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Freak
Book Two of Jonathan Harnisch: An Alibiography, Freak, explores Ben's days at Wakefield. School is too traumatic, so Ben lets Georgie attend and take the abuse. The book explores Georgie's relationship with the original Claudia Nesbitt, the girlfriend of the jock Ozer, who tormented Georgie mercilessly. Claudia befriends Georgie and loves him for who he is. The other good part of Wakefield is Heidi Berillo's philosophy class, in which Georgie excels. Heidi encourages him to write an essay for the prestigious Winterbourne Scholarship. Georgie discovers alcohol and is constantly hung over. He is arrested for drunkenness and bailed out by Heidi, who keeps encouraging him. Georgie wins the Winterbourne prize but loses Claudia to suicide.
106 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 2, 2015
2 people are currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Harnisch
21 books64 followersJonathan Harnisch is an American author, artist, and filmmaker whose work confronts the human condition with fearless candor and visionary style. Blurring the boundaries between memoir and fiction, cinema and confession, Harnisch transforms psychological struggle into art that is both intimate and universal.
His body of work spans novels, screenplays, essays, and experimental films that probe trauma, identity, and resilience with disarming honesty. Critics have described his voice as raw yet lyrical, capable of exposing the fractures of modern life while revealing unexpected grace within them.
Through decades of creation, Harnisch has established a singular place in contemporary literature and independent film—one defined by emotional intelligence, formal innovation, and a relentless commitment to truth. His ongoing documentary and multi-volume life project continue to expand his exploration of perception, healing, and the blurred border between art and existence.
Harnisch’s work stands as a testament to endurance and imagination: an unflinching chronicle of pain transmuted into beauty, and of continuity, not comeback.
His body of work spans novels, screenplays, essays, and experimental films that probe trauma, identity, and resilience with disarming honesty. Critics have described his voice as raw yet lyrical, capable of exposing the fractures of modern life while revealing unexpected grace within them.
Through decades of creation, Harnisch has established a singular place in contemporary literature and independent film—one defined by emotional intelligence, formal innovation, and a relentless commitment to truth. His ongoing documentary and multi-volume life project continue to expand his exploration of perception, healing, and the blurred border between art and existence.
Harnisch’s work stands as a testament to endurance and imagination: an unflinching chronicle of pain transmuted into beauty, and of continuity, not comeback.
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February 1, 2016
OUTLINE
Chapter 1: The road to Wakefield
We are introduced to our protagonist through his self-appointed alter-ego, Georgie Gust. Georgie's anger and defenses fill his parents' Delta '88 as they drive him to a new school, Wakefield Academy, which his mother, Rose, promises will be better than the last. As they pull up, Georgie observes with a scathing and unforgivingly observant eye the cocky students, their wealthy parents, and the congregation of faculty members. An 18-year-old girl, yet unnamed, stands out to him. Georgie had to leave his last school for clashing with his classmates, and the judgmental laughter of his new peers upon his exit from the rusty car do not bear good tidings. Georgie tries to use his surly demeanor to ward off the negative emotions that come with those laughs, but knows it's to no avail.
Chapter 2: Settling in
Georgie hauls his trunk and bicycle into his new dorm, feeling alone. He finds little sanctuary in his single room. While unpacking his belongings, some photographs fall from an old book Georgie doesn't remember packing; they're old photos from his childhood. Without words, Georgie scratches his father's face from the images while watching an athletic student outside shout sentiments of abandonment into a cell phone. Georgie's dual personalities exchange dominance as he falls asleep, and we begin to perceive that "Georgie" is not just a mental construction, but an illness.
Chapter 3: The birth of adult love
We learn the name of Georgie's true body—it's Ben. Ben hovers in the background of consciousness, letting Georgie take the lead and fall under the public eye while Ben hides, comfortable. He watches Georgie navigate the school campus and decorate his dorm room, then fall into a detailed fantasy of a girl, Claudia. Is Claudia a real person who has grown in Georgie's mind as an obsession? Or a completely imaginary (and perhaps involuntary) construction within Ben's mind, just as Georgie is?
