Part 1

Aaron and Cal enrolled in the West End School in Salinas. They were placed in the seventh grade because of their age. Cal told Aaron during the first week that they should practice a technique to deal with the teacher calling on them. If they studied very hard the first week and did not raise their hands, the teacher would call on them, and they would always have the right answers. In the second week, they would not waste their time studying, but they would raise their hands to answer all the questions. The teacher, thinking they knew the answers, would not call on them. After that, the teacher would leave them alone. The strategy worked, but it was unnecessary since the boys learned easily and were quickly recognized as intelligent and good students.

Everyone remarked on the difference between the twins. Cal was dark, and Aaron was light. Cal was self-assured, quick, clever, and secretive, concealing both his ingenuity and his hurts. He frightened the adults and bullied his way into leadership on the schoolyard. Aaron was determined, steady, straightforward, and fearless. Everyone trusted and loved him. Cal also succeeded in keeping Aaron off balance by constantly changing direction.

Part 2

On his first day of school, Aaron looked for Abra. When he spied her after school, he followed her home. When she acknowledged his presence, he told her he wanted to marry her in the future and asked if she was engaged to anyone. She responded by leading him to a hiding place, a house of leaves. Abra said they could practice being married there. Aaron asked her if she would also pretend to be his mother. She agreed and told him to lay his head in her lap. When she comforted him, he started crying, which made him feel better.

Abra asked him about his mother. Aaron said he knew nothing about her, not even what she looked like. She then asked if he had any secrets. When he said he did, she told him to tell her one of them. When Aaron got angry and said he would never tell a secret, Abra said she was just testing him. She then told Aaron she would tell him a secret. She said the day her family had visited them in the country, she had overheard her parents talking while they were riding back home. They said that Aaron’s mother was still alive and had just gone away. When Aaron insisted that his mother was dead, Abra said it would be nicer if she were alive. Before leaving, Abra gave Aaron a kiss.

Part 3

Feeling confused, Aaron stayed in the hiding place for awhile and thought of all that had happened between him and Abra. He wondered what it would be like to have a mother and hoped that Abra’s secret was true. Then, however, he realized that if his mother were alive, his father and Lee would be liars. He decided his mother had to be dead.