48 pages • 1 hour read
Sharon G. FlakeThe Skin I'm In
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1998A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
Miss Saunders arrives late and flustered because her toilet overflowed. When she begins the lesson, she stops short at a drawing on the blackboard: It is a woman’s face with one smooth side, and one cracked and drooping side. It is labeled, “THE TEACHER WITH TWO FACES” (41). She erases it and continues asking the students about Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. She asks what John-John would do if he were Romeo, and he replies that he would just move on from Juliet. Maleeka mumbles that no one wants to talk about the play. When Miss Saunders asks what the class does want to talk about, John-John responds, “Why Maleeka’s so black” (42). This comment gets him scolded.
Miss Saunders tries to get back on topic by emphasizing how Romeo and Juliet were independent spirits who didn’t bow down to others’ shallow demands—but Worm pipes up to ask why it even matters since both characters die anyway. To help the class understand, Miss Saunders asks them if there is anyone they love enough to die for. Students mention parents or friends, but a student named Jerimey says he wouldn’t die for anyone but himself. When questioned, he insists that if everyone loved themselves enough, they would want to take care of themselves—and so they wouldn’t hurt other people, because this would just cause unnecessary problems for themselves. Maleeka asks if they can get back to Romeo and Juliet, and John-John accuses her of not even having read the play. Jerimey asks John-John why he is always bothering Maleeka, and the two boys almost fight. Worm, who now seems oddly invested in Romeo and Juliet, angrily complains the “two ding-dongs” are wasting class time by fighting.
Meanwhile, Desda muses about how she wishes someone loved her enough to die for her; she says this kind of love seems the most romantic, where one person can’t live without the other. But Maleeka dislikes the idea of that kind of all-consuming, dependent love. She tells the class about how her Momma had a mental health crisis after Maleeka’s Daddy died three years ago; she could barely groom or feed herself. At just 10 years old, Maleeka became her mother’s caretaker. When one student asks why Maleeka and her mother didn’t receive help from any extended family, Maleeka says they didn’t have any relatives, but this is a lie; they actually chose to get by on their own instead of reaching out to family, because her Momma could have ended up involuntarily committed to a hospital and separated from Maleeka. After Maleeka says she and her Momma had no family, the class falls silent until the bell rings.
Chapter 14 Summary
Several days later, instead of going to the office to work, Maleeka is at the lockers, hanging out with Raina, Raise, and Charlese. Charlese is unhappy that Maleeka has been challenging her authority lately. Miss Saunders spots them, breaks up the group, and walks Maleeka to the office. Maleeka remarks that real teachers aren’t wealthy enough to wear designer suits like Miss Saunders is wearing. Miss Saunders says it’s like a uniform at her other job, but Maleeka thinks about her own mother’s utilitarian work uniform and doesn’t understand her teacher’s remark. When she asks Miss Saunders why she is at McClenton instead of a nicer school, the teacher turns the question back on her—asking why Maleeka is there—because she knows that Maleeka passed the test for Central Middle School across town. Maleeka complains that Miss Saunders knows too much about the students when they know so little about her, but Miss Saunders says there isn’t much to know about her: She’s single with no kids; she used to work long hours and travel often; she grew tired of that exhausting, competitive life, and chose to try teaching. Maleeka asks Miss Saunders if she will ever go back to her old executive job, but she says she would like to stick with teaching.
Chapter 15 Summary
Later in the office, Maleeka eavesdrops on the teachers and principal. Most of the teachers dislike Miss Saunders, considering her pushy and disruptive; she has too many new ideas about how to run things differently. Parents have also been complaining that she gives out too much homework, especially reading.
After the teachers disperse, Desda walks into the office; she’s just come back from the dentist and needs a note to get into class. Charlese walks in too, asking to speak to Maleeka, but the administrative assistant Miss Carol tells her to get the class. Principal Pajolli comes in, and Charlese asks sweetly if she can work in the office too. He says she can once she has paid the lost book fines she owes. After bickering with him about it, she says she would rather do a job that pays, anyway. When Principal Pajolli tells her to get to math class, Charlese complains that it’s boring, but he insists no one can be bored in Tai’s class. Tai is unusual, but she is also funny and a very good teacher. Since Maleeka started working in the office, her math scores haven’t been as good. Tai came in the day before, asking for her homework, and Maleeka had to admit that she hadn’t done it. Mr. Pajolli then told her that she is allowed to do her homework at the office.
Chapter 16 Summary
It’s Saturday morning, and Maleeka has already been up for two hours working on her Akeelma diary entries: In her latest entry, Akeelma’s ship is caught in a storm, but she resolves to be strong like the wind and sea that toss the slave ship around. After Maleeka finishes writing, she does some chores and then heads to Charlese’s house because Juju, Charlese’s 25-year-old sister, bought some new clothes.