Chapter 4: Heidi
A new character, Heidi, is introduced, though her place in reality versus Ben's internal one is unclear. Is she the physical inspiration behind Claudia? Or another psychological creation? Heidi is a philosophy teacher at Wakefield, though she is consumed by thoughts of her dead sister and a desire to escape into the wider world. A man's voice crackles through her cell phone, asking about a philosophy student from two years prior who may have caused dissent…
Chapter 5: School blues
Ben/Georgie's mind flits in and out of short-span episodes of annoyance, calm, frustration, rest, intoxication, panic, sleep, arousal, and embarrassment that seem beyond his control. He attends his first class of Heidi's—who is indeed a physical person—and notices the same attractive girl he observed the day he arrived. She fearlessly meets Ben/Georgie's gaze in class while her friends (Susan, Ozer and Wyman) laugh and torment him. He learns her name—it's Claudia. Later, Ben/Georgie is cornered by the group in the library; as Ben retreats, Georgie's body convulses and twitches and his tongue lolls out, drawing more mocking laughter from his peers. Once again, only Claudia does not join in. Instead, she stays to talk to him despite his bouts of Tourette's, offering unexpected friendship that may stem from more in common than Ben or Georgie knows.
Chapter 6: The classroom
All of Georgie's thoughts and observations are constantly punctuated by his pet peeves; he can't shut them out. Sitting in Heidi's class, he observes the teacher with some respect while nervously watching Claudia. The class is somewhat out of Heidi's control; Wyman and Ozer display their brash, arrogant colors. Alone but ever fearing the eyes of his peers, Georgie's body twitches and he traces patterns into his notebook while muttering profanities. He can't stop himself. In a diary entry, Ben rejoices in the act of forgetting those who have forgotten him.
Chapter 7: Hungover
Georgie suffers an episode of uncontrollable Tourette's combined with a panic attack in class. Heidi's students are bored and distracted—all except for Georgie. Still, his disorder shackles him when he means to speak up. The other students snicker and stare as he fights through facial twitches and unwanted words to answer Heidi's question: "Are truths independent of our own subjectivity?” For a moment it appears that Georgie will have a fit, but with calm reassurance from Heidi the words finally come out as he wishes. With his answer, Georgie proves himself a superior student and the powers of his complex mind begin to gleam.
Chapter 8: Talking through windows
As the students file out of class, Heidi stop Georgie to compliment him on his performance. In spite of his shyness, Heidi urges Georgie to enter a prestigious student essay contest, the Winterbourne, which would pay for four years of college.
Chapter 9: Mr. Twitchy
Walking back to his dorm, Georgie carries a stack of books while watching the lacrosse team practice. Susan and Claudia's presence in the stands does not escape his attention. He hope to pass by unnoticed, but his body twitches involuntarily, causing Georgie to drop his books and attract the eyes of the lacrosse jocks. They jeer and hop around the field in cruel mockery of his body's involuntary moments until the coach appears to silence them, but Georgie takes no comfort in their light punishment. Wherever he goes, he is the brunt of the jokes of the privileged. Later, he downs bourbon at a nearby pub, closing his ears to the jokes and barbs that are doubtless being said around him.
Chapter 10: Pushy boy
In a typical male dorm room strewn with dirty clothes and junk, Ozer and Claudia move beneath his sheets. Ozer is insistent, coaxing and kissing and pushing himself on her, but Claudia refuses his advances. Much to his frustration, she asks to halt their physical relationship, the worn-out conversation that he lacks respect for her need for a slow pace grating on his nerves. Ozer tries to insist that his need for sex is simply because he's a man and that she should indulge him to save his reputation, but Claudia, too smart for his wrangling, leaves the room.
Chapter 11: Bar cops
As Georgie stumble drunkenly from the bar, stepping in McDonald's refuse and rapping to himself, the narration splits into a stream of consciousness from Ben; we are given a direct tap into Ben's psyche, his struggles to record events that slip away, how he wrestles with Georgie's memories, and his desire to know how to label himself in an increasingly confusing world of maps and rules within which he does not fit. The narrating voice begs an unseen psychiatrist, Dr. C., for help.
Chapter 12: Fuck the bar cops
Drunk and somewhat absent from the world, Georgie stumbles down the street, rapping incoherently and blowing smoke from a fake pistol made with his fingers. His behavior lands him in the police department, where none other than Heidi arrives to take him home. Georgie startles her with what could be a sexual advance, but she carries him out of the station nonetheless.
Chapter 13: To the rescue
Heidi parks her corvette in front of Georgie's dorm. As he clumsily fumbles for the handle, she implores him to smarten up and give up drinking. Georgie babbles nonsense and falls flat on the sidewalk.
