Family Influence and Dynamics shape both kids’ choices. Rick’s contempt and performative certainty model cowardice disguised as firmness, nudging Bryce toward dishonesty. Robert’s patience and curiosity empower Juli to build, name, and care—habits that make the betrayal sting more deeply.
The egg incident becomes a hinge for Coming of Age and Personal Growth. Bryce begins to feel accountable for the harm he causes; Juli learns to separate what she wants to see from what she must see.
Symbols:
- The Eggs: Gifts of care and proof of Juli’s stewardship become, in Bryce’s hands, a cycle of refusal and guilt. Throwing them away is a ritualized rejection of her feelings.
- The Bakers’ Yard: A working space for chickens and a child’s enterprise reads, to the image-conscious Loskis, as failure. The yard embodies class, value, and point-of-view differences compressed into a single patch of dirt.
Key Quotes
“Complete cluck-faced jerk.”
Bryce’s goofy insult to himself softens nothing. The childish phrasing highlights how long he has acted like a kid while doing something genuinely hurtful. It marks the first moment he names his behavior for what it is.
“He was waiting for me.” / “I’d whip the door open before she had the chance to knock.”
Side by side, Juli’s romantic belief and Bryce’s tactic to avoid contact expose the gulf between their perceptions. The line break between them is the book’s theme of misread signals made visible.
“Your yard is a dive.”
This blunt judgment reduces a family’s choices and labor to a stereotype. It reveals the Loski household’s priorities—appearance over function—and wounds Juli by turning her pride into shame.
“Embarrassed and confused, my heart completely cracked open.”
Juli’s image of heartbreak combines social humiliation with private devastation. The passive phrase “cracked open” suggests something done to her—yet it also hints at the painful opening that growth requires.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
The egg reveal ends the old equilibrium. Juli’s crush collapses, forcing her to see Bryce—not a fantasy—standing in front of her. Bryce can no longer hide behind his father’s opinions or his own excuses; causing visible pain makes him confront the person he is becoming. This is the novel’s pivot: after the eggs, both characters begin to “flip,” reevaluating each other, their families, and themselves, setting up the emotional and moral course of the chapters that follow.