Paras 1–4  | Montauk Cabin 🌊🏠

(1) Our rental cabin was on the south shore, at the very tip of Long Island. It was a small pastel house with faded curtains, partly buried in the sand dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and the ocean was usually too cold to swim in.

(2) I loved the place.

(3) We had been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never said it directly, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was where she met my dad.

(4) As we got closer to Montauk, my mom seemed younger. The worry on her face faded away. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.

​Paras 5–9  | Blue Food & Rebellion 🫐

(5) We arrived at sunset and opened all the windows in the cabin. We cleaned the place the way we always did. Then we walked on the beach and fed blue corn chips to the seagulls.

(6) We also ate blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and other blue snacks my mom brought home from work.

(7) I should explain the blue food.

(8) Gabe once told my mom that blue food did not exist. They had an argument about it, which seemed small at the time. After that, my mom made sure to eat blue food on purpose.

(9) She baked blue birthday cakes and made blueberry smoothies. She bought blue chips and blue candy. This—and the fact that she kept her last name instead of becoming Mrs. Ugliano—proved she was not completely controlled by Gabe. She had a rebellious streak, like me.

​Notice how Percy explains his mom’s actions. How does doing something “on purpose” against Gabe help us understand what rebellious means?

Paras 10–16| Talking About My Dad 💬

(10) When it got dark, we made a fire. We cooked hot dogs and marshmallows. My mom told me stories about her childhood, before her parents died in a plane crash.

(11) My mom talked about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit working at the candy shop.

(12) Eventually, I found the courage to ask the question I always thought about when we came to Montauk—my father. My mom’s eyes filled with tears. I knew she would tell me the same things she always did, but I still liked hearing them.

(13) “He was kind, Percy,” she said. “Tall and handsome, but gentle too. You have his black hair and green eyes.”

(14) She picked a blue jelly bean from her bag. “I wish he could see you. He would be proud.”

(15) I didn’t understand how she could say that. What was so great about me? I was a dyslexic, hyperactive kid with a bad report card, kicked out of school again.

(16) “How old was I,” I asked, “when he left?”

​Percy lists this as something “wrong” with him. How does the school context help you figure out what dyslexic means? Percy connects this word to trouble at school. What kind of behavior do you picture when someone is hyperactive?

​Paras 17–22| “I’m Not Normal” 😔

(17) She stared into the fire. “He was only with me one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach.”

(18) “But he knew me as a baby,” I said.

(19) “No,” she answered softly. “He knew I was going to have a baby, but he never saw you.”

(20) I tried to match that with the memory I thought I had of my father—a warm feeling and a smile. I had always assumed he knew me as a baby, even though my mom never said it outright.

(21) Now I was being told that my father had never even seen me. The idea made my chest feel tight.

(22) I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was unfair, but I resented him for leaving my mom and me. He went on an ocean trip and never came back. Now we were stuck with Gabe.

​Percy believed something that was never said. How does that help us understand what it means to assume something?

​What’s the difference between hinting at something and saying it outright? Which one happened here?

​Percy explains exactly why he feels this way. How does that explanation help define resent?

Paras 23–30| Strange Events 👁️🐍

(23) “Are you going to send me away again?” I asked. “To another boarding school?”

(24) My mom pulled a marshmallow from the fire. “I don’t know,” she said. “I think we will have to do something.”

(25) “Because you don’t want me around?” I asked, even though I wished I hadn’t said it.

(26) Her eyes filled with tears. She grabbed my hand tightly. “No, Percy. I have to do this for your own good. I have to send you away.”

(27) Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy Academy.

(28) “Because I’m not normal,” I said.

(29) “You say that like it’s bad,” she told me. “You don’t know how important you are. I thought Yancy would keep you safe.”

(30) “Safe from what?” I asked.

​Paras 31–37| Summer Camp Secret ⛺

(31) She looked at me, and suddenly I remembered all the strange things that had ever happened to me—things I tried to forget.

(32) When I was in third grade, a man in a black coat followed me on the playground. He growled like an animal. The teachers didn’t believe me when I said he had only one eye.

(33) An even earlier memory came back to me. I was in preschool when a teacher put me on a bed where a snake had crawled. Somehow I strangled it. My mom screamed when she saw me holding the limp snake.

(34) In every school I went to, something dangerous or creepy happened. Each time, I had to move again.

(35) I wanted to tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand and about Mrs. Dodds at the museum. I wanted to tell her about my hallucination that I had turned my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I didn’t say anything.

(36) “I tried to keep you close to me,” my mom said. “But there is only one other choice—the place your father wanted you to go.”

(37) “Not a school,” she said quietly. “A summer camp.”

​Why does Percy call this a hallucination instead of saying it really happened? What clues help you decide?