Fangirl

Cath’s semester grades are listed as “Incomplete.” She takes her psychology final and goes to talk to Piper. She tells Piper that even though her father was in the hospital during finals, she does not want to be a fiction writer. She feels comforted by writing fanfiction but lost when writing original fiction. Piper pushes back, telling her that she is talented but cannot “do anything with fanfiction” (262).

Piper asks if she helped Nick with his final. She says she could “hear” Cath’s writing in the good parts of Nick’s work. She agrees to let Cath keep the Incomplete, which will give her the whole semester to write her final project if she meets with Piper regularly to check in.

Levi is waiting outside her dorm. He tells her their kiss wasn’t “just a kiss” like the other one was. He wants their kiss “to have been the start of something. Not the end” (268).

In Cath’s room, Levi apologizes and asks if she is interested in giving him a second chance. She says yes. He asks her to read him her fanfiction. She picks up where she left off in the story: Simon reluctantly lets Baz, his rival, help him on a mission over Christmas break when the school is nearly empty. After a fight, Simon realizes that Baz has been hiding the fact that he is a vampire.

After she finishes reading, Cath expresses disbelief that her and Levi’s relationship could work given their differences. He says he only kissed the other girl because Cath never returned any of his texts. When they broached the subject of their kiss at the hospital, he panicked. Cath confesses that she has trouble trusting people. Levi makes it clear that he accepts Cath with all her past trauma as long as she is willing to try.

The next day, Reagan sets some “ground rules” for talking about Levi since Levi is her best friend and Reagan is Cath’s “only friend.” She does not want to see public displays of affection, for them to talk to her about their relationship issues, or for Cath to get jealous of his friendship with Reagan. Reagan admits that it might be an awkward situation, but she wants Levi to be happy.

That evening, Cath has a date with Levi. He wants to show her the East Campus, where he attends classes at the agricultural school. He grew up on a ranch and wants to get into range management after he graduates. Cath confesses that she did not know he was flirting with her because he always goes out of his way to be nice to everyone. They hold hands on the way back to her dorm.

Over the next week, they see each other every day. She finds out that though Levi does not like to read, he is a fantasy nerd and consumes many fantasy movies. She learns about his roommates and hobbies. Cath resists kissing Levi again because of how much she wants to. It makes her nervous that Levi is more experienced than she is.

He offers to drive her home during the weekend so he can meet her father, and she agrees.

Cath takes Piper up on her offer to finish her final short story over spring semester. Piper advises her to start by writing about her own life and things she knows. When Levi drives her to Omaha, the weather is intense and snowy enough to prompt Cath to say they should turn back. On the drive, she tells him about Piper’s offer and her struggles with writing original fiction. He reassures her about her own skills and ability to successfully finish the project Piper assigned.

When Cath and Levi make it to her house, Cath is so grateful they survived driving in the storm that she hugs Levi. Levi is nervous about meeting her father, but her father is unfazed and seems to be in a “fog” of work. They both insist that Levi cannot drive back in the storm. The fridge is full of fresh food, signaling that her grandma has been there. Cath tells Levi about the kind of work her father does as she cooks poached eggs and sausage for dinner. 

Levi sees Cath and Wren’s bedroom, covered in Simon Snow paraphernalia and pink things. He thinks it’s cute and can’t stop laughing. Cath tells him how she felt when her mother left and how their mother used to tell them she never wanted to be a mother. He tells her about his childhood, sisters, and hobby of raising prize-winning rabbits. 

Levi sleeps on the couch. At three in the morning, Cath tiptoes around the house, checking the locks, lights, and oven. Levi wakes up and sees her, but she does not acknowledge it. He drives back early the next morning for his Starbucks shift. After a nice weekend with her father, Levi drives her back on Sunday.

With Levi away for his sister’s birthday party, Cath plans to spend the weekend writing Carry On so that she can finish it before the final Simon Snow book is released.

Cath gets a call from Wren, but when she picks up, it’s the twins’ mother. Wren was admitted to the hospital for alcohol poisoning. Reagan drops Cath off at the hospital. She does not recognize her mother at first. She answers the nurse’s questions, but Cath has not been on speaking terms with Wren and does not know the details. Her mother tells her that Wren had not been breathing sufficiently when she was admitted and that they called her because they looked up “mother” in Wren’s contacts.

Sitting near her mother unlocks new memories of her childhood Cath did not know she had, some good and some very bad. They wait in silence until a doctor comes out and says Wren is doing better. Their mother starts to leave, which triggers Cath’s anger. Leaving before seeing Wren seems like a microcosm of her leaving in general. She does not want to have to “earn” her mother’s attention and is angry that her mother has not tried harder to reconnect. Her mother says she does not belong there and leaves.

Cath enters Wren’s room. Wren is bruised and hooked up to IVs. She does not remember how she got there. She starts crying, and Cath climbs onto the bed to hold her until their father arrives. Their father arrives shortly after; he returned home early from a business trip. Jandro and Levi are waiting when they leave the hospital. Wren runs to hug Jandro. Cath had texted Levi when she went to the hospital but did not expect him to come to the hospital. 

When they get home and Wren goes to take a shower, their father tells Cath he should have talked to Wren about her behavior over Christmas, but he thought she would self-correct. Cath helps Wren into bed. Wren tells her that Jandro is her boyfriend and that he hates it when she gets drunk.

The next morning, they have a family meeting. Their father wants Wren to stop drinking, but she says that “everyone drinks.” Their father is angry that Wren is “ignoring” the warning and tells her she is moving back home. 

When he leaves to go on a jog, Cath tells Wren that last night scared her and that she does not want to drift apart again. Wren is still flippant about her hospitalization but says she missed Cath and has been “a jerk” to her. Cath feels better after talking to Levi on the phone, who tells her to write some “dirty fanfiction” about the two of them to read to him later.

Cath likes the idea of Wren and her father both at home “where Cath [can] take care of them” (356). Cath writes some of Carry On while Wren sleeps beside her, reading over Cath’s elbow when she wakes. She tells Cath she has been reading the chapters she has uploaded.

The next morning, their father tells them Wren can go back to school, but she cannot drink at all and needs to see a counselor every week, attend AA meetings, and come home on the weekends. She agrees.