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73 pages 2 hours read

Ellie Terry

Forget Me Not

Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Middle Grade | Published in 2017

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Part 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1: “Autumn”

Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “Saturday Morning”

The protagonist, seventh-grader Calliope Snow, who calls herself Calli June, wakes up on a Saturday morning to find that all her clothes have been packed away. When she asks her mom about it, her mom doesn’t answer. Calli takes this to mean that she and her mother will be moving again today.

Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “Kitchen Rags”

When Calli finds her mom, she’s piling socks into moving boxes. She tells Calli to pack the kitchen rags, and Calli obeys silently. Calli notes that she won’t have time to say goodbye to her teachers, and she hides away to begin pulling at her hair as a response.

Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary: “My Hair”

Though Calli’s hair is “the only thing / [she’s] ever liked about [herself]” (5), she still twists it around her fingers and pulls it out as a nervous habit. Her mom has threatened in the past that if she catches Calli pulling her hair out again, she’ll cut it off. Rather than stop pulling, Calli hides her habit as best as she can.

Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary: “Fastball”

The deuteragonist is Jinsong, a seventh-grade boy who is student council president and preparing to try out for Little League along with his friends Nyle and Duncan. Jinsong is conflicted between his desire to earn a spot on the Little League team and his wish that there wasn’t only one spot for which he and his friends have to compete.

Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary: “Don’t Look Back”

Calli wishes that she could live somewhere “long enough to make a best friend, / to keep a best friend” (7). Calli’s mom makes them move every time she breaks up with her current boyfriend, and she chooses the town based on how long a drive it takes for her to forget her past relationship.

Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary: “Breakfast”

Calli’s mom gives her cheese puffs for breakfast on their drive, but Calli doesn’t want cheese puffs. She wants to have a best friend.

Part 1, Chapter 7 Summary: “This Is the Place”

Calli and her mom arrive in St. George, Utah, later that evening. Though the town is beautiful, “like someone took a paintbrush, / dipped it in a sunset” (10), Calli is angry and bitter about her mom moving their family.

Part 1, Chapter 8 Summary: “New Neighbor”

Jinsong is sitting by a window in his family’s apartment when he first notices Calli. She climbs out of her mom’s car, “the afternoon sunlight [bouncing] off her hair like a pot of sparkling gold” (11), and Jinsong assumes from the boxes that she and her mom must be moving into the apartment complex. When she notices Jinsong staring at her, she smiles at him. Jinsong is stunned.

Part 1, Chapter 9 Summary: “Unpacking My Stuff”

Once she arrives in her new apartment, it takes Calli seven minutes to unpack her belongings and blow up the air mattress that she uses as a bed.

Part 1, Chapter 10 Summary: “The Usual”

Calli hears her mom crying in the other room, so she goes to comfort her. Her mom promises that one day she’ll find “someone who’s / handsome / and funny / and kind / and most of all / financially stable” (13).

Part 1, Chapter 11 Summary: “Towels”

As Calli and her mom finish unpacking, Calli realizes that her pear-scented shampoo bottle was open and spilled all over their towels. Calli’s mom goes to pick up dinner while Calli takes the towels down to the apartment laundry room to wash them.

Part 1, Chapter 12 Summary: “After Dinner”

Jinsong sees Calli walking down to the laundry house, and he quickly grabs some clothes to go wash as a cover for wanting to meet her. His little brother, Chonglin, tries to follow, but Jinsong successfully locks him out.

Part 1, Chapter 13 Summary: “Jerseys”

Calli notices that Jinsong keeps stealing glances at her while they wash clothes. The jerseys he’s washing remind her of her dad (the narrative later reveals that he has passed away).

Part 1, Chapter 14 Summary: “Number Fourteen”

Calli introduces herself to Jinsong, telling him that she lives in Number 14. Jinsong smiles at her with “eyes / the color of cinnamon” (17).

Part 1, Chapter 15 Summary: “Pears”

Jinsong notices that Calli smells like pears, his favorite fruit, and when he introduces himself, he stumbles over his words. Calli and Jinsong discover that they are both in seventh grade and will be going to the same school. As they talk, Jinsong notices that Calli keeps pursing her lips together in a pattern. He wonders if this means that she likes him. Calli has Tourette syndrome, and she is attempting to hide her tics.

