After the day at Nick’s grave, Frankie goes to live with he and Valerie’s dad. He raves about Briley, how cool she is, and how she listens to punk music. Although she feigns disinterest, Valerie sneaks into Frankie’s camera, looking at pictures of their new family on his phone. Her mother begins dating as well; her divorce attorney, Mel, becomes a romantic interest for her. For Valerie, though, things at school remain the same; even though she and Duce call a truce, they still ignore each other at school. Valerie remains alone until she hears of Ginny Baker’s attempted suicide.Valerie races to the hospital to see Ginny. 

At the hospital and fearful to leave her real name, Valerie lies her way into Ginny’s room; surprisingly, Ginny lets her stay when Dr. Dentley, Valerie’s former in-patient psychiatrist, comes to her room. Once alone with Valerie, Ginny opens up to Valerie. She remembers, “‘When Nick first moved here, we were friends,’ Ginny said out of the blue, breaking the silence. ‘He was in my homeroom freshman year’” (368). She adds how smart and nice she thinks Nick was, which Valerie needs to hear, in order to validate her own sense of Nick’s character.