Opening
Chapters 6–10 tighten the triangle between a lonely student, a magnetic teacher, and his unraveling wife. Classrooms become stages for attention and power; malls and kitchens become mirrors of loneliness and hunger. Underneath the polite surface, secrets, desire, and control intensify.
What Happens
Chapter 6: Annabel Lee
The narrative shifts to Addie Severson on the first day of school. In English with Nate Bennett, she slips toward a window seat to stay invisible, but Kenzie Montgomery bullies her out of it, forcing Addie into the front row right before the teacher’s desk. Mr. Bennett is “stupidly handsome” in worn clothes that don’t match the expensive image of his wife; his charisma pulls the room toward him.
He opens with a simple prompt—favorite poems—and calls on Addie despite her effort to disappear. She answers honestly: “Annabel Lee.” His face lights up. He quotes the last lines from memory, watches her as if no one else exists, and riffs on Poe’s women whose names linger on the tongue—Lenore, Eulalie, Annabel Lee—before winking and adding “Adeline.” The wink jolts Addie; for a moment, the sting of isolation from her estranged friends fades. She compares him to Mr. Art Tuttle, the older, unattractive former teacher whose shadow still trails her.
Chapter 7: Footsies
The perspective shifts to Eve Bennett. With Nate staying late, she drifts to the mall, uneasy at the thought of running into students. Drawn into an upscale boutique, she slips on a pair of black Christian Louboutins at Footsies and imagines a version of herself—sleek, confident, worthy of her husband. The price is obscene. Nate would be furious.
A wave of want and self-loathing crests. On impulse, she slides the shoes into her roomy purse. Legs shaking, she heads for the door—then freezes as the security alarm blares. She hasn’t crossed the sensors. The noise comes from an elderly woman whose tag was never removed. Eve returns the Louboutins to their display, the adrenaline leaving her raw and exposed, with the uneasy thought that she hasn’t done something like this “in a long time.”
Chapter 8: Not Everything
Addie comes home to her mother’s anxious questions: the day, new friends, what happened with Hudson Jankowski. Addie dodges. When her mom asks about Mr. Tuttle, Addie confirms he’s gone; her mother exhales but still watches Addie as if the past might reappear in the doorway.
Addie’s narration tightens around a confession: she told her mother, the principal, the police the truth about Tuttle—but not everything. She holds back, keeping something essential to herself. The official story stands, incomplete.
Chapter 9: Later Tonight
Shaken and relieved, Eve drives home. Nate is already there, stirring tomato sauce. The leftover adrenaline tips into desire; she wraps her arms around him, kisses his neck, and suggests they take a break. He smiles, demurs—he’s hungry; after dinner will be better; being full “won’t be sexy.”
The gentle excuses feel rehearsed. The promise—“later tonight”—lands hollow. Eve recognizes the pattern: soft refusals, a soothing tone that leaves her on the outside of her own marriage. The kitchen fills with warmth, garlic, and distance.
Chapter 10: See Me After Class
Two weeks pass. Addie remains a target—Kenzie and friends mock her hairy legs in gym, and the isolation hardens. English becomes her sanctuary. In class, Mr. Bennett returns their first poetry assignment about summer. He places every paper face up—except hers. He lays Addie’s face down, taps the page, moves on.
She flips it to find in red ink: See me after class. Her stomach drops. Fear floods in—not that he wants to praise her, but that she’s in trouble, that he suspects plagiarism. The note opens a private corridor between them, one only she must walk.
Character Development
These chapters sharpen each character’s vulnerabilities and the ways others exploit them.
- Addie Severson: A smart, isolated teen who’s desperate to be seen, she lights up under Mr. Bennett’s attention and admits she withheld part of the truth about Tuttle.
- Eve Bennett: Restless, insecure, and lonely, she reaches for an image—expensive shoes—to cover a widening emotional void, nearly shoplifting to feel transformed.
- Nate Bennett: Charismatic and adored in public, he focuses intense attention on Addie while deflecting intimacy at home with polished gentleness.
- Kenzie Montgomery: Confident and cruel, she controls social spaces—seats, bodies, reputations—with quick, cutting humiliations.
- Mr. Art Tuttle: Absent yet defining; the unanswered “not everything” around him casts Addie as an unreliable narrator.
- Hudson Jankowski: A friendship turned silence; his absence marks the hole in Addie’s social life.
Themes & Symbols
The gap between shine and truth widens. The Bennetts’ marriage and Nate’s classroom persona project stability and warmth, but intimacy is withheld, and attention is weaponized. This is the heart of Appearance vs. Reality: a perfect teacher, a perfect couple, a quiet girl—each concealing fracture or calculation.
Power operates through sweetness, secrets, and silence. Nate’s praise, winks, and a handwritten note create a private bond that isolates Addie while appearing harmless—classic Deception and Manipulation. Within school walls, the imbalance between teacher and student turns affection into leverage and privacy into pressure, driving the Abuse of Power and Predatory Behavior arc.
Symbol: Eve’s expensive shoes promise transformation—confidence, desirability, status—yet remain unattainable, exposing the emptiness beneath the gloss. They embody a hunger for worth that things can’t satisfy.
Key Quotes
“And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride, in her sepulchre there by the sea, in her tomb by the sounding sea.”
When Mr. Bennett recites this to Addie, he frames her within Poe’s haunting ideal of eternal love entwined with death. The intimacy is charged and wildly inappropriate, foreshadowing a dynamic that conflates romance with control.
“See me after class.”
A simple directive becomes a private key. In a room where everything is public, this message carves out secrecy and heightens Addie’s anxiety, escalating the intimacy and imbalance without a single overtly romantic gesture.
“Later tonight.”
Nate’s soft promise to Eve dissolves on contact. The phrase smooths over rejection while keeping her at bay, revealing a practiced distance that contrasts starkly with his warmth toward students.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters lay the novel’s core tensions: a student’s longing intersecting with a teacher’s calculated attention, a wife’s hunger for intimacy meeting a practiced deflection, and a past scandal that refuses to settle. By cutting between Addie and Eve, the story builds dramatic irony—readers see the full pattern of Nate’s charm and distance while each woman sees only her part. The result is a tightening coil of secrets, vulnerability, and control that propels the plot toward confrontation.