Part 1, Chapter 16 Summary: “Tourette Syndrome”

Calli’s mom first noticed her “quirks” when she was four, and soon after, Calli was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome. Calli’s symptoms include eating her food in a particular order, chewing, pulling her hair, and worrying, in addition to vocal tics. Both Calli’s mom and her doctor have advised Calli to hide her tics to make friends.

Part 1, Chapter 17 Summary: “Watching TV on Sunday”

On Sunday, Calli’s mom notices Calli pulling her hair out again, so she takes a pair of scissors and gives Calli a short haircut, right above her ears. Calli is upset because she thinks she looks like a boy, and her hair was her favorite feature.

Part 1, Chapter 18 Summary: “Gone”

Calli describes her cut hair as “pools of golden blood” on the floor (23).

Part 1, Chapter 19 Summary: “Mornings”

Calli’s mom is grateful for Calli’s new short haircut because it will take less time for Calli to get ready in the morning, but, Calli notes, it is her mom who often makes them late, not her. Calli tries to comb her hair to hide her bald spot from her previous hair pulling, but it doesn’t work anymore.

Part 1, Chapter 20 Summary: “Monday Morning at School”

When Jinsong arrives at school on Monday, several girls giggle at him as he passes through the commons, which he thinks is weird. He catches up with his friends Duncan and Nyle but doesn’t tell them about Calli. He wonders if she’s planning to start school that day.

Part 1, Chapter 21 Summary: “Black Ridge Intermediate School”

Calli chooses to wear a dress that she thinks is “hideous” for her first day at school so that it might distract people from her tics. Her mom reminds her, once again, to not tell anyone about her Tourette syndrome. As Calli’s mom is running late for work, she drops Calli off at the office and leaves her to register herself. Her paperwork lists her name as Calliope Snow.

Part 1, Chapter 22 Summary: “Snow”

Calli blames the snow for her father’s death, so she feels like “it mocks [her] every time / someone says / [her] name” (28).

Part 1, Chapter 23 Summary: “Before Going into 203”

Calli tries to change her last name on her admission slip before arriving at her first class, but Dr. Khan, her teacher, waves her into the room before she can finish. Calli stands alone at the front of the room, and her tics start.

Part 1, Chapter 24 Summary: “My Tics”

Calli is unable to hide her tics and starts making gestures and noises from where she stands at the front of the classroom.

Part 1, Chapter 25 Summary: “What in the What?”

Jinsong is in Dr. Khan’s class and is shocked by Calli’s new short hair and her clothes, which are so different from the t-shirt and jeans she was wearing when they met. When her tics start, Jinsong is confused, but when Duncan and Nyle call Calli “Freak Girl,” he pretends to not know who she is. Instead, he drops a pencil on the floor to avoid making eye contact with her.

Part 1, Chapter 26 Summary: “Welcome”

When Dr. Khan asks for Calli’s name, she lies and says “Calli June.” She hopes that her dress is doing its job distracting everyone from her tics and her short hair. Dr. Khan welcomes her to the school.

Part 1, Chapter 27 Summary: “Last Names”

Calli’s dad died when she was three, and she has decided to go by Calli June because “[l]ast names come from fathers / and mine / is gone” (33).

Part 1, Chapter 28 Summary: “A Day in June”

One of Calli’s few memories of her father is a day in June when they played outside together in the sprinkler, ate popsicles on the porch, caught toads in the yard, and he told her that he loved her.

Part 1, Chapter 29 Summary: “Introduction”

Dr. Khan asks Calli to introduce herself, and she quietly tells the class that she’s from Salt Lake City. She hates introducing herself in front of the room but has had to do it each time she’s moved.

Part 1, Chapter 30 Summary: “The Middle”

When Dr. Khan reads out Calli’s name, he mispronounces it and uses Snow rather than June. Calli corrects her last name but doesn’t correct his pronunciation of her first name, wondering if he was paying attention when she introduced herself a moment before. Dr. Khan asks everyone to adjust their seats so that Calli has a spot, alphabetically, and he reminds the class to save a seat for Beatriz, a girl who is absent. Calli would’ve preferred to sit near Jinsong or in the back, but she is stuck in the middle of the room.

