During her session with Dr. Hieler, Valerie discusses her life, her hobbies, and her friends. Valerie asks Dr. Hieler if Valerie’s mother, whom Dr. Hieler sees separately, blames her for the shooting. Dr. Hieler tells Valerie that her mother blames herself, which organically leads into Valerie’s conversation with Stacey about apologizing to the victims of the shooting. Valerie questions whether she needs to apologize to a bully like Christy Bruter, a stance Dr. Hieler asks her to reexamine. He also asks her to think about the wisdom of alienating all her friends, as she did when she sent Stacey away the second and last time she visited Valerie. However, seeing Valerie is not quite prepared for this, he diffuses the seriousness of the situation with humor.  

As this chapter begins, Valerie is reading a newspaper article, written by Angela Dash and quoting heavily from Principle Angerson. The content of the article claims Garvin students, responding to the shooting with solidarity, are now better people, that “behavioral difficulties are a thing of the past,” and “students are starting to understand that we’re all friends here” (201). Upset, Valerie takes the news article to an appointment with Dr.