When she finally gets to Charlese’s house at four o’clock, Maleeka opens the door to loud music; Juju is hosting a wild party that has been going on since the night before. Maleeka heads upstairs to find Charlese, who has been up all night because Juju is paying her to serve the guests. Charlese is used to having strangers partying in her house all the time, and she always helps out because Juju pays her. Maleeka says it sounds miserable to live in such a chaotic environment, but Charlese tells her she’s a “wimp” and that it’s worth losing sleep for the money Juju pays. Despite insisting she’s fine, Charlese looks exhausted and soon falls asleep, though she isn’t supposed to.
Then Juju yells for her little sister. Charlese bolts awake and scrambles downstairs, where Juju screams at her in front of everyone for not being an active server. Unable to understand why Charlese puts up with Juju’s attitude, Maleeka then remembers that the two sisters are the only family each other has. Soon, Charlese is running around the house working again. Maleeka decides to leave quietly.
Chapter 17 Summary
As Maleeka walks home, two boys harass her, calling her names like “bean pole.” She walks away and takes a break on a stoop farther along the way. Soon she looks up and sees the boys have followed her. She walks away again quickly, but they follow and make sexual comments about her. The boys catch up to Maleeka, grabbing her and demanding a kiss. Maleeka resists, but they keep pushing. She kicks the boy holding her and scratches the other, who punches her arm and covers her mouth with his hand. She bites his hand and holds on as he screams and punches her. Finally, the boys give up, and Maleeka runs toward home.
After stopping at some front steps near her house to cry, she pushes onward and runs into Sweets, whom she tells what happened. The girls decide not to tell Momma all the details. When Maleeka gets home, Momma has dinner ready. Maleeka tells Momma that some boys were teasing her, but she leaves it at that. Momma warns Maleeka to be careful. Maleeka is too upset to eat, so she goes to her room to cry herself to sleep.
Chapter 18 Summary
A month later, Maleeka still thinks about the incident with the boys. She’s begun isolating herself and has started writing the Akeelma diary entries more, and she notices that the entries are as much about her as they are about Akeelma. In one entry, Akeelma is also attacked; she also breaks away. However, the story gets better as she then bumps into Kinjari, who she thought was dead.
After Miss Saunders compliments Maleeka’s writing, Maleeka walks out of the classroom feeling joyful. Charlese sees her and mocks her, calling her Miss Saunders’s slave. Charlese pressures Maleeka into skipping office work next period to hang out in the bathroom. In the bathroom later, Charlese, Raise, and Raina smoke and talk about boys while Maleeka rereads an Akeelma letter. Charlese snatches the letter and, to Maleeka’s horror, uses her lighter to burn it. Raina complains about hanging out with Maleeka, calling her “ugly” and “corny.” They are talking about Maleeka like she isn’t even there; Charlese tells Raina she is planning to get rid of Maleeka after Maleeka writes Charlese’s upcoming book report. Charlese then takes out a marker and writes her name in big letters on the wall next to the sink.
Miss Saunders comes in and catches the girls. As she walks in, she accidentally bumps into Charlese, who drops her expensive lipstick. When Charlese complains that Miss Saunders did this on purpose, Miss Saunders says she isn’t “play[ing] games.” As Miss Saunders walks the girls to the office, she takes Maleeka aside and scolds her, telling her she needs to choose better friends and not throw away her academic potential. At the office, the staff are amused to see Maleeka in trouble. Maleeka doesn’t think what the girls did was that big of a deal.
Chapters 13-18 Analysis
As Maleeka begins to write more in her Akeelma diary, the excerpts that appear within the text develop a new relationship with the main narrative. The Akeelma letters become what is called an embedded narrative, which is the literary technique of placing a story within a story. A famous example would be The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, in which travelers tell stories to one another. A common feature of embedded narratives is an apparent relationship between the themes or events of the embedded story and the encompassing, frame story. While the Akeelma letters in The Skin I’m In are not as long as those in The Canterbury Tales, they still offer connections and provide insights into Maleeka’s life. She says, “I’m thinking and writing in my diary—our diary, Akeelma’s and mine. Lately it’s hard to know where Akeelma’s thoughts begin and mine end” (65). In Chapter 16, her letter is about Akeelma deciding to be strong and withstand the storm. Likewise, Maleeka has been dealing with peer pressure from Charlese and has just shared her traumatic experience of caring for her mother after her father’s death (see Chapter 13).
In Chapter 18, the lives of the two girls come together again. Just as Maleeka was attacked by two boys, so is Akeelma. They both run away, but, while Maleeka makes it home in tears, Akeelma bumps into her beloved, Kinjari, who she thought was dead. Through creative writing, Maleeka not only reimagines her experience but also rewrites its ending. She gives a glimmer of hope and romance where, in reality, she only cried herself to sleep. The Akeelma letters, then, are not only related, embedded narratives but a way for Maleeka to express herself, release her emotions, and process her inner conflict. They also allow Maleeka to feel she has some control over her own life and her own story.