Part 1, Chapter 31 Summary: “Garbage Cans”

Jinsong notices Calli sitting alone by the garbage cans at lunchtime. Instead of inviting her to sit with him and his friends, he lies and tells her that the garbage cans are infected and that she should sit with the popular girls. Jinsong hopes that if the popular girls take a liking to Calli, then it will be socially acceptable for him and Calli to be friends at school.

Part 1, Chapter 32 Summary: “Surrounded”

Calli is uncomfortable around the popular girls—Ivy, Hazel, and Gweneth—because they all dress and talk the same as each other but so differently from Calli. When the conversation turns to Calli, she calls it “an interrogation” (41).

Part 1, Chapter 33 Summary: “Frog”

The girls mock Calli’s dress and ask her why she made “a weird noise / this morning. It sounded like a frog” (42). As soon as the girls point out Calli’s vocal tic from earlier, she makes the sound again and the girls laugh at her. Calli decides that she will sit by herself by the trash cans for the foreseeable future.

Part 1, Chapter 34 Summary: “Sometimes”

Calli divides her tics into two categories: whispers and shouts. Sometimes, she can hold the whisper tics inside and not let them out, but at other times, she can’t keep them from happening—loudly.

Part 1, Chapter 35 Summary: “Life-Size”

In fifth-period art, Calli’s art teacher, Mrs. Ainsley, assigns the class a life-size self-portrait project based on a piece of art that Beatriz, the absent girl, brought from home. The portrait will be due April 1.

Part 1, Chapter 36 Summary: “A Second Me”

Calli compares herself to Beatriz, who has long brown hair, and decides that she doesn’t want to do the project. Calli sees herself as “[a] quiet / girl with too-short hair and a cringing face” and doesn’t want to do the project (47).

Part 1, Chapter 37 Summary: “Freak”

After school, Duncan and Jinsong go to Nyle’s house to practice baseball. Duncan and Nyle start making fun of Calli, then look to Jinsong to join in. Jinsong does join in and mock her tics, but on the inside, he feels sick to his stomach.

Part 1, Chapter 38 Summary: “Walking”

Calli walks home from school alone and worries that someone could kidnap her right off the street.

Part 1, Chapter 39 Summary: “Number Ten”

As Calli passes an orthodontist’s office, she picks up a piece of red sandstone to add to her rock collection, “in place number ten” (50).

Part 1, Chapter 40 Summary: “Rocks”

Calli collects one rock from every place she’s lived and keeps them in a numbered egg carton. The red sandstone from St. George, Utah, will be number 10, but Calli hopes that she won’t be able to fill up the whole carton one day.

Part 1, Chapter 41 Summary: “A Chinese Proverb”

Jinsong watches Nyle and Duncan “see who can fit the most Cheerios on their armpit hair” and is reminded that his grandfather always told him to choose friends that were “better than himself” (52).

Part 1, Chapter 42 Summary: “Rosamelia’s”

Calli’s mom works at a flower shop called Rosamelia’s, and Calli decides to walk to the shop rather than go straight home. When she arrives, her mom immediately tells her to move from her seat because her mom “needs the space” (54).

Part 1, Chapter 43 Summary: “That’s Nice”

Calli’s mom asks Calli about her first day but interrupts her to tell her about a guy she met who came into the shop. Calli is immediately concerned that her mom has found a new boyfriend and that inevitably they will not live in this town for very long. Calli’s mom leaves her in the back of the shop to tend to customers.

Part 1, Chapter 44 Summary: “Red Flower”

While Calli’s mom works with the customers, Calli looks at the bouquet of perfect white roses that her mom was trimming and is reminded once again of snow. Then, she sees a red flower cast off to the side, forgotten. Calli gently picks it up and puts it in the vase with the other flowers saying, “There is a home for you” (58).

Part 1, Chapter 45 Summary: “These Are Roses”

Calli’s mom returns to the back of the shop and scolds Calli for putting the poppy flower into the vase with the white roses. She tells Calli that poppies don’t belong with roses and takes the poppy out of the vase.