Chapter 14: Passing out
From Ozer's room, Claudia hears Georgie's arrival at the dorm. She watches in a panic as he drunkenly attempts to climb the building's drainpipe, falling heavily back to the sidewalk. Ozer dismisses Georgie as a "charity case", but Claudia, compassionate, runs to help him. At the appearance of the campus police, the two run for the woods in a moment of impulsiveness; they run until they reach a bluff, eventually falling asleep on the cold stone. The sunrise over the Atlantic wakes them, and they share a moment of intimacy; Claudia wants to know more about Georgie's inner self, his troubles, and his defiance, but he resents the inquisition. He plays with the idea of suicide at the cliff's edge just to vex her; perhaps he still doubts her sincerity.
Chapter 15: On the edge of something
After his mocking step near the cliff's edge, Georgie apologizes (though perhaps not genuinely), assuring Claudia that he does not actually seek to die. He confides in her that before death he will become famous, that he saw in a dream his future is one of a renowned writer. Claudia is unimpressed by his vision, scolding in clipped words that futures mean nothing if he wastes the present in anger and alcohol. Georgie is beginning to warm to Claudia, and she to him.
Chapter 16: The new day
The pair make their way back to campus in the morning light. Georgie muses over his need (desire? dependency?) to be alone as a popular girl passes by and pointedly ignores him to greet Claudia. Georgie grimly wishes for the day in the future when the "in" crowd will have wilted and realized their lives were wasted. Claudia tries to tell him that he is never alone, and urges him again to withdraw from drinking, but she turns away when Georgie begins to question her about her relationship with Ozer.
Chapter 17: At The Pen that night
Despite Heidi's and Claudia's pleas not to, Georgie returns to The Pen. In the midst of his more popular peers and despite his awkwardness, something striking happens—a pair of girls approach him and offer Georgie a threesome.
Chapter 18: Back in business
Georgie wakes with two pairs of panties on his face. He arrives late to Heidi's class, chest puffed and face split in a grin from his nocturnal triumph. His exuberance soon fades when the class is instructed to pair up for an activity; predictably, only Georgie is left without a partner. Unexpectedly (and publicly), Claudia leaves her pairing to join Georgie. After class, Heidi invites him to join her for lunch.
Chapter 19: Grave company
Heidi and Georgie leave campus to for a picnic lunch in the solitude of a cemetery. Perhaps influenced by the setting, their conversation turns serious. Georgie asserts that he drinks to rebel, not just against society but against the demons inside him that cause his body to twitch and jerk. Heidi is unconvinced and tries to nurture the brilliance she knows is within him. Georgie flickers in and out of moods, falling into Heidi's arms to cry then immediately drawing away. They leave the cemetery, Heidi expressing her wish to leave her own mark on the world, while Georgie wishes he could disappear into it.
Chapter 20: There's no place like…
Ozer and Claudia share sodas and fries at a local diner, where Ozer demands to know why Claudia shows affection for Georgie. Claudia dismisses the topic.
Chapter 21: Misery loves company
Georgie, flustered and tipsy, returns to the bluff for some solitude only to find Claudia already there. She's crying. Their conversation between cigarettes reveals that both of them are only able to attend Wakefield for the generosity of Ozer's father, who has sponsored them both. Georgie questions, and Claudia's tearful silence verifies, that she dates Ozer only for fear of losing her scholarship should she leave him.
Chapter 22: A good thing
A long afternoon walk brings Georgie and Claudia immeasurably closer. She tells him of the loss of her father to depression and suicide, how she loved him fiercely and still mourns his death. Georgie coldly wishes he could trade places with her, saying he hates his parents and that they refuse to see him past his problems. Claudia brings a small coin from her pocket, showing him the misprint of the date—it was meant to bear the year her father was born—and as she explains, is valuable because it is different. The two find a strange solace and then joy in each other; they pick wildflowers in a field, fall together into the mud, attend a street fair with their clothes still filthy… On their way back to campus, Claudia admits that she doesn't want to go back to the pressure of Ozer's physical advances. Perhaps impetuously, perhaps tenderly, she kisses Georgie… and a moment later Ozer appears in a fury.
Chapter 23: Once, twice…
In the library, Georgie overhears Susan and Ozer together between the stacks in secret. Unaware of Georgie's presence, they compose themselves and separate before Wyman, Susan's boyfriend, appears. Ozer emerges from the stacks carrying a heavy book, and on spotting Georgie, advances on him. Ozer leans menacingly over Georgie and commands him to stay away from Claudia, then crushes Georgie's hand beneath the thick textbook. Wyman pulls him away just before the book breaks Georgie's hand.
Chapter 24: Truth, lies, and lunch
Georgie hides his mangled hand in his pocket when he and Heidi meet for their weekly lunch. Under the shade of the cemetery trees, she tells him about why she's never married, touching the fringes of the topic of her lack of self-worth. Georgie informs her that because of her support, he will enter the Winterbourne, but that he doesn't understand her interest in him. Heidi admits that Georgie reminds him of her sister, who also suffered from illness, self-hate, and enormous talent. On accident, Georgie removes his battered hand from his pocket, and Heidi demands to know who hurt him. Georgie covers his injuries with a lie, and they head back to class. Georgie has stopped taking his medication.
Chapter 25: Detention
Georgie lies at the back of the detention room, unseen by the supervisor. For an exquisite hour, he can shut himself off from the world and simply listen to music with eyes closed, oblivious to the scathing glares of the more "popular" students who did not think to seek out such a hiding place. In his silent reverie, Georgie/Ben ponders how much easier life was as a child, before he knew the world noticed he was different.
Chapter 26: Rocks for jocks
Class begins brightly, Georgie and Claudia sitting side-by-side and enjoying Heidi's lecture, when a pebble flies through the window to hit Georgie in the head. He tries to ignore it—and the second one—but a heavy rock follows the pebbles to smash unforgivingly into his face. Heidi leaps out of the open window to pursue the assailants, Ozer and Wyman, while Claudia tries to soothe Georgie. But unmedicated, his breaking point has been breached; Georgie flies into a rage, screaming and hurling books, desks, chairs across the room. All but Claudia flee his outburst, but Georgie pays no notice to her. Ozer and Wyman are suspended, and Georgie carries his rage to his room, which he destroys. Later, he comes across Claudia, who cuts him even further with her own wounded words, "You treated me like everyone else. You turned me into someone as bad as Ozer." Late that night, sleepless and numb, Georgie begins to write.
Chapter 27: Something positive
Another day, another lunch with Heidi. She notices that for once, Georgie's hands are free of cigarettes; he acknowledges it and tells her he's also given up drinking. Heidi urges him to find something positive to fill the void left by bad habits and asks about his relationship with Claudia. Georgie darkens, dismissing her as Ozer's girlfriend whom he can't approach after his outburst.
Chapter 28: The big game
Ozer's suspension ends, but he and Wyman are prohibited from playing in the season's biggest lacrosse game. Without their presence, Wakefield loses. Amidst the sneers of the winning team and the resentment of his teammates, Ozer's anger towards Georgie grows. Georgie is oblivious, shut in his room, writing.
Chapter 29: A slight change of plans
Georgie's mental health improves as he works on his entry to the Winterbourne. He greets the last weekend in March with joy, going to meet Heidi for another lunch in the cemetery. There, his exuberance fades as she tells him her position at the school may be revoked; Georgie and Claudia's success in class has angered the parents of the other students, provoking them to accuse Heidi of favoritism. Georgie is incredulous, and returns to his room to finish his Winterbourne paper with renewed fervor, only to find that his space has been broken into, his journal stolen, and his computer damaged. Rage creeps up on him once again but he stops it before it can consume him. Mercifully, his manuscript is intact.
Chapter 30: Jump
Georgie flees the scene of still more bullying and seeks solace on the bluff. Heidi soon joins him, though he begs her to leave him alone with his self-hate. Heidi finally loses her patience with him and his rejection of her care for him. She accuses him of wanting to be misunderstood, of refusing to acknowledge that some might understand, care, and even love him. Desperately, Georgie rushes to the edge of the bluff, and to his surprise Heidi does not stop him. She has had enough of his self-pity. Back in class, a discussion on Nietzsche and his proclamation of "God is dead" alarms Claudia, as it threatens her idea of her father in Heaven.
Chapter 31: Peacemaking
A knock interrupts Georgie's writing. He opens the door to find Claudia, who enters timidly. She kisses him and tells him it would be her father's birthday. She leaves, and Georgie returns to his writing, renewed.
Chapter 32: A twisted tree
The next day dawns and Claudia is missing. Her friends are searching angrily for her, and Georgie runs to the bluff with a heaviness in his gut. He finds her, broken and lifeless, hanging from the twisted branch of a tree.
Chapter 33: How the shite hits the fan
Georgie is in a haze. He can't write. Claudia is ever present in his thoughts, and his love for her is searingly painful. In agony, he takes himself to the bar, where Ozer—also grieving—seeks some mournful comradery with him. Georgie will have none of it, returning to his room only to find Heidi waiting for him. She gives him a letter that was found on Claudia's body—it shows that Claudia was unwell and seeking suicide for some time. Georgie pushes the letter back into Heidi's hands, not wanting to tarnish his memory of the only woman who made him feel accepted.
Chapter 34: The other ending
Time flashes forward to the ceremony for the Winterbourne scholarship, which Georgie has won. In his acceptance speech, he dedicates both his award and himself—in all his absurdities—to Claudia. The atmosphere on campus has changed; it's warmer, lighter, as if the oppressiveness of judgement has lifted. Even Ozer acknowledges Georgie's achievement. Heidi congratulates Georgie warmly, reassuring him that, despite his protests, it is her time to move on from Wakefield. For the first time, Georgie sees genuine admiration and pride in the faces of his parents. Perhaps his greatest victory, even more so than the Winterbourne, is that Georgie is now laughing at, flaunting, and embracing his difference rather than hating himself for it. And for that, he thanks Claudia.
Chapter 1: The road to Wakefield
We are introduced to our protagonist through his self-appointed alter-ego, Georgie Gust. Georgie's anger and defenses fill his parents' Delta '88 as they drive him to a new school, Wakefield Academy, which his mother, Rose, promises will be better than the last. As they pull up, Georgie observes with a scathing and unforgivingly observant eye the cocky students, their wealthy parents, and the congregation of faculty members. An 18-year-old girl, yet unnamed, stands out to him. Georgie had to leave his last school for clashing with his classmates, and the judgmental laughter of his new peers upon his exit from the rusty car do not bear good tidings. Georgie tries to use his surly demeanor to ward off the negative emotions that come with those laughs, but knows it's to no avail.
Chapter 2: Settling in
Georgie hauls his trunk and bicycle into his new dorm, feeling alone. He finds little sanctuary in his single room. While unpacking his belongings, some photographs fall from an old book Georgie doesn't remember packing; they're old photos from his childhood. Without words, Georgie scratches his father's face from the images while watching an athletic student outside shout sentiments of abandonment into a cell phone. Georgie's dual personalities exchange dominance as he falls asleep, and we begin to perceive that "Georgie" is not just a mental construction, but an illness.
Chapter 3: The birth of adult love
We learn the name of Georgie's true body—it's Ben. Ben hovers in the background of consciousness, letting Georgie take the lead and fall under the public eye while Ben hides, comfortable. He watches Georgie navigate the school campus and decorate his dorm room, then fall into a detailed fantasy of a girl, Claudia. Is Claudia a real person who has grown in Georgie's mind as an obsession? Or a completely imaginary (and perhaps involuntary) construction within Ben's mind, just as Georgie is?
Chapter 4: Heidi
A new character, Heidi, is introduced, though her place in reality versus Ben's internal one is unclear. Is she the physical inspiration behind Claudia? Or another psychological creation? Heidi is a philosophy teacher at Wakefield, though she is consumed by thoughts of her dead sister and a desire to escape into the wider world. A man's voice crackles through her cell phone, asking about a philosophy student from two years prior who may have caused dissent…
Chapter 5: School blues
Ben/Georgie's mind flits in and out of short-span episodes of annoyance, calm, frustration, rest, intoxication, panic, sleep, arousal, and embarrassment that seem beyond his control. He attends his first class of Heidi's—who is indeed a physical person—and notices the same attractive girl he observed the day he arrived. She fearlessly meets Ben/Georgie's gaze in class while her friends (Susan, Ozer and Wyman) laugh and torment him. He learns her name—it's Claudia. Later, Ben/Georgie is cornered by the group in the library; as Ben retreats, Georgie's body convulses and twitches and his tongue lolls out, drawing more mocking laughter from his peers. Once again, only Claudia does not join in. Instead, she stays to talk to him despite his bouts of Tourette's, offering unexpected friendship that may stem from more in common than Ben or Georgie knows.
Chapter 6: The classroom
All of Georgie's thoughts and observations are constantly punctuated by his pet peeves; he can't shut them out. Sitting in Heidi's class, he observes the teacher with some respect while nervously watching Claudia. The class is somewhat out of Heidi's control; Wyman and Ozer display their brash, arrogant colors. Alone but ever fearing the eyes of his peers, Georgie's body twitches and he traces patterns into his notebook while muttering profanities. He can't stop himself. In a diary entry, Ben rejoices in the act of forgetting those who have forgotten him.
Chapter 7: Hungover
Georgie suffers an episode of uncontrollable Tourette's combined with a panic attack in class. Heidi's students are bored and distracted—all except for Georgie. Still, his disorder shackles him when he means to speak up. The other students snicker and stare as he fights through facial twitches and unwanted words to answer Heidi's question: "Are truths independent of our own subjectivity?” For a moment it appears that Georgie will have a fit, but with calm reassurance from Heidi the words finally come out as he wishes. With his answer, Georgie proves himself a superior student and the powers of his complex mind begin to gleam.
Chapter 8: Talking through windows
As the students file out of class, Heidi stop Georgie to compliment him on his performance. In spite of his shyness, Heidi urges Georgie to enter a prestigious student essay contest, the Winterbourne, which would pay for four years of college.
Chapter 9: Mr. Twitchy
Walking back to his dorm, Georgie carries a stack of books while watching the lacrosse team practice. Susan and Claudia's presence in the stands does not escape his attention. He hope to pass by unnoticed, but his body twitches involuntarily, causing Georgie to drop his books and attract the eyes of the lacrosse jocks. They jeer and hop around the field in cruel mockery of his body's involuntary moments until the coach appears to silence them, but Georgie takes no comfort in their light punishment. Wherever he goes, he is the brunt of the jokes of the privileged. Later, he downs bourbon at a nearby pub, closing his ears to the jokes and barbs that are doubtless being said around him.
Chapter 10: Pushy boy
In a typical male dorm room strewn with dirty clothes and junk, Ozer and Claudia move beneath his sheets. Ozer is insistent, coaxing and kissing and pushing himself on her, but Claudia refuses his advances. Much to his frustration, she asks to halt their physical relationship, the worn-out conversation that he lacks respect for her need for a slow pace grating on his nerves. Ozer tries to insist that his need for sex is simply because he's a man and that she should indulge him to save his reputation, but Claudia, too smart for his wrangling, leaves the room.
Chapter 11: Bar cops
As Georgie stumble drunkenly from the bar, stepping in McDonald's refuse and rapping to himself, the narration splits into a stream of consciousness from Ben; we are given a direct tap into Ben's psyche, his struggles to record events that slip away, how he wrestles with Georgie's memories, and his desire to know how to label himself in an increasingly confusing world of maps and rules within which he does not fit. The narrating voice begs an unseen psychiatrist, Dr. C., for help.
Chapter 12: Fuck the bar cops
Drunk and somewhat absent from the world, Georgie stumbles down the street, rapping incoherently and blowing smoke from a fake pistol made with his fingers. His behavior lands him in the police department, where none other than Heidi arrives to take him home. Georgie startles her with what could be a sexual advance, but she carries him out of the station nonetheless.
Chapter 13: To the rescue
Heidi parks her corvette in front of Georgie's dorm. As he clumsily fumbles for the handle, she implores him to smarten up and give up drinking. Georgie babbles nonsense and falls flat on the sidewalk.
Chapter 14: Passing out
From Ozer's room, Claudia hears Georgie's arrival at the dorm. She watches in a panic as he drunkenly attempts to climb the building's drainpipe, falling heavily back to the sidewalk. Ozer dismisses Georgie as a "charity case", but Claudia, compassionate, runs to help him. At the appearance of the campus police, the two run for the woods in a moment of impulsiveness; they run until they reach a bluff, eventually falling asleep on the cold stone. The sunrise over the Atlantic wakes them, and they share a moment of intimacy; Claudia wants to know more about Georgie's inner self, his troubles, and his defiance, but he resents the inquisition. He plays with the idea of suicide at the cliff's edge just to vex her; perhaps he still doubts her sincerity.
Chapter 15: On the edge of something
After his mocking step near the cliff's edge, Georgie apologizes (though perhaps not genuinely), assuring Claudia that he does not actually seek to die. He confides in her that before death he will become famous, that he saw in a dream his future is one of a renowned writer. Claudia is unimpressed by his vision, scolding in clipped words that futures mean nothing if he wastes the present in anger and alcohol. Georgie is beginning to warm to Claudia, and she to him.
Chapter 16: The new day
The pair make their way back to campus in the morning light. Georgie muses over his need (desire? dependency?) to be alone as a popular girl passes by and pointedly ignores him to greet Claudia. Georgie grimly wishes for the day in the future when the "in" crowd will have wilted and realized their lives were wasted. Claudia tries to tell him that he is never alone, and urges him again to withdraw from drinking, but she turns away when Georgie begins to question her about her relationship with Ozer.
Chapter 17: At The Pen that night
Despite Heidi's and Claudia's pleas not to, Georgie returns to The Pen. In the midst of his more popular peers and despite his awkwardness, something striking happens—a pair of girls approach him and offer Georgie a threesome.
Chapter 18: Back in business
Georgie wakes with two pairs of panties on his face. He arrives late to Heidi's class, chest puffed and face split in a grin from his nocturnal triumph. His exuberance soon fades when the class is instructed to pair up for an activity; predictably, only Georgie is left without a partner. Unexpectedly (and publicly), Claudia leaves her pairing to join Georgie. After class, Heidi invites him to join her for lunch.
Chapter 19: Grave company
Heidi and Georgie leave campus to for a picnic lunch in the solitude of a cemetery. Perhaps influenced by the setting, their conversation turns serious. Georgie asserts that he drinks to rebel, not just against society but against the demons inside him that cause his body to twitch and jerk. Heidi is unconvinced and tries to nurture the brilliance she knows is within him. Georgie flickers in and out of moods, falling into Heidi's arms to cry then immediately drawing away. They leave the cemetery, Heidi expressing her wish to leave her own mark on the world, while Georgie wishes he could disappear into it.
Chapter 20: There's no place like…
Ozer and Claudia share sodas and fries at a local diner, where Ozer demands to know why Claudia shows affection for Georgie. Claudia dismisses the topic.
Chapter 21: Misery loves company
Georgie, flustered and tipsy, returns to the bluff for some solitude only to find Claudia already there. She's crying. Their conversation between cigarettes reveals that both of them are only able to attend Wakefield for the generosity of Ozer's father, who has sponsored them both. Georgie questions, and Claudia's tearful silence verifies, that she dates Ozer only for fear of losing her scholarship should she leave him.
Chapter 22: A good thing
A long afternoon walk brings Georgie and Claudia immeasurably closer. She tells him of the loss of her father to depression and suicide, how she loved him fiercely and still mourns his death. Georgie coldly wishes he could trade places with her, saying he hates his parents and that they refuse to see him past his problems. Claudia brings a small coin from her pocket, showing him the misprint of the date—it was meant to bear the year her father was born—and as she explains, is valuable because it is different. The two find a strange solace and then joy in each other; they pick wildflowers in a field, fall together into the mud, attend a street fair with their clothes still filthy… On their way back to campus, Claudia admits that she doesn't want to go back to the pressure of Ozer's physical advances. Perhaps impetuously, perhaps tenderly, she kisses Georgie… and a moment later Ozer appears in a fury.
Chapter 23: Once, twice…
In the library, Georgie overhears Susan and Ozer together between the stacks in secret. Unaware of Georgie's presence, they compose themselves and separate before Wyman, Susan's boyfriend, appears. Ozer emerges from the stacks carrying a heavy book, and on spotting Georgie, advances on him. Ozer leans menacingly over Georgie and commands him to stay away from Claudia, then crushes Georgie's hand beneath the thick textbook. Wyman pulls him away just before the book breaks Georgie's hand.
Chapter 24: Truth, lies, and lunch
Georgie hides his mangled hand in his pocket when he and Heidi meet for their weekly lunch. Under the shade of the cemetery trees, she tells him about why she's never married, touching the fringes of the topic of her lack of self-worth. Georgie informs her that because of her support, he will enter the Winterbourne, but that he doesn't understand her interest in him. Heidi admits that Georgie reminds him of her sister, who also suffered from illness, self-hate, and enormous talent. On accident, Georgie removes his battered hand from his pocket, and Heidi demands to know who hurt him. Georgie covers his injuries with a lie, and they head back to class. Georgie has stopped taking his medication.
Chapter 25: Detention
Georgie lies at the back of the detention room, unseen by the supervisor. For an exquisite hour, he can shut himself off from the world and simply listen to music with eyes closed, oblivious to the scathing glares of the more "popular" students who did not think to seek out such a hiding place. In his silent reverie, Georgie/Ben ponders how much easier life was as a child, before he knew the world noticed he was different.
Chapter 26: Rocks for jocks
Class begins brightly, Georgie and Claudia sitting side-by-side and enjoying Heidi's lecture, when a pebble flies through the window to hit Georgie in the head. He tries to ignore it—and the second one—but a heavy rock follows the pebbles to smash unforgivingly into his face. Heidi leaps out of the open window to pursue the assailants, Ozer and Wyman, while Claudia tries to soothe Georgie. But unmedicated, his breaking point has been breached; Georgie flies into a rage, screaming and hurling books, desks, chairs across the room. All but Claudia flee his outburst, but Georgie pays no notice to her. Ozer and Wyman are suspended, and Georgie carries his rage to his room, which he destroys. Later, he comes across Claudia, who cuts him even further with her own wounded words, "You treated me like everyone else. You turned me into someone as bad as Ozer." Late that night, sleepless and numb, Georgie begins to write.
Chapter 27: Something positive
Another day, another lunch with Heidi. She notices that for once, Georgie's hands are free of cigarettes; he acknowledges it and tells her he's also given up drinking. Heidi urges him to find something positive to fill the void left by bad habits and asks about his relationship with Claudia. Georgie darkens, dismissing her as Ozer's girlfriend whom he can't approach after his outburst.
Chapter 28: The big game
Ozer's suspension ends, but he and Wyman are prohibited from playing in the season's biggest lacrosse game. Without their presence, Wakefield loses. Amidst the sneers of the winning team and the resentment of his teammates, Ozer's anger towards Georgie grows. Georgie is oblivious, shut in his room, writing.
Chapter 29: A slight change of plans
Georgie's mental health improves as he works on his entry to the Winterbourne. He greets the last weekend in March with joy, going to meet Heidi for another lunch in the cemetery. There, his exuberance fades as she tells him her position at the school may be revoked; Georgie and Claudia's success in class has angered the parents of the other students, provoking them to accuse Heidi of favoritism. Georgie is incredulous, and returns to his room to finish his Winterbourne paper with renewed fervor, only to find that his space has been broken into, his journal stolen, and his computer damaged. Rage creeps up on him once again but he stops it before it can consume him. Mercifully, his manuscript is intact.
Chapter 30: Jump
Georgie flees the scene of still more bullying and seeks solace on the bluff. Heidi soon joins him, though he begs her to leave him alone with his self-hate. Heidi finally loses her patience with him and his rejection of her care for him. She accuses him of wanting to be misunderstood, of refusing to acknowledge that some might understand, care, and even love him. Desperately, Georgie rushes to the edge of the bluff, and to his surprise Heidi does not stop him. She has had enough of his self-pity. Back in class, a discussion on Nietzsche and his proclamation of "God is dead" alarms Claudia, as it threatens her idea of her father in Heaven.
Chapter 31: Peacemaking
A knock interrupts Georgie's writing. He opens the door to find Claudia, who enters timidly. She kisses him and tells him it would be her father's birthday. She leaves, and Georgie returns to his writing, renewed.
Chapter 32: A twisted tree
The next day dawns and Claudia is missing. Her friends are searching angrily for her, and Georgie runs to the bluff with a heaviness in his gut. He finds her, broken and lifeless, hanging from the twisted branch of a tree.
Chapter 33: How the shite hits the fan
Georgie is in a haze. He can't write. Claudia is ever present in his thoughts, and his love for her is searingly painful. In agony, he takes himself to the bar, where Ozer—also grieving—seeks some mournful comradery with him. Georgie will have none of it, returning to his room only to find Heidi waiting for him. She gives him a letter that was found on Claudia's body—it shows that Claudia was unwell and seeking suicide for some time. Georgie pushes the letter back into Heidi's hands, not wanting to tarnish his memory of the only woman who made him feel accepted.
Chapter 34: The other ending
Time flashes forward to the ceremony for the Winterbourne scholarship, which Georgie has won. In his acceptance speech, he dedicates both his award and himself—in all his absurdities—to Claudia. The atmosphere on campus has changed; it's warmer, lighter, as if the oppressiveness of judgement has lifted. Even Ozer acknowledges Georgie's achievement. Heidi congratulates Georgie warmly, reassuring him that, despite his protests, it is her time to move on from Wakefield. For the first time, Georgie sees genuine admiration and pride in the faces of his parents. Perhaps his greatest victory, even more so than the Winterbourne, is that Georgie is now laughing at, flaunting, and embracing his difference rather than hating himself for it. And for that, he thanks Claudia.
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