Part 1, Chapter 46 Summary: “Ginger Ale”

Jinsong’s mom sends him to the store to buy more ginger ale to help with her morning sickness. At the store, Jinsong sees Beatriz, who was absent from school that day, and they have a short, terse conversation. Beatriz and Jinsong’s dads had been roommates in school, and Beatriz and Jinsong grew up together. They have fallen out of touch in the past few months.

Part 1, Chapter 47 Summary: “Updating My Rock Collection”

This poem is a list of the rocks in Calli’s collection, including a description of each rock and where it was found. She has added the red sandstone from the orthodontist’s office. The last two numbers, 11 and 12, are left blank.

Part 1, Chapter 48 Summary: “Teeth”

Calli wakes up from a dream where she was a poppy flower being eaten alive by white roses with teeth.

Part 1, Chapter 49 Summary: “Page Twenty-Seven”

The next morning, Calli and her mom are running late again, but before they leave, Calli rushes to page 27 of her astronomy book, where she pressed the poppy from the flower shop. She takes the poppy with her to school.

Part 1, Chapter 50 Summary: “The Language of Flowers”

Calli hopes the poppy can be a symbol of courage in the same way that forget-me-nots signify remembrance and carnations signify gratitude.

Part 1, Chapter 51 Summary: “Talk”

Throughout the day, Jinsong hears many people mocking Calli for her tics, her clothes, and the sounds that she makes. He watches as other classmates cut in line for the water fountain in front of Calli repeatedly. It reminds him of the way he was teased in elementary school for his eyes.

Part 1, Chapter 52 Summary: “Every Time”

Calli notices Jinsong staring at her a lot throughout the day. She decides to ask him to walk home with her that afternoon.

Part 1, Chapter 53 Summary: “Stretching in P.E.”

Calli reaches to twirl her hair, but it’s too short. She tries to satisfy the tic by pulling one strand of too-short hair, but it doesn’t work, and she yelps instead.

Part 1, Chapter 54 Summary: “Worse”

Calli has tried medication for her Tourette syndrome before, but it was expensive and made her sleepy, so she stopped taking it.

Part 1, Chapter 55 Summary: “Student Council”

Jinsong goes to the lunchtime student council meeting, and the students are still talking about Calli. Beatriz, who is also the secretary, asks the students to give her more information about Calli so that she can make fun of her. Jinsong notes that Beatriz started making fun of people after her mother left her and that she often eats lunch alone in a teacher’s classroom. Jinsong tries to protect Calli by telling Beatriz not to pick on Calli because Calli knows karate (which is a lie).

Part 1, Chapter 56 Summary: “Library Time”

Calli wanders around the library looking for a book and overhears two students talking about her. One student calls her “Cantaloupe” instead of Calliope and says, “Cantaloupe June / is a goon” (72).

Part 1, Chapter 57 Summary: “Look It Up”

Calli peers through a bookshelf to see who the two students are who have been mocking her. She doesn’t recognize one of the girls, but the other is Beatriz. Calli recognizes her from her self-portrait, though she thinks that Beatriz “looks a lot sadder / in real life” (73). Beatriz notices Calli staring at her and tells her to look up the word “goon” in the dictionary.

Part 1, Chapter 58 Summary: “Dictionary”

Calli looks up “goon” in the dictionary to see that it means “a stupid person” (75). Calli is upset and whispers, “I am not” (75).

Part 1, Chapter 59 Summary: “A Question”

After school, Calli walks up to Jinsong, who is with his friends, and asks him to walk home with her.

Part 1, Chapter 60 Summary: “An Answer”

Jinsong is embarrassed by Calli’s question. Nyle and Duncan make fun of Calli, and then Nyle lies for Jinsong, telling Calli that Jinsong has a meeting after school, so he can’t walk home with her. Dejected, Calli begins walking home alone. Jinsong waits until Duncan and Nyle leave, then he runs to catch up with Calli.

Part 1, Chapter 61 Summary: “Unaware”

As Calli walks home alone, she thinks about how the other kids all have places to go or people to hang with, but she has nowhere to be and no one waiting on her.

Part 1, Chapter 62 Summary: “Intrusive Thoughts”

Calli sees a purple truck backing out of a driveway, and she is struck by an intrusive thought. She imagines herself being hit by the truck and bleeding out on the sidewalk.

Part 1, Chapter 63 Summary: “Nice”

Jinsong interrupts Calli’s intrusive thought. She asks him why he is running and reminds him of the meeting he was supposed to be in after school. Jinsong lies and says the meeting is over and he ran to catch up with her. Calli calls him a “really nice guy” (82).

Part 1, Chapter 64 Summary: “Yeah, Right”

Jinsong feels guilty that Calli thinks he’s a nice guy because he has lied to her several times and has been embarrassed of her at school. He introduces her to a neighbor, Mrs. Sumner, and then asks Calli about her clothes. Calli confides in him that she dresses in strange clothes to try to distract from her tics. Jinsong is fascinated by Calli and wants to hang out with her more, but his mom needs help preparing for the Chinese Moon Festival that night.

Part 1, Chapter 65 Summary: “Tic Tock, Eat the Clock”

Calli eats her food in clockwise order around her plate. Even though the dry bread on her plate makes her cough, she can’t drink her water until its turn in the order. Calli’s mom tries to make her drink water out of order, but Calli refuses.

Part 1, Chapter 66 Summary: “Tom”

Calli’s mom tells her that she’s got a new boyfriend: the man who was in the shop the day before, Tom. Calli wishes that her mom could stay single “for two seconds,” and when Calli shows her disappointment at being left alone for the night, her mom “sticks out her lip” and complains (87). Calli’s mom tries to console Calli by reminding her that her favorite show is coming on that night, but Calli reminds her mom that the show is her mom’s favorite, not Calli’s.

Part 1, Chapter 67 Summary: “Idea”

Calli thinks that if her mom doesn’t go out with Tom, then her mom won’t break up with Tom and move their family again.

Part 1, Chapter 68 Summary: “Excuses”

Calli gives her mom several excuses to try and get her to stay at home, but her mom decides to go out anyway. When Calli’s tics show up, Calli’s mom just asks her to hide them when Tom arrives.

Part 1, Chapter 69 Summary: “Thinking While Hanging Lanterns”

Jinsong hopes that Calli won’t tell anyone at school that they are friends, but he also wonders if he will see her again at the laundry room that night. Jinsong is torn between wanting to spend time with Calli and not wanting to be mocked at school.

Part 1, Chapter 70 Summary: “I Think”

It is Friday night, which reminds Calli of the night that her dad died. He was driving home from the airport after a work trip and fell asleep at the wheel during a snowstorm.

Part 1, Chapter 71 Summary: “Boyfriend 229”

Tom arrives at Calli’s apartment. Tom is tall and nice, but Calli wonders how long the relationship will last.

Part 1, Chapter 72 Summary: “Bored”

Calli is watching a show when there is a knock at the door. The sound triggers her intrusive thoughts, and she imagines a police officer coming to tell her that her mom has been hurt. However, it is Jinsong at the door, inviting her to his house. This is the night of the Chinese Moon Festival, and Calli’s mom let Jinsong’s mom know that Calli would be home alone. Calli is excited to go to something related to the moon and leaves with Jinsong.

Part 1, Chapter 73 Summary: “Someone”

When Calli opens the door, she sees Jinsong and refers to him as her friend for the first time.

Part 1, Chapter 74 Summary: “Number Fifteen”

Calli compares Jinsong’s apartment to her own. His apartment is warm and cozy, filled with the smells of home-cooked food, whereas hers is cold and impersonal. There are paper lanterns decorating the whole space.

Part 1, Chapter 75 Summary: “Beautiful”

Jinsong introduces Calli to his family and then the two of them take a plate of mooncakes up to the balcony. Jinsong notices that Calli has a tic—she “punches her chest and turns to the side real quick” (98)—and she seems embarrassed. Jinsong accidentally tells Calli that he thinks she’s beautiful, but then he tries to cover it up by saying that he was talking about the moon. Jinsong realizes that he likes Calli.

Part 1, Chapter 76 Summary: “Ball Talk”

Calli talks with Jinsong about baseball, but she changes the subject when he starts to ask questions about her dad.

Part 1, Chapter 77 Summary: “New Subject”

Calli changes the subject by telling Jinsong a fact about the moon. Jinsong is interested in Calli’s moon facts, and Calli tries to hold in her tics while they talk.

Part 1, Chapter 78 Summary: “Surprise”

Calli can’t keep her tics from happening, but Jinsong doesn’t look away from her face. Instead of turning away, “he keeps on looking [...] smiling with his / cinnamon eyes” (102).

Part 1, Chapter 79 Summary: “Fun”

Calli is overwhelmed with happiness because of her friendship with Jinsong. She imagines spending every day with him, enjoying his company.

Part 1, Chapter 80 Summary: “A Riddle”

Jinsong and Calli sit silently on the balcony for a few minutes, then Jinsong decides that he wants to share something with Calli, since she shared moon facts with him. He tells her that people write riddles on paper lanterns. He takes a paper lantern and tells Calli that he’ll write her a riddle, and if she guesses correctly, he’ll give her a prize. Jinsong thinks that his first two clues are obvious, but Calli doesn’t get them. His final clue is “Jinsong likes me” (105). He is nervous, but certain that she’ll guess that the answer to the riddle is her.

Part 1, Chapter 81 Summary: “Third Clue”

Calli is almost certain that Jinsong is talking about liking her, but she’s so nervous that instead she blurts out, “Mooncakes!” (106).

Part 1, Chapter 82 Summary: “Wrong”

Calli knows that she guessed wrong because she sees Jinsong’s face fall, but she moves on to talking about careers. She thinks that she’ll be a florist, like her mom. Jinsong thinks that he’ll be a baseball player.

Part 1, Chapter 83 Summary: “Great”

Calli’s mom tells her that the date went great. Calli now thinks that she needs to keep her mom and Tom together forever so that she doesn’t have to move away from Jinsong.

Part 1, Chapter 84 Summary: “That Was a Close One”

Jinsong is grateful that Calli didn’t guess the riddle because he is afraid of what people at school would say about him liking Calli.

Part 1, Chapter 85 Summary: “Trim”

It has been one week since Calli’s mom cut her hair, and already her mom is trimming it. Her mom seems pleased that Calli hasn’t been able to pull her short hair. Calli doesn’t want short hair but is too afraid to speak up. Instead, she sits quietly while her mom trims the ends.

Part 1, Chapter 86 Summary: “Still”

On Monday morning at school, Calli is daydreaming about her evening with Jinsong when she starts to feel a prickling and tingling in her legs. She swings her legs back and forth, but Beatriz tells her to stop. Calli thinks that if Beatriz could feel what she feels, then she wouldn’t be so quick to judge.

Part 1, Chapter 87 Summary: “Normal”

Beatriz warns Calli that if she continues with her “weird” behavior, she may not get a friendship locket from the popular girls. Calli points out that Beatriz doesn’t have one either.

Part 1, Chapter 88 Summary: “Busted”

Dr. Khan tells Beatriz and Calli to be quiet and return to their reading.

Part 1, Chapter 89 Summary: “Strike One”

Jinsong sees Calli taking the poppy in and out of her pocket, and he wants to ask her about it without anyone noticing. He pretends to go to the trash can to throw something away but trips on Calli’s bag and grabs her arm, causing her to yelp. Dr. Khan tells Jinsong to stay after class.

Part 1, Chapter 90 Summary: “Trouble”

Dr. Khan calls Calli to his desk and Calli worries that she’s in trouble.

Part 1, Chapter 91 Summary: “He Whispers”

Dr. Khan asks Calli if she’s okay, but Calli doesn’t want to tell him about her Tourette syndrome, so she lies and tells him that everything is fine.

Part 1, Chapter 92 Summary: “After Class”

After class, Dr. Khan scolds Jinsong for disrupting class because as student body council president, Jinsong is supposed to set an example for the other students.

Part 1, Chapter 93 Summary: “Pre-cip-i-ta-tion”

When her teacher says the word “precipitation” in science class, Calli must sound it out in her head, and then she has to say it out loud. She ends up shouting the word in class.

Part 1, Chapter 94 Summary: “Groups”

Calli works with a small group in science class, and every time she hears the word “precipitation,” she has to say it out loud. Beatriz notices that Calli is doing this.

Part 1, Chapter 95 Summary: “Copycat”

Beatriz starts repeating “precipitation” repeatedly so that Calli must keep repeating the word. After a while, Beatriz asks Calli, “Are you sure your name isn’t / Copycat?” (122). The whole group laughs at Calli.

Part 1, Chapter 96 Summary: “He Doesn’t Even Look”

Soon, the whole class is mocking Calli by repeating the word “precipitation,” and Calli notices that Jinsong and the teacher aren’t doing anything to stop it from happening. Jinsong won’t even look at Calli.

Part 1, Chapter 97 Summary: “Biting My Tongue”

Jinsong hates that the class is teasing Calli, but he doesn’t want to lose his friendship with Duncan and Nyle. He hopes that the teasing will stop, but it never does, and he stays silent.

Part 1 Analysis

Part 1 establishes a protagonist and a deuteragonist, Calli June and Jinsong P’eng, respectively, and their core relationships and conflicts. Calli keeps her Tourette syndrome a secret, and her mom has encouraged her to hide this part of her life. Calli’s hair symbolizes this conflict, and in Part 1, Calli’s mom cuts Calli’s hair into a bob, representing the fact that Calli’s mom wishes that she could just cut the Tourette’s out of their lives. The conflict between Calli and her mom around her hair pulling, and Calli’s silence when her mom cuts her hair, introduces the theme of Neurodiversity and Self-Acceptance and Hurt in Child-Parent Relationships. In Parts 2 and 3, Calli will learn to accept her Tourette syndrome and stand up for herself to her mom.

Jinsong P’eng wants to make the Little League team and be a great student council president. In Jinsong’s first chapter, Ellie Terry demonstrates Jinsong’s internal struggle between his ethics and his desire to fit in. Jinsong says, “It would be awesome if Duncan, Nyle, and I could all make the Royals” (6), showing how Jinsong is torn between his goals and appeasing his friends. At the end of Part 1, Terry underscores this when Jingsong says:

There’s a war going on inside my brain/heart/head/whatever. One side wants to be Jinsong P’eng, Black Ridge student body president (and friend to all). The other wants to be best buddies with Duncan Gray and Nyle Jacques. I think only one can win (124).

Jinsong’s desire for everyone to get what they want, and particularly for his friends to not be upset, foreshadows how he will later choose to remain silent when Calli is bullied so that Duncan and Nyle don’t get mad. Throughout the novel, Jinsong learns more about Conflict Resolution in Friendships.

Calli experiences The Many Faces of Bullying in Schools during her first months at school in Part I. Terry illustrates how teachers, bullies, victims, parents, and bystanders are all part of an environment of bullying. Terry introduces Beatriz Lopez, Jinsong’s former friend and Calli’s current bully. Beatriz is a clear antagonistic figure who calls Calli names, mocks her tics, and encourages other students to laugh at Calli. However, Terry represents enabling in the bullying environment more subtly. Jinsong, for example, refuses to stand up to Beatriz, Duncan, or Nyle, deciding, “I am not telling them that I know her” (31). Even when Jinsong realizes that he likes Calli, he still hides their friendship at school. At the end of Part 1, Jinsong has chosen to stay friends with Duncan and Nyle, continuing to ignore Calli’s struggles at school and enable the bullying.

Forget Me Not is written in two forms: Calli June’s chapters are in free verse and Jinsong P’eng’s chapters are in prose. This distinction between first-person narrative forms establishes Calli and Jinsong’s voices and demonstrates how Calli feels isolated and different from her peers. Within Calli’s poem chapters, there are different types of verse used. In poems like “My Tics” and “Boyfriend 229,” Terry plays with the spacing between the words to mirror Calli’s sense of a lack of control and order, while the poem “Updating My Rock Collection” is laid out as a numbered list to mimic Calli’s rock collection itself. Many of Calli’s poems are organized around central images that vividly portray Calli’s lived experience. For example, Calli compares the feeling of her apartment with the feeling of Jinsong’s: “His place smells like home-cooked food, / while mine smells like freezer meals” (97). This sensory description builds an intimate picture of Calli’s home life. One of Calli’s central concerns is that she feels misunderstood; by writing Calli’s chapters in first-person verse, Terry helps the reader understand Calli’s thoughts and feelings